Shear blades typically require tempering after quenching to achieve the necessary balance of strength and toughness. Most customers focus their inspections on hardness results and the number of tempering cycles, but rarely analyze the shear blades from the perspective of hardenability.

The hardenability and the width of the hardenability band depend primarily on the precise control of the steel's chemical composition and its chemical uniformity. Ensuring the production of "hardenability-guaranteed" steel is essentially a matter of solving metallurgical quality issues:

Precision of chemical composition and steel purity are significantly improved.

Chemical segregation and banded structures are minimized.

Component segregation leads to a wide dispersion of hardenability and inconsistent hardness. Meanwhile, banded structures have a severe negative impact on heat treatment deformation and overall performance.