Shops warm up to induction heat treating

Induction heating has become more popular because it creates high heat intensities quickly at well-defined part locations. Induction heat treatment is more energy efficient and environmentally friendly than other heat treat methods. While induction heating works well in a wide variety of application...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:American machinist (1988) 2000-06, Vol.144 (6), p.98
Main Authors: Rudnev, Valery, Cook, Ray, Loveless, Don, Black, Micah, Murray, Jack
Format: Magazinearticle
Language:English
Subjects:
Cold
Cooling
Crack propagation
Heat treating
Temperature
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Induction heating has become more popular because it creates high heat intensities quickly at well-defined part locations. Induction heat treatment is more energy efficient and environmentally friendly than other heat treat methods. While induction heating works well in a wide variety of applications, surface hardening, through-hardening and tempering are the most popular uses for the process. Induction heat treating requires converting ferrite to austenite and then rapidly quenching to form martensite (which imparts hardness and strength). Hardness distribution depends upon the carbon content, the temperature distribution, quenching conditions and hardenability. Induction surface hardening imparts compressive stresses at their surfaces which are very important to minimize fatigue properties and prevent crack propagation. Some shape distortion occurs whenever a metal is heated, but induction surface hardening provides high dimensional accuracy and minimizes distortion because the heating occurs quickly and mainly affects the surface layer. Induction heat treating, through-hardening and induction tempering are discussed and described in detail in this article.
ISSN:1041-7958