×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Hardness results for SA-217 Gr. WC6

Hardness results for SA-217 Gr. WC6

Hardness results for SA-217 Gr. WC6

(OP)
Experts,

We recently completed welded repairs to an A-217 Gr. WC6 cast part for a high pressure boiler main steam application.

To make a long story short, our PWHT contractor inadvertently ran the part through the wrong heat treatment cycle with a batch of other parts.

The part should have been PWHT'd at 1,250 deg. F for 1hr. per ASME B31.1 rules. Instead the part was heated to 1,550 deg. F, held for 2hrs and then oil quenched.

Going on advice from their metallurgist as well as a third party metallurgist we were advised to again bring the part to 1,500 deg. F this time allowing to cool to ambient temperature in still air (essentially normalize) to correct any unwanted hardening that may have taken place due to the oil quench with the first heat treatment cycle.

I requested that several hardness readings be taken after this second "normalizing" heat treatment. The resulting (6) tests were all between 70 - 80 HRB. This seems unusually soft to me.......should I be concerned?

Does a reduction in hardness have a direct correlation to a reduction in strength?

To complicate matters this is a decades old part for which the owner has no material test reports that may tell us what the hardness was when it was new.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

numberfive

RE: Hardness results for SA-217 Gr. WC6

The reported hardness is fine for this material in a normalized condition and with possible surface decarburization. Did you follow a proper portable hardness testing procedure - meaning prepare the surface for hardness testing?

RE: Hardness results for SA-217 Gr. WC6

(OP)
I don't know 100% for certain that the areas were prepped prior to hardness testing. I do know that the shop has a portable hardness testing procedure - weather or not it was properly followed I do not know and I don't have the part in my possession at this time.

If the decarburized zone were not properly removed for the testing, will that typically yield lower or higher than normal values?

RE: Hardness results for SA-217 Gr. WC6

Lower.

RE: Hardness results for SA-217 Gr. WC6

(OP)
Thanks metengr

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources