Abstract The distortion of steel flat ring type products after fine-blanking and subsequent carbonitriding was investigated. All the analyzed products were produced from the same coil and under the same conditions of fine-blanking. The fine blanked products were afterwards heat treated by using three different procedures – carbonitriting, stress relief annealing and heat treatment in a neutral atmosphere under the same temperature regime as for carbonitriding. The contribution of fine-blanking, relief of residual stresses, uneven heating and cooling and the formation of carbonitrided cases on the overall distortion were determined. The results were complemented with hardness measurements, residual stresses measurements and observations of microstructure. The presented research work is the first step towards the understanding of the mechanisms and factors that influence the quality of the final products during the production cycle.