Cryogenic hardening is a

cryogenic treatment A cryogenic treatment is the process of treating workpieces to cryogenic temperatures (i.e. below ) in order to remove residual stresses and improve wear resistance in steels and other metal alloys, such as aluminum. In addition to seeking enha ...

process where the material is cooled to approximately , usually using liquid nitrogen. It can have a profound effect on the mechanical properties of certain steels, provided their composition and prior heat treatment are such that they retain some

austenite Austenite, also known as gamma-phase iron (γ-Fe), is a metallic, non-magnetic allotrope of iron or a solid solution of iron with an alloying element. In plain-carbon steel, austenite exists above the critical eutectoid temperature of 1000 K ...

at room temperature. It is designed to increase the amount of

martensite Martensite is a very hard form of steel crystalline structure. It is named after German metallurgist Adolf Martens. By analogy the term can also refer to any crystal structure that is formed by diffusionless transformation. Properties M ...

in the steel's crystal structure, increasing its

strength Strength may refer to: Physical strength *Physical strength, as in people or animals * Hysterical strength, extreme strength occurring when people are in life-and-death situations *Superhuman strength, great physical strength far above human c ...

and

hardness In materials science, hardness (antonym: softness) is a measure of the resistance to localized plastic deformation induced by either mechanical indentation or abrasion. In general, different materials differ in their hardness; for example hard ...

, sometimes at the cost of

toughness In materials science and metallurgy, toughness is the ability of a material to absorb energy and plastically deform without fracturing.quench In materials science, quenching is the rapid cooling of a workpiece in water, oil, polymer, air, or other fluids to obtain certain material properties. A type of heat treating, quenching prevents undesired low-temperature processes, such as p ...

ing, but in general it is driven farther and farther toward completion as temperature decreases. In higher-alloy steels such as austenitic stainless steel, the onset of transformation can require temperatures much lower than room temperature. More commonly, an incomplete transformation occurs in the initial quench, so that cryogenic treatments merely enhance the effects of prior quenching. However, since martensite is a non-equilibrium phase on the iron-iron carbide phase diagram, it has not been shown that warming the part after the cryogenic treatment results in the re-transformation of the induced martensite back to austenite or to ferrite plus cementite, negating the hardening effect. The transformation between these phases is instantaneous and not dependent upon

diffusion Diffusion is the net movement of anything (for example, atoms, ions, molecules, energy) generally from a region of higher concentration to a region of lower concentration. Diffusion is driven by a gradient in Gibbs free energy or chemica ...

, and also that this treatment causes more complete hardening rather than moderating extreme hardness, both of which make the term "cryogenic tempering" technically incorrect. Hardening need not be due to martensitic transformation, but can also be accomplished by

cold work Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...

at cryogenic temperatures. The defects introduced by

plastic deformation In engineering, deformation refers to the change in size or shape of an object. ''Displacements'' are the ''absolute'' change in position of a point on the object. Deflection is the relative change in external displacements on an object. Strain ...

at these low temperatures are often quite different from the

dislocations In materials science, a dislocation or Taylor's dislocation is a linear crystallographic defect or irregularity within a crystal structure that contains an abrupt change in the arrangement of atoms. The movement of dislocations allow atoms to sl ...

that usually form at room temperature, and produce materials changes that in some ways resemble the effects of shock hardening. While this process is more effective than traditional cold work, it serves mainly as a theoretical test bed for more economical processes such as explosive forging. Many alloys that do not undergo martensitic transformation have been subjected to the same treatments as steels—that is, cooled with no provisions for cold work. If any benefit is seen from such a process, one plausible explanation is that

thermal expansion Thermal expansion is the tendency of matter to change its shape, area, volume, and density in response to a change in temperature, usually not including phase transitions. Temperature is a monotonic function of the average molecular kinetic ...

causes minor but permanent

deformation Deformation can refer to: * Deformation (engineering), changes in an object's shape or form due to the application of a force or forces. ** Deformation (physics), such changes considered and analyzed as displacements of continuum bodies. * Defor ...

of the material.

References

{{Iron and steel production Metal heat treatments

See also

References