w.quench?---SA 387
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I have a certificate of quality for SA 387 GR 11 CL 2: HEAT TREAT / NOM TEMP / HOLD MINS / COOL MTHD – HARDENING at 913℃ for 85 minutes; QUENCHING at 693℃ for 225 minutes. I don’t understand what “W.QUENCH” means: is it water quenching or some other type of quenching? Water quenching refers to cooling with water, but professionals say that there is only one way to cool material after normalizing – by air cooling. So what does “with quench” mean?
This post was last edited by bamboobamboo on 2009-11-29 at 11:52. The water quench SA-387 is a chromium-molybdenum alloy steel plate that requires normalizing + tempering or quenching + tempering heat treatment to meet the mechanical property requirements. Procurement specifications often require that this material be supplied in the normalized + tempered condition, but steel plate manufacturers sometimes change the supply condition to quenched + tempered in order to meet performance requirements. It is also common to see that in the heat treatment status field of the SA387Gr11CL2 quality certificate, it is even specified that normalizing is carried out using water to accelerate the cooling rate. In such cases, especially for the forming of thick steel plates, it is often necessary to subject the steel plates to special quenching and tempering treatments.
In favor of water quenching: A 387/A 387M – 06a 5.1 Except for Grade 91, all plates shall be thermally treated either by annealing, normalizing and tempering, or, when permitted by the purchaser, by accelerated cooling from the austenitizing temperature through air blasting or liquid quenching, followed by tempering.