ASTM Standards: Steel Metallurgy & Heat Treatment

About the Course

This two day course is designed to teach the basics of steel metallurgy and heat treatment to improve your ability to correctly write and review steel specifications when ordering or specifying steels based on ASTM Steel Standards..

These goals are achieved by studying more than 40 Connecting-the-Standards Examples covering more than 60 ASTM product specifications, general requirements specifications, test methods, practices, and terminology standards.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course you will be able to:

• Correctly identify steel phases and microstructures in carbon and alloy steels as defined and used in ASTM steel standards
• Recognize the different types of steel heat treatments as specified ASTM steel standards, their functions, terminology, and requirement
• Identify all referenced ASTM steel standards required to be addressed when specifying heat treatment and any additional requirements for mechanical properties
• Associate each metallurgical condition and heat treatment requirements in ASTM steel product specification and its general requirements specification
• Navigate ASTM steel standards to identify mandatory, nonmandatory, and purchaser selected supplementary or additional heat treatment requirements.
• Distinguish how ASTM steel standards differ metallurgical condition and heat treatment with varying wrought product forms (e.g., plate/sheet/strip, pipe, shapes, forgings, etc.)
• Explain the roles of chemical elements in carbon and alloy steels and their effects on metallurgical condition and heat treatment
• Identify when grain size is required in ASTM steel standards, explain how to measure it, and how to obtain it through heat treatment
• Explain why the anisotropic behavior of steels affect mechanical testing requirements for tension, impact, hardness, and bending
• Explain how ASTM A370 for mechanical testing of steel products addresses the anisotropic behavior of steels
• Specify appropriate heat treatment to achieve the specified mechanical properties of wrought steels to overcome their anisotropic behavior.

Who Should Attend

This course is designed for all personnel involved with steels and particularly ASTM Steel Standards, such as, engineers, inspectors, QA/QC coordinators, NDE examiners, purchasers, inventory control personnel, tradespeople, manufacturing, fabricating and repair companies, engineering procurement companies, construction companies, and others working in most industries that use steel, including: civil construction (buildings, bridges), pressure equipment, ship building, water treatment, pipelines, oil and gas industries (oilfield, upgraders, refineries, etc.), chemical plants, petroleum refining, petrochemical plants, power plants, pulp and paper plants, fertilizer plants, and many others.

Course Outline

• What are crystal structures and how are they important to steel metallurgy and heat treatment?
• What are steel grains and grain boundaries?
• How is the diffusion process used in steel heat treatment?
• How does the allotropy of iron affect the metallurgy and heat treatment of steel?
• How are steel phases and microstructures involved with heat treatment?:
  • ferrite, austenite, iron carbide (cementite), pearlite, martensite, bainite
• Why is the iron-iron carbide phase diagram called the “Map of Steel Heat Treatment”?:
  • lower Transformation Temperature (A1)
  • upper Transformation Temperature (A3)
  • between Lower and Upper Transformation Temperature
  • Curie temperature (A2)
  • alpha and delta ferrite phases
• What happens metallurgically when steel is cooled quickly by quenching?
  • hardenability of steel
  • bainite and martensite formation
  • tempering bainite and martensite
• How and why are steels heat treated?
• How is carbon dissolved in steel and controlled through heat treatment?
• Why and how are steels commercially heat treated?
  • austenitizing
  • annealing
  • normalizing, normalizing and tempering
  • quench and tempering, double tempering
  • controlling steel mechanical properties through heat treatment
• How is grain size measured and specified in ASTM steel standards?
• Which mechanical properties of steels are affected by grain size and when to specify small or large grain size?
• How is grain size controlled through heat treatment?
• How does the anisotropic behavior in steels affect mechanical properties?
• ASTM A370 requirements for mechanical testing of steel products and anisotropic behavior.
• How is anisotropic behavior of steel controlled through heat treatment?

ASTM Standards Referenced

This course references the following standards:

