Steels with certain desired properties can be expensive. An alternative is to purchase cheaper steel, the properties of which can be improved by heat treatment. By heat treating it, we can change its mechanical and physical properties to some extent and thus meet our needs. In this thesis, C45 steel and 90MnCrV8 steel are heat treated. Both steels were heated to the austenitizing temperature and quenched in different quenching agents and then tempered at different temperatures. After heat treatment, the samples were analyzed, where hardness was measured using the HRC method and residual stresses were measured using the XRD method. Finally, the microstructure was analyzed using a microscope. We found that it is important which quenching agent is used to quench a particular steel. By choosing the right quenching agent, we can obtain optimal mechanical properties of steel. The tempering temperature is also significant from the point of view of mechanical properties. The combination of quenching and tempering at the appropriate tempering temperature can produce steel that has a good compromise between hardness and toughness.
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