Due to its hardness, martensite, perhaps, is the most desirable structure, but at the same time, martensite is very brittle. Balancing between hardness and brittleness is a challenge that steel manufacturers must deal with it. To decrease brittleness and to solve this problem, designers purposely temper the steel. Heat treatment, e.g., slowing down the quenching quota/rate, will form a procedure of martensite formation incomplete phase and consequently a mixture of austenite-martensite. Tempering is another alternative to operate on martensite and make it malleable without losing hardness and preventing brittleness.

As its seen, the heat treatment for controlling the mechanical chemical property is crucial. Managing the critical temperature, A1, A3, and Ms) during martensite formation, which influences the transformation process, must be considered. The Prior Austenite Grain Size also has been measured. 

This project has examined the critical temperature for three wire steel specimens to determine the martensite start temperature (Ms), microstructure, and hardness.

The project has mainly used dilatometry. Besides that, light optical microscopy (LOM), hardness measurement of specimens, and empirical equations for determining the critical temperatures have been used.

This work has been made up of two main parts: literature review and experimental work/ project procedure.