Thursday, March 28, 2024

Controlling nitrided layers and enhancing predictability of nitriding process with metallography

Nitriding is the thermochemical process for producing surface layers in ferrous alloys, such as steels and cast irons used for making various mechanical components...

Case study: Determining the cause of cracking using computer modeling

During an induction-hardening process, the part surface is heated using a medium- to high-frequency inductor. Once the desired depth of austenitization is reached, the...

High-efficiency gas burners make good economic sense

Even though the price of natural gas is currently low, the investment in high-efficiency gas burners makes sense economically. This article discusses different types...

Reliable Vacuum Supply for Plasma Nitriding

Plasma nitriding is becoming more and more important for heat treatment.

Considerations for selecting vacuum furnace hot zone insulation materials

Over the years, there have been many variations of hot zone insulation designs for vacuum furnace hot zones and can include the following configurations...

Temperature sensor selection: The basics of temperature measurement using thermocouples

You are probably somewhat familiar with the thermocouple, or you wouldn’t be reading this article. But there are important points about thermocouples that must...

10 tips to ensure accurate thermocouple measurement

Careful selection and installation of temperature sensors can ensure accurate sensor performance, which in turn improves product quality and production efficiency. 1: Select the Correct...

A Time-Compressed Numerical Approach for Thermal Analysis of Preheating Process in Powder Metallurgy

Introduction Recent developments have been made in the field of powder metallurgy of materials to obtain advanced properties as compared to conventional manufacturing of materials...

Optimizing Case-Depth Uniformity in the Vacuum Carburizing Process

Over the past few decades, the vacuum carburizing process has been proven to produce superior part quality. In addition, the use of vacuum technology...

Cures for Heat Treaters Headaches

Heat treaters all over the world encounter similar problems with atmosphere furnaces. These problems not only cause operational headaches in the daily lives of...

Temperature uniformity survey ( TUS ) general practice for CQI-9 and AMS2750E

In the automotive and aerospace manufacturing industry, CQI-9 and AMS2750 specifications are established as guidelines to: “address pyrometric requirements for thermal processing equipment used for...

Freezing Out the Competition

Most companies are looking for a secret that can help them keep a step ahead of the competition — a little edge to run...

Laser sintering of thermoset polyimide composites

Selective laser sintering (SLS) is an additive manufacturing technique that builds 3D models layer-by-layer using a laser to selectively melt cross sections in powdered...

The cutting edge of thermal processing in a forge environment

Scot Forge is a 128-year-old, 100-percent employee-owned forging company that works in multiple markets from large defense, aerospace, power generation and mining projects to...

Optimizing forging machine productivity, longevity

As the forging industry’s most experienced maintenance staff and equipment operators retire, keeping legacy machines producing at full capacity is increasingly difficult. When new...

Company Profile: Lindberg/MPH

Lindberg/MPH has been around for over 100 years. During that century, it has changed hands and names, but since it became part of Thermal...

Case Study: New temperature control system delivers precision, efficiency, and flexibility

Clifford-Jacobs is a nearly century-old producer of die forgings. When the company needed to improve its process controls on its heat-treating furnaces, it turned...

Cryogenic process and application to ferrous alloy

Cryogenics or sub-zero treatment is the third parameter required to achieve maximum hardness in ferrous alloys.

AC7102 Checklist Review, Part 5

Editor’s note » This is the final article of a five-part series that deconstructs the requirements of AC7102. Each article has appeared every other month...

Single-piece flow case hardening can be worked into in-line manufacturing

Case hardening by carburizing is the most common heat treatment in mass production, which relies on atmosphere or vacuum carburizing followed by oil or...

Preventing eutectic reactions and diffusion bonding in vacuum processing

The purpose of this article is to explain reactions that can occur during a vacuum processing cycle and different methods of preventing these reactions....

The advantages of pulse plasma nitriding

In the gear manufacturing industry, when case-hardening, tempering, or nitriding the surface of steel, whether for gears or gearboxes, the options have traditionally included...

Additive manufacturing and gas technology applications

As the demand for additive manufacturing (AM) products has steadily increased, so have the many enabling technologies including laser powder bed fusion, laser metal...

How to properly debind parts produced by metal AM

Additive manufacturing is a manufacturing technology that is gaining more and more ground among metallurgists. The process involves all the techniques used to create...

Heat Treating Education

In a recent paper by Janusz Kowalewski of Ipsen at the 3rd International Conference on Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering in Automotive Applications held...

Induction hardening of cast irons

The success in induction hardening of cast irons and repeatability of obtained results are greatly affected by a potential variation of matrix carbon content.

Deep Cryogenic Treatment

What is deep cryogenic treatment? Deep cryogenic treatment (DCT) of steels and other materials is a distinct process that uses the application of extreme...

Cryogenic processing for longer tool life

In almost every industrial trade magazine, there will appear an occasional article about “cryogenics.” Thermal Processing has devoted an annual issue to cryogenic processing...

Intelligent Gas Carburizing with Super IQ ™

Atmosphere furnace or vacuum furnace, which to use? In carburizing, for instance, the workhorse furnace is the atmosphere gas carburizing furnace with integral oil...

Nonlinear electromagnetic acoustic testing method for tensile damage evaluation 

This paper describes an approach for measuring material plasticity using contactless electromagnetic acoustic method. Harmonic generation from noncumulative fundamental longitudinal wave in specimen is...

Industrial ion nitriding of TMS 80 micro alloyed steel parts at various plasma power...

Control of the ion nitriding process is typically based on temperature of the work piece, composition of the gas mixture, gas pressure, nitriding time,...

Extending Performance

Metal gears and precision components of all types are in growing demand for robotics, particularly in industrial sectors such as automotive, aerospace, and machinery....

Heat treatment of gears

Often the options of heat treat may feel pre-defined when looked at from a gear designer’s perspective. There are options, but both gear designers...

Case Study: Laser Hardening

To increase the hardness of a steel material, there are basically three required steps in the hardening process. Step one is to heat the...

Heat-transfer fluids: Growing in visibility and importance

The growing use of electronics in many applications is leading researchers to better understand the reasons for using heat-transfer fluids. Electronics generate substantial amounts...

Gas Nitriding of Titanium

Interest in solution gas nitriding and diffusion of nitrogen into the surface of titanium alloys as a means to inhibit adhesive wear (galling) while...

Case study: Partnering with the medical industry

The high-tech medical industry is one of the most demanding in terms of standards, procedures, and technical parameters that must be met by the...

Enhanced Properties of 17-7 PH Stainless Steel

Background Precipitation-hardening (PH) stainless steel grade 17-7 PH is classified as a semiaustenitic stainless steel used extensively in aerospace and finding new applications in the...

Process control, monitoring, and quality assurance specifics for induction heating

Controlling the induction-hardening process is a demanding application compared to most other thermal processes. The first and foremost requirement is to precisely control the...

The Advantages of an All-Metal Vacuum Furnace Hot Zone

For more than 70 years, the vacuum furnace has been available for metal processing requirements, and is widely accepted as the ideal equipment for...