I work in a steel factory where we stamp out internal parts for motors and generators and the material is anywhere from .018-.028 of an inch thick. And then we run it through a furnace for 4 hours at around 1400 degrees.
Afterwards I test he material through a magnetic tester and we record the core loss and the permeability. What does all this mean?
In: 6
As others have mentioned, it has to do with the molecules forming crystals at certain temperatures.
If you take a hard piece of carbon steel (like a file), you can heat it up until it glows at a pale yellow color(*straw?). If you then wrap it with insulation and let it cool down slowly, the crystals come apart. This is called annealing, and it makes the steel softer (and easier to cut and shape).
If you use a file to make a knife, annealing the first step. Once you have shaped the file into a knife, you will want to harden it again. This is “heat treating”
You heat the knife blade up until a magnet no longer sticks to it (straw colored). And then you want to cool it rapidly and freeze the crystals in the orientation that makes the steel harder.
Water would boil, so you dip the glowing hot blade in hot oil.
The molecules are like loose Lego pieces. If you align them and snap them together, they form shapes that are stronger than a simple pile of loose pieces.
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