Heating and cooling to produce a spheroidal or globular form of carbide in steel. Spheroidizing methods frequently used are: 1 Prolonged holding at a temperature just below Ae1. 2 Heating and cooling alternately between temperatures that are just below Ae1. 3 Heating to a temperature above Ae1 or Ae3 and then cooling very slowly in the furnace or holding at a temperature just below Ae1. 4 Cooling at a suitable rate from the minimum temperature at which all carbide is dissolved to prevent the reformation of a carbide network, and then reheating in accordance with methods 1 or 2 above. (Applicable to hypereutectoid steel containing a carbide network.)