A Study of The Crystalline Structure of Ferrous Alloys (SAE 1018, 1020 and DF2) Subjected to Heat Treatments

The main objective of this research project is to study the structure of three types of steels, SAE 1018, 1020 and DF2, which were subjected to heat treatments: quenching and tempering, the steels were divided into three groups; The first without any heat treatment, the second group was tempered and the third group was subjected to tempering and tempering, to differentiate how heat treatments influence the crystalline structure and mechanical properties of the steels studied and their hardness.Steels are of great importance because of their characteristics, which may vary depending on the percentage of carbon that exists in each of them, based on this percentage the mechanical behavior of steels, some of the characteristics that may vary are; hardness, mechanical resistance, or toughness, among others; As an example, a steel containing 0.4% carbon is going to be stronger than a steel that has a lower percentage of carbon.To appreciate the microstructure of these steels and their variations in terms of their structure, the samples of the steels were divided into three groups and subjected to different heat treatments already mentioned that were made at certain temperatures and residence times in an electric resistance furnace, after that the samples were prepared for visualization and structural comparison using a metallographic optical microscope.