• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2006.09b
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• pp.1018-1021
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• 2006

Powdered metal parts and components may be carburized successfully in a vacuum furnace by combining carburizing technology $VacCarb^{TM}$ with a hi-tech control system. This approach is different from traditional carburizing methods, because vacuum carburizing is a non-equilibrium process. It is not possible to set the carbon potential as in a traditional carburizing atmosphere and control its composition in order to obtain a desired carburized case. This paper presents test results that demonstrate that vacuum carburizing system $VacCarb^{TM}$ carburized P.M. materials faster than traditional steel with acceptable results. In the experiments conducted, PM samples with the lowest density and open porosity showed a dramatic increase in the surface carbon content up to 2.5%C and a 3 times deeper case. Currently the boost-diffusion technique is applied to control the surface carbon content and distribution in the case. In the first boost step, the flow of the carburizing gas has to be sufficient to saturate the austenite, while avoiding soot deposition and formation of massive carbides. To accomplish this goal, the proper gas flow rate has to be calculated. In the case of P.M. parts, more carbon can be absorbed by the part's surface because of the additional internal surface area created by pores present in the carburized case. This amount will depend on the density of the part, the densification grade of the surface layer and the stage of the surface. "as machined" or "as sintered". It is believed that enhanced gas diffusion after initial evacuation of the P.M. parts leads to faster carburization from within the pores, especially when pores are open . surface "as sintered" and interconnected . low density. A serious problem with vacuum carburizing is delivery of the carbon in a uniform manner to the work pieces. This led to the development of the different methods of carburizing gas circulation such as the pulse/pump method or the pulse/pause technique applied in SECO/WARWICK's $VacCarb^{TM}$ Technology. In both cases, each pressure change may deliver fresh carburizing atmosphere into the pores and leads to faster carburization from within the pores. Since today's control of vacuum carburizing is based largely on empirical results, presented experiments may lead to better understanding and improved control of the process.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.94-103
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• 2023

The effects of carburizing pressure and gas ratio on vacuum carburizing properties (uniformity and surface characteristics) have been studied through the analyses of carbon concentration, hardness, surface color, surface roughness and type of carbon bonding. AISI 4115 steel specimens were carburized with various pressures (1, 5, and 10 Torr) at different locations (P₁, P₂, P₃, P₄, P₅, and P₆) inside a furnace held at 950 ℃. Since the carburizing pressure represents the density of the carburizing gas, it plays an important role in improving the carburizing uniformity according to locations in the furnace. As the carburizing pressure increased, the carburizing uniformity according to the sample location was improved, but the surface of the carburized specimen was discolored due to the residual acetylene gas, which does not contribute to the carburizing reaction. Therefore, the carburizing uniformity and surface discoloration have been improved by injecting acetylene gas (carburizing gas) and nitrogen gas (non-reactive gas) in a specific ratio.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.231-237
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• 2004

Vacuum carburizing continues to gain acceptance as an alternative to atmosphere carburizing particularly in the car industry. The advantages of low-pressure carburization over atmospheric gas carburization is not only the creation of a surface entirely free of oxide and the environmentally friendly nature of these methods but also an improvement in deformation behaviour achieved by combining carburization with gas quenching, a reduction in batch times by increasing the carburization temperature, low gas and energy consumption and the prevention of soot to a large extent. In present study, an improved vacuum carburizing method is provided which is effective to deposit carbon in the surface of materials and to reduce cycle time. Also LPC process simulator was made to optimize to process controls parameters such as pulse/pause cycles of pressure pattern, temperature, carburizing time, diffusion time. The carburizing process was simulated by a diffusion calculation program, where as the model parameters are proposed with help the experimental results and allows the control of the carburizing process with good accordance to the practical results. Thus it can be concluded that LPC process control method based on the theoretical simulation and experimental datas appears to provide a reasonable tool for prototype LPC system.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.269-271
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• 2002

For the investigation of the hardness profiles and distortion characteristics of SCM415 steel, test pieces of SCM415 steel were gas and vacuum carburizing treated. The hardness profiles and distortion characteristics of vacuum and gas carburized SCM415 steel show different results. Vacuum carburizing can offer more improved hardness profiles than alternate methods of carburizing. Compared to alternate methods of carburizing, vacuum carburizing can offer improved mechanical properties and reduced cycle times of the process.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.211-216
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• 2010

Vacuum carburizing process is well known process for its environment-friendly, low-cost, high-quality characteristics, compared with gas carburizing. In this study, a research was carried out to develop a process of vacuum carburizing for essential components of automotive transmission that is difficult to control its distortion. As a result, vacuum carburizing process is superior to gas carburizing in terms of cost, environment and quality.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.179-183
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• 2007

The TiC layer was formed on Ti and Ti alloys by plasma carburizing method. The main experimental parameters for plasma car boozing were temperature and time. XRD, EDX, hardness test and corrosion test were employed to analyze the evolution and material properties of the layer. The preferred orientation of TiC layers is (220) at treated temperature of $700^{\circ}C\;and\;880^{\circ}C$ However, it is changed to (200) at temperature of $800^{\circ}C$ The thickness of carbide layer increase with increasing carburizing temperature. Highest hardness of hardened layer formed on CP-Ti was obtained at the carburizing condition of processing temperature $880^{\circ}C$ and processing time 1080min. The corrosion potential of carburizing specimen was higher than untreated CP-titanium, and corrosion potential increased as carburizing temperature and time increased. Thus the corrosion resistance of CP-Ti was greatly enhanced after plasma carburizing treatment.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.18-26
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• 2020

The effects of the carburizing process on the sliding wear behavior of SCM420H steel have been investigated. In particular, the effects of grain boundary corrosion observed in the surface layer after gas carburizing and the effects of hardness of the carburized cases after heat-treatment on the sliding wear properties were examined. Pin specimens carburized by two methods (gas carburizing and vacuum carburizing) were tempered at two temperatures of 180℃ and 400℃ after oil-quenching, respectively. Sliding wear tests were carried out against heattreated SKH51 steel at several sliding speeds using a pin-on-disc type test machine. As results, it can be found that there is no difference in the wear behavior between the pins carburized using two methods. This implies that the grain boundary corrosion that formed in the surface layer after gas carburizing has no effect on the sliding wear behavior of carburized SCM420H steels. Additionally, there is no significant difference in the wear behavior between carburized pins tempered at 400℃ and at 180℃ after oil-quenching, regardless of the carburizing method. This is because carburized pins tempered at 400℃ have a troostite structure, which exhibits higher tribochemical reactivity even though its hardness is lower than that of martensite structure. In this respect, it can be considered that good wear resistance of carburized cases is maintained at least until the effective case depth.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.272-280
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• 2021

The influence of acetylene flow rates on the carburizing behavior of an AISI 4115 steel in 1 ton-class mass production-type vacuum carburizing furnace has been studied through microstructure, carbon concentration, hardness analyses. The AISI 4115 steels were carburized with various flow rates (20, 32.7, 60 l/min) and locations in the furnace (top, center, bottom) at 950℃. The acetylene flