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- 2072 Chaitra · 2 marks
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Define quenching in brief
Short answer
Quenching is the rapid cooling of steel from its hardening temperature using a medium like water, brine, or oil. It forms hard, brittle martensite instead of soft pearlite, and is typically followed by tempering to reduce brittleness and stress.
Define quenching.
Quenching is the rapid cooling of steel from its hardening temperature (about 30-50 C above the upper critical point) by dipping it in a quenching medium such as water, brine or oil, or by an air blast.
It prevents the austenite from changing into soft pearlite and instead forms martensite, which is very hard and strong but brittle and full of internal stress. Hence quenching is normally followed by tempering. The cooling speed depends on the medium (brine is fastest, then water, then oil).
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