hærdede

Hærdede is a Danish adjective formed from the verb hærd(e), meaning to harden. It denotes that something has undergone a hardening process and, as a result, possesses increased hardness, strength, or resistance to deformation.

In metallurgy and materials engineering, hærdede is used to describe substances that have been treated to improve their mechanical properties. Common examples include hærdet stål, which refers to hardened steel, and hærdet glas, or tempered glass. The hardening can result from heat treatment procedures such as heating, quenching, tempering, carburizing, or nitriding, or from other chemical methods that alter a material’s microstructure. The term also applies to other materials that are intentionally strengthened through processing, including certain ceramics and composites.

Linguistically, hærdede is the past participle form of the verb hærd(e) and is used attributively or predicatively to indicate a material’s current state. The concept of hardening has a broad range of applications in engineering, construction, and manufacturing, and Danish terminology distinguishes between the general state of being hardened and specific processes used to achieve it.

Related topics include varmebehandling (heat treatment), hærdning (the hardening process), temperering, quenching, nitriding, and carburizing.