Understanding the Flame Hardening Process and Its Applications

23 August 2021

A lot of processes can be maximised to generate metal products. Some processes are intended to change the properties of the metal products, while others are meant to alter their surfaces. There are even processes that add an adequate protective coating to the metal products.

One process that can be done to metal products is flame hardening. The flame hardening process is generally designed to harden a metal product while making it more malleable.

The Whole Process of Flame Hardening

Basically, the process of flame hardening involves the heating of a metal’s surface area very quickly through a high-temperature flame. The high-temperature flame typically comes from the combustion of a fuel gas with air or oxygen. Once the heating process is done, the involved metal workpiece is quenched or cooled in water or oil. The cooling process hardens the metal surface while maintaining the soft state of the core, making the metal product malleable and workable.

Throughout the flame hardening process, the metal workpiece can gain no change in composition. Hence, it must contain ample carbon content so that its intended surface hardness can be achieved. The depth of the hardened surface area hugely depends on the flame head design, heating duration, hardenability of the steel, quenching medium, and the quenching method itself.

Flame Hardening Notable Advantages

The process of flame hardening is carried out by industries due to its associated advantages.

One of the advantages of flame hardening is that it can provide localised hardening effects to the metal workpieces. The process can likewise provide controllable hardening depth. These advantages can make the surface of metal products hard and wear-resistant, with significant improvements over their fatigue strength. Another advantage of flame hardening is that it can minimise heat treatment distortion, making the metal products more resistant to surrounding elements.

As for the flame hardening itself, some advantages that the industries can obtain from the said process include minimised operational costs, decreased processing steps, and reduced processing time.

Remarkable Uses of Flame Hardening

Flame hardening can be used for low, medium, and high carbon steel. The results of the process with low and medium carbon steel products, however, would depend on their required surface hardness and core qualities. High carbon steel products, alternatively, can be processed if careful control is carried out. Other materials that can be processed with flame hardening are cast ironsand alloy steels.

Aside from their compatibility with certain types of metals, flame hardening can be applied to very large parts. It can likewise be maximised in processing workpieces that require heat treatment on small areas. If certain industries want to obtain metal parts with various shapes, then flame hardening can also be conducted to meet their requirements.

Some products that can maximise flame hardening are rolls, shafts, sheaves, rope drums, slew rings, dies, moulds, gears, sprockets, machine ways, and rails.

If you want to know more about flame hardening, you can contact us at Alpha Detroit Heat Treatment.

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