Stainless steel wire can be hardened by:

 # Stainless steel wire can be hardened by:

A. Tempering

B. Work hardening

C. Annealing

D. Pulse straightening

The correct answer is B. Work hardening.

Cold Working (Strain Hardening/Work Hardening): It is the process of plastically deforming metal at a temperature, lower than at which it recrystallizes new grains. This temperature is usually one-third to one-half of its absolute melting point. Cold working disrupts the regular atomic arrangement and incorporates strain across the grain boundaries. 

Annealing: It is the process of reversing the effects of cold working. In a clinical setting, a wire is considered annealed when it appears red hot.

Hysteresis: The difference between the energy required to activate the wire by deflection and that it releases during deactivation. This is called energy loss or hysteresis. 

Heat treatment: It refers to a general process of using thermal energy to change the characteristics of metallic alloys as tempering, precipitation hardening, or annealing. In a clinical setting, different wires are heat treated according to the manufacturer's recommendations. A wire is considered heat treated when it appears straw-colored.