{ "model": { "rank": 13559, "code": "thing-q1458918", "model_id": "vr.tr.heat-treatment", "name": "heat treatment", "purpose": "Let an agent explain heat treatment processes and their effects on microstructure, relay process parameters and standards from metallurgical references, describe surface hardening methods, and distinguish heat treatment from hot working and thermal processing of non-metals.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Activities and processes", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "ACT", "domain": "ACT.ACT", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q1458918/", "tier": 2, "score": 37, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "ferritic nitrocarburizing", "Nitrocarburizing", "nitriding", "carburizing", "gas nitriding", "plasma nitriding", "High temperature nitriding", "Mid temperature nitriding", "low temperature nitriding", "pack cementation", "mid temperature carburizing", "low temperature carburizing", "low temperature plasma nitriding", "recrystallization", "thermal cleaning", "low hydrogen annealing", "Ohmic heating of foods", "austenitization", "Spheroidization", "precipitation hardening", "dynamic recrystallization", "geometric dynamic recrystallization", "subgrain rotation recrystallization" ], "aliasCount": 23, "merged": 23, "knownIn": 37, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q1458918", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1458918", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-13T04:49:08Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 3, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q1458918", "registryId": "vr.tr.heat-treatment", "name": "heat treatment", "version": "0.2.0-wave.3", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "ACT.ACT" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q1458918/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.heat-treatment", "name": "heat treatment", "purpose": "Let an agent explain heat treatment processes and their effects on microstructure, relay process parameters and standards from metallurgical references, describe surface hardening methods, and distinguish heat treatment from hot working and thermal processing of non-metals.", "definition": "A group of industrial processes that alter the physical and sometimes chemical properties of a material, usually a metal, by controlled heating and cooling, including annealing, normalising, hardening and quenching, tempering, and surface treatments such as carburizing, nitriding by gas or plasma, and nitrocarburizing including ferritic nitrocarburizing; heat treatment controls hardness, strength, toughness and wear resistance of steels, aluminium and other alloys.", "what_it_is_for": "Controlling metal properties.", "affordances": [ "explain processes", "relay parameters and standards", "describe surface hardening", "distinguish related processes" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Thermal cycles", "Microstructure control", "Bulk and surface variants", "Standardised specifications" ], "appearance": "Furnaces, quench tanks and parts changing colour and hardness.", "visual_identification": [ "Controlled heating and cooling of metals", "Annealing, hardening, tempering, carburizing, nitriding, plasma nitriding, ferritic nitrocarburizing", "Hot working deforms the metal; sintering forms parts from powder; glass tempering is separate" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "steel austenitising range", "typical_range": "about 750-950", "unit": "C", "note": "typical" }, { "quantity": "nitriding temperature", "typical_range": "about 500-570", "unit": "C", "note": "" }, { "quantity": "carburizing temperature", "typical_range": "about 850-950", "unit": "C", "note": "" } ], "families_and_kinds": [ "annealing and normalising", "hardening, quenching and tempering", "case hardening by carburizing and carbonitriding", "nitriding by gas, salt bath and plasma", "nitrocarburizing including ferritic nitrocarburizing", "precipitation hardening of aluminium and other alloys", "induction and flame hardening" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "process", "why": "in registry terms" }, { "relation": "changes", "target": "microstructure", "why": "of metals" }, { "relation": "is applied to", "target": "steel", "why": "and other alloys" }, { "relation": "uses", "target": "industrial furnace", "why": "and quench media" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Standards such as AMS 2759, ISO 683 and SAE J1268", "Furnace pyrometry standards such as AMS 2750", "Occupational safety rules for furnaces, quenchants and gases" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Cracking and distortion from quenching", "Decarburisation and oxidation", "Confusing surface and bulk processes" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What heat treatment is.", "rationale": "Science.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is heat treatment, and how does it change microstructure and properties?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about heat treatment of metals, hot working or thermal processing of other materials?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "processes", "name": "Processes", "description": "Processes.", "findings": [ { "id": "processes-finding", "name": "Processes", "description": "Processes.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do annealing, hardening, tempering, carburizing, nitriding and nitrocarburizing differ?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific process?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "engineer", "name": "Engineer", "description": "Practice.", "rationale": "Practice.", "layers": [ { "id": "parameters", "name": "Parameters", "description": "Parameters.", "findings": [ { "id": "parameters-finding", "name": "Parameters", "description": "Parameters.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are temperatures, times, atmospheres and quench media chosen for a given alloy?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "surface", "name": "Surface", "description": "Surface hardening.", "findings": [ { "id": "surface-finding", "name": "Surface", "description": "Surface.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do gas and plasma nitriding and ferritic nitrocarburizing produce hard cases, and where are they used?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which sources are cited?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "quality", "name": "Quality", "description": "Quality and standards.", "rationale": "Regulation.", "layers": [ { "id": "standards", "name": "Standards", "description": "Standards.", "findings": [ { "id": "standards-finding", "name": "Standards", "description": "Standards.", "questions": [ { "text": "What standards govern heat treatment specification, furnace control and testing?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific standard?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "defects", "name": "Defects", "description": "Defects.", "findings": [ { "id": "defects-finding", "name": "Defects", "description": "Defects.", "questions": [ { "text": "What defects arise from heat treatment, and how are they prevented and inspected?