ABSTRACT
Heat treatment has been acknowledged by researchers as a means of improving the
various properties of metals and alloys. In the present investigation of mechanical properties of
mild steels, the steels were heated to a temperature of 9000C - 9800C. The heated steels studied
and it is found that the heat treatment operation has greatly improves the hardness, tensile
strength and wear resistance of the mild steels. The aim has been to examine the effects of
different quenchants such as palm oil and water on the mechanical properties of the quenched
mild steels. The process involve heating the mild steels to the austenizing temperature and then
quenched in different quenchants such as palm oil and water.
The mild steels were later subjected to different type of tests such as hardness test, tensile
test and the microstructure analyses. The results of these experiment shows that the process of
quenching greatly improves the mechanical properties like hardness, tensile strength and
microstructure based on the quenchant used because the steels quenched in the palm oil show a
better improvement on their mechanical properties. There is a fairly uniform microstructure in
the steels quenched in the palm oil. Also the carbon particles seem to be evenly distributed
suggesting the formation of a pearlite structure than those samples quenched in water and the
unquenched samples.