Heat treatment is a method of changing the physical properties of high pressure boiler pipe by heating and cooling. Heat treatment can improve the microstructure of high pressure boiler pipe, so as to meet the required physical requirements. Toughness, hardness and wear resistance are obtained by heat treatment. In order to obtain these characteristics, it is necessary to adopt quenching, annealing, tempering and surface hardening.
a. Quenching
Hardening, also called quenching, is that high pressure boiler pipe is heated evenly to the appropriate temperature, then quickly immerse in water or oil for rapid cooling, and cooling in the air or in the freezing zone. So that the high pressure boiler pipe can obtain the required hardness.
b. Tempering
High pressure boiler pipe will become brittle after hardening. And the stress caused by quenching can make the high pressure boiler pipe tapped and broken. The tempering method can be used to eliminate brittleness. Although the hardness of high pressure boiler pipe is lighter reduced, its the toughness can be increased to reduce the brittleness.
c. Annealing
Annealing is the method to eliminate the internal stress of high pressure boiler pipe. The annealing method is that the steel parts need to be heated to the critical temperature, then put in dry ash, lime, asbestos or closed in the furnace, then let it cooling slowly.