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits quench cracking?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "Industry and history.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "industry", "name": "Industry", "description": "Industry.", "findings": [ { "id": "industry-finding", "name": "Industry", "description": "Industry.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is heat treatment organised in industry, from in-house lines to commercial heat treaters?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits metalworking?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did smiths and metallurgists develop hardening and tempering historically?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the history of metallurgy?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should nitriding and carburizing be separate primary entries?", "How should metallurgical standards be linked?", "The registry entry has merged aliases naming specific processes; should they be split off?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a heat treatment, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain heat treatment processes and their effects on microstructure, relay process parameters and standards from metallurgical references, describe surface hardening methods, and distinguish heat treatment from hot working and thermal processing of non-metals.", "characteristics": { "substance": "activity", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: ferritic nitrocarburizing, Nitrocarburizing, nitriding, carburizing, gas nitriding, plasma nitriding, High temperature nitriding, Mid temperature nitriding, low temperature nitriding, pack cementation, mid temperature carburizing, low temperature carburizing.", "23 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 37 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a heat treatment, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "something that happens over time", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "ferritic nitrocarburizing", "Nitrocarburizing", "nitriding", "carburizing", "gas nitriding", "plasma nitriding", "High temperature nitriding", "Mid temperature nitriding", "low temperature nitriding", "pack cementation", "mid temperature carburizing", "low temperature carburizing" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 37 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 23 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one heat treatment from another, and a heat treatment from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a heat treatment, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a heat treatment, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a heat treatment is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a heat treatment, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a heat treatment, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a heat treatment is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a heat treatment sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a heat treatment, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a heat treatment, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a heat treatment is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a heat treatment from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a heat treatment, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a heat treatment, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a heat treatment is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a heat treatment passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a heat treatment between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a heat treatment, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a heat treatment, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a heat treatment is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a heat treatment, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a heat treatment is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a heat treatment, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a heat treatment, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a heat treatment is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "process-and-outcome", "name": "Process, inputs and outcome", "description": "How a heat treatment proceeds, what it needs and what it leaves behind.", "rationale": "An activity is known by its steps and its results, and both have to be recordable while it is still running.", "layers": [ { "id": "steps-and-sequence", "name": "Steps and sequence", "description": "The steps of a heat treatment, their order and what may run in parallel.", "findings": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions", "name": "Steps, preconditions and completion", "description": "What has to be true before each step of a heat treatment and what marks it done.", "questions": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a step of a heat treatment, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a step of a heat treatment, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a step of a heat treatment is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-results", "name": "Inputs, resources and results", "description": "What a heat treatment consumes and what it produces.", "findings": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs", "name": "Inputs, outputs and side effects", "description": "The resources a heat treatment takes and the results it leaves, wanted or not.", "questions": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the inputs and results of a heat treatment, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the inputs and results of a heat treatment, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the inputs and results of a heat treatment is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What heat treatment is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of heat treatment are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is heat treatment operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of heat treatment and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of heat treatment?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as heat treatment?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a heat treatment came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a heat treatment and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a heat treatment, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a heat treatment, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a heat treatment is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a heat treatment is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a heat treatment, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a heat treatment, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a heat treatment is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }