HEAT TREATMENT

POINTS TO REMEMBER 1. There are mainly two types of heating. 1-scanning 2- static heating.

Static heating static heating is used in induction hardening in which a coil is used to produce uniform heating on the specimen from all sides and has holes in it which is used for quenching purposes .The most important thing about this process is that the gap between job and the coil is maintained constant otherwise the job will have non-uniform hardness. The quenching media used is water along with a polymer which helps in reducing the cooling rate of water up to a large extent. It is used for covering smaller portions in length. If polymer is not used with water then due to rapid cooling rate the job can get very brittle and get damaged.
NOTE1. This type of process can be used for a job of any shape as in dlw we have seen coils of various shapes such as cam, circular jobs such bearing of the cam shaft. In static heating the job is neither rotated at its position nor is it given linear motion along its axis.

2. The quenching media i.e. water is applied on the heated element with pressure of 15psi. If the water is not thrown at that pressure then it might affect the specimen s hardness. 3. For surface hardening purposes the metal is heated above the upper critical temperature to form austenite and then cooled to form marten site. The rate of cooling is greater than the critical cooling rate. If cooling rate is less than critical cooling rate then austenite will form pearlite . It is kept in mind that only marten site is formed. Precautions1. When the job is mounted on the machine vertically then sometimes it gets misaligned and it results in irregular heating thus affecting the hardness of the material. 2. If the material is overheated then the job will become hard and brittle thus making it not so useful for manufacturing purposes. Most importantly it will result in surface cracks and various other hardening defects. 3. Rate of cooling is kept more than critical cooling rate at any cost.

SCANNING- In this process of induction hardening the job is being rotated about its axis so that the heat is uniformly distributed throughout the material. This type of technique is being mainly used for circular jobs only in which hardening is to

be done along large length of specimen. In this process the specimen is heated in the coil and moves linearly downward where the water holes are present in the coil at an angle which is used for quenching when the specimen moves downward. When the specimen is heated in the coil it moves downward and then cooled by quench ant which is coming out if the coil at an angle.

2. The carbon content in the steel used in building the camshafts is usually .65% and hence its carburizing can t be done. Therefore its surface hardening can be easily done. 3. HARDNESS MEASUREMENT- The hardness of the material is basically its ability to resist any plastic deformation by indentation, drilling. For measuring the hardness of the material various machines such as shore hardness tester, equotip hardness tester etc are used. The hardness of the material is being usually considered in HRC, BHN. HRC is basically Rockwell hardness in c scale which starts above 90kgf force. EQUOTIP- EQUOTIP is one of most costly and commonly used hardness testing machine. Its cost is roughly 5.5 lacs. This machine is quite small and easy to operate. It is in a form of a small yellow box with a bright LCD display on it. It has pen shaped device attached to it which is mainly used for measuring hardness. The pen shaped device has diamond indenter at its

end which allowed falling over the material. The diamond piece bounces back due to hardness of the material. The height up to which the diamond piece bounces back is measured as hardness. The hardness of the material is mainly dependent upon the elasticity of the surface of the material. If the surface is more elastic in nature then the diamond indenter will not rise to higher level therefore its hardness will be shown less. If the elasticity of the material is low then its surface will be considered as a hard surface and the diamond piece will rise high.

ADVANTAGES OF SURFACE HARDENING OVER CARBURIZING 1. The carbon content diffused into the surface of the specimen in case of carburizing can t be accurately controlled thus resulting in uneven hardness or sometimes substance becomes brittle and results in fracture at the edges that is why surface hardening is used over carburizing as hardening can easily achieved over specimen having a definite amount of carbon. 2.As we all know that with increase in carbon content the hardness increases therefore carburizing process is mainly used for low carbon steels and surface hardening is used for steels having high content of carbon. The chances of defects and brittleness are more in surface hardening as

its carbon content is high in comparison to the specimen used in carburizing.

CONCEPT OF SURFACE HARDENING- The surface hardening is being mainly achieved by heating the element to austenitic temperature and then cooling it by means of quenching it in a media. When the transformation of austenite takes place to marten site then dislocation of atoms occurs very rapidly which makes the atoms say they are locked together thus resulting in hardness of the material. The important thing is that this process should be done in a controlled state i.e. the hardness of the material should be up to a limited level which the material of the specimen can easily withstand otherwise it will result in as a defect in the specimen who are mainly termed as edge and screw dislocation. The process of hardening is performed after the process stress relieving in which the work piece is heated in oven at about 180 degree Celsius and then cooled in open air for 4 hours. It is being kept in mind that edges of the specimen are properly chamfered and build otherwise it will result in cracks in case of overheating.
PARTS OF CAM AIR LOBE, FUEL LOBE, EXHAUST LOBE .BEARING STACTIC HARDENING IS USED FOR THEM FLAME HARDENING AND LASER HARDENING ARE USED FOR LARGE OBJECTS SUCH AS GEARS ETC. WHOSE COIL CAN T BE MADE..