Stress Relieve

Reduce and relieve internal stresses
Stress relieving, or stress-relief anneal, is done to low carbon grades, including at times low carbon alloys such as A514, in order to remove stresses that have built up in the part from flamecutting or from mechanical flattening. This is important when the parts will go on to be ground, machined, or fabricated. Without stress relieving, parts may develop bow or twist as they are further processed.

Stress relieving consists of heating the parts to a temperature just below the range at which the grain structure begins to change, usually 1100º to 1200ºF. The parts are held at this temperature long enough to achieve a uniform temperature throughout. Then they are allowed to cool in the furnace. Generally, no grain transformation takes place in stress relieving.