6. Coordinating steel selection with quenching and tempering conditions

The process of choosing the right steel for a given mechanical application can be broken down into three stages:

• the first stage consists of a systematic inventory of all requirements required in service, on the one hand, and those resulting from manufacturing conditions, on the other;

• the second step is for the mechanic to quantify all the requirements thus identified, linking them to the mechanical and metallurgical characteristics required of the appropriate steel;

• the third stage is the actual search for and selection of the steel grade which, after quenching and tempering, can provide the desired characteristics.

This third stage involves heat treatment, so it must take into account :

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