• ASTM A6/A6M General Requirements for Rolled Structural Steel Bars, Plates, Shapes, and Sheet Piling
• ASTM A20/A20M Standard Specification for General Requirements for Steel Plates for Pressure Vessels
• ASTM A29/A29M Standard Specification for General Requirements for Steel Bars, Carbon and Alloy, Hot-Wrought
• ASTM A36/A36M Standard Specification for Carbon Structural Steel
• ASTM A105/A105M Standard Specification for Carbon Steel Forgings for Piping Applications
• ASTM A109/A109M Standard Specification for Steel, Strip, Carbon (0.25 Maximum Percent), Cold-Rolled
• ASTM A131/A131M Standard Specification for Structural Steel for Ships
• ASTM A179/A179M Standard Specification for Seamless Cold-Drawn Low-Carbon Steel Heat Exchanger and Condenser Tubes
• ASTM A213/A213M Standard Specification for Seamless Ferritic and Austenitic Alloy-Steel Boiler, Superheater, and Heat-Exchanger Tubes
• ASTM A242/242M Standard Specification for High-Strength Low-Alloy Structural Steel
• ASTM A304 Standard Specification for Carbon and Alloy Steel Bars Subject to End-Quench Hardenability Requirements
• ASTM A322 Standard Specification for Steel Bars, Alloy, Standard Grades
• ASTM A333/A333M Standard Specification for Seamless and Welded Steel Pipe for Low-Temperature Service and Other Applications with Required Notch Toughness
• ASTM A335/A335M Standard Specification for Seamless Ferritic Alloy-Steel Pipe for High-Temperature Service
• ASTM A335/A335M Standard Specification for Seamless Ferritic Alloy-Steel Pipe for High‑Temperature Service
• ASTM A336/A336M Standard Specification for Alloy Steel Forgings for Pressure and High‑Temperature Parts
• ASTM A350/A350M Standard Specification for Carbon and Low-Alloy Steel Forgings, Requiring Notch Toughness Testing for Piping Components
• ASTM A370 Standard Test Methods and Definitions for Mechanical Testing of Steel Products
• ASTM A381/A381M Standard Specification for Metal-Arc-Welded Carbon or High-Strength Low-Alloy Steel Pipe for Use with High-Pressure Transmission Systems
• ASTM A487/A487M Steel Castings Suitable for Pressure Service
• ASTM A490M Standard Specification for High-Strength Steel Bolts, Classes 10.9 and 10.9.3, for Structural Steel Joints (Metric)
• ASTM A500/A500M Standard Specification for Cold-Formed Welded and Seamless Carbon Steel Structural Tubing in Rounds and Shapes
• ASTM A515/A515M Pressure Vessel Plates, Carbon Steel, for Intermediate- and Higher Temperature Service
• ASTM A516/A516M Standard Specification for Pressure Vessel Plates, Carbon Steel, for Moderate- and Lower-Temperature Service
• ASTM A541/A541M Standard Specification for Quenched and Tempered Carbon and Alloy Steel Forgings for Pressure Vessel Components
• ASTM Standards Referenced in Connecting-the-Standards© Examples (Continued)
• ASTM A592 Standard Specification for High-Strength Quenched and Tempered Low-Alloy Steel Forged Parts for Pressure Vessels
• ASTM A595/A595M Standard Specification for Steel Tubes, Low-Carbon or High-Strength Low-Alloy, Tapered for Structural Use
• ASTM A686 Standard Specification for Tool Steel, Carbon
• ASTM A707/A707M Standard Specification for Forged Carbon and Alloy Steel Flanges for Low-Temperature Service
• ASTM A709/A709M Standard Specification for Structural Steel for Bridges: All Shapes
• ASTM A713 Standard Specification for Steel Wire, High-Carbon Spring, for Heat-Treated Components
• ASTM A751 Standard Test Methods, Practices, and Terminology for Chemical Analysis of Steel Products
• ASTM A788/A788M Standard Specification for Steel Forgings, General Requirements
• ASTM A866 Standard Specification for Medium Carbon Anti-Friction Bearing Steel
• ASTM A920/A920M Standard Specification for Steel Bars, Microalloy, Hot-Wrought, Special Quality, Mechanical Properties
• ASTM A941 Standard Terminology Relating to Steel, Stainless Steel, Related Alloys, and Ferroalloys
• ASTM A961/A961M Standard Specification for Common Requirements for Steel Flanges, Forged Fittings, Valves, and Parts for Piping Applications
• ASTM A999/A999M Standard Specification for General Requirements for Alloy and Stainless Steel Pipe
• ASTM A1003/A1003M Standard Specification for Steel Sheet, Carbon, Metallic- and Nonmetallic-Coated for Cold-Formed Framing Members
• ASTM A1008/A1008M Standard Specification for Steel, Sheet, Cold-Rolled, Carbon, Structural, High-Strength Low-Alloy, High-Strength Low-Alloy with Improved Formability, Solution Hardened, and Bake Hardenable
• ASTM A1011/1011M Standard Specification for Steel, Sheet and Strip, Hot-Rolled, Carbon, Structural, High-Strength Low-Alloy, High-Strength Low-Alloy with Improved Formability, and Ultra-High Strength
• ASTM A1040 Standard Guide for Specifying Harmonized Standard Grade Compositions for Wrought Carbon, Low-Alloy, and Alloy Steels
• ASTM A1061/A1061M Standard Test Methods for Testing Multi-Wire Steel Prestressing Strand
• ASTM A1064/A1064M Standard Specification for Carbon-Steel Wire and Welded Wire Reinforcement, Plain and Deformed, for Concrete
• ASTM E6 Standard Terminology Relating to Methods of Mechanical Testing
• ASTM E7 Standard Terminology Relating to Metallography
• ASTM E8/E8M Standard Test Methods for Tension Testing of Metallic Materials
• ASME B31.1 Power Piping Code
• ASME B&PV Code, Section IX
• NACE MR0103/ISO 15156 Petroleum and natural gas industries — Materials for use in H2S-containing environments in oil and gas production, Part 3

Fee Includes

• Referenced ASTM standards and course notes

About the Instructor

John E. Bringas, P.Eng. is the President and Founder of Codes and Standards Training Institute (CASTI). He is a professional engineer who has practiced metallurgical and materials engineering, and inspection since 1975. He has also been certified as an API 510, 570, 653, 571, 577, and 580 inspector, an AWS Certified Welding Inspector, an Alberta In-Service Pressure Vessel Inspector and Welding Examiner, and CGSB certified NDE examiner in UT and RT. He is a long-time committee member of ASTM A01 Steels, A05 Coated Steels, B02 Nonferrous Alloys, E04 Metallography, E28 Mechanical Testing, F42 Additive Manufacturing, J01 ASTM/NACE Committee on Corrosion, NACE STG 31 Oil and Gas Production—Corrosion and Scale Inhibition, STG 32 Oil and Gas Production-Metallurgy, STG 34 Petroleum Refining and Gas Processing, STG 35 Pipelines, Tanks, and Well Casings, STG 39 Process Industries—Materials Applications and Experiences, and past Canadian Representative on ISO TC 17-SC 4 (Steels). He is the author of the ASTM Handbook of Comparative World Steel Standards, ASTM Handbook of Steel Data: American and European, ASTM Passport to Steel Database, and the CASTI Metals Data Books. Mr. Bringas has engineering work experience in the steel making, foundry, consulting (failure analysis), inspection, NDE, refinery, pipeline, and petrochemical industries.

How Learning Will Be Assessed

Learning will be assessed through discussions. Participants are expected to ask questions if an issue is unclear to them.

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