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Engine connecting rods will be used to illustrate today’s issue. Utilized as key motion imparting components, these rigid steel connectors move in long, linearly oriented strokes. From piston to crankshaft, the linear relationship is maintained. One other thing, the rods have to be hardened by a heat-treatment process. And therein lies the problem. You see, […]

Much though engineers wish the opposite were true, heat treatment work can weaken welded joints. Since welding equipment uses thermal energy to fuse parts together and add filer metals, the application of more heat can further alter a weld’s jointing properties. A frustrating fact indeed, especially since heat treatment processing uses an inordinate amount of […]

Just as a reminder, induction hardening technology is used to enhance the toughness and fatigue resistance of carbon steel parts. Components to be heat treated are placed inside a furnace, around which a copper-wound electrical coil runs. When this induction coil is energized, it generates a strong magnetic field, which “induces” workpiece heat. However, although […]

Three primary heat treatment phases break down into multiple branches and subsets. First comes the heating, the stage that thermally alters a part’s microcrystalline structure. As the work comes to a climax, the cooling phase allows the material to return to room temperature. At least as important, an “in-between” phase holds the furnace temperature at […]

Not every processing pipeline in a heat treatment facility is mechanically oriented. Away from the vacuum-sealed furnaces and quenching tanks, the alloy hardening work is viewed from a different perspective. Surrounded by computers and process viability statistics, a risk assessment team is hard at work. Somewhat ironically, the engineers who’re caught up in this stress […]

Using gaseous quenching mediums, new and improved cooling models are rippling through the heat treatment sector. However, not just any old cloud of gas is going to suit this role. For one thing, an inert element is mandatory. The synthetic atmosphere can’t be influenced by the heat, nor can an alloy workpiece be somehow altered […]

Thin-walled tube metals are employed in a wide number of large-scale applications. Whether the tubes find their way into pipe networks or aerospace frames, they need to exhibit one key dimensional attribute. Long and gifted with a shaped cross-section of some kind, the thin-walled metal conduits must be straight as an arrow. And there’s the […]

Ideally, heat treatment work affects the microcrystalline structure of a steel part. In the furnace, then cooled gradually or quenched suddenly, the physical properties of the steel alters. The processed component becomes harder. It also gains a more corrosion-resistant structure. What the high-tensile alloy should never experience is any amount of steel warping. That, unfortunately, […]

The next two heat treatment processes are similar. They both use a nitrogen-rich substance to harden soft metal workpieces. But, as the post title implies, the nitrogen arrives in two different states. In one, the nitriding process is applied as a liquid. In the next, the nitrogen coats the workpiece as an all-enveloping gas. Which […]

Atmospheric control is a powerful tool in a heat treatment engineer’s metal hardening armoury. For example, by adding gaseous nitrogen to a furnace, the gas nitride hardening effect is initiated. This process sees the gas come into contact with a heated low carbon workpiece. As the surface metal and nitrogen brush against one another, the […]