Changing the properties of materials such as metals or glass by processes involving heating. It is used to harden, soften, or modify other properties of materials that have different crystal structures at low and high temperatures.
The type of transformation depends on the temperature that the material is heated to, how fast it is heated, how long it is kept heated, what temperature it is first cooled to, and how fast it is cooled. For example, quenching hardens steel by heating it to high temperatures and then quickly immersing it in room temperature oil, water, or salt brine to “freeze” the new crystal structure; in cryogenic treatments the cooling bath ranges from −180 to −70 °C (−300 to −100 °F), and it is often used in treating high-carbon and high-alloy steels. The two main approaches to softening a metal (to restore its ductility) are annealing, in which its temperature is slowly raised, held for some time, and slowly cooled, and tempering, in which it is slowly heated in an oil bath and held for some hours.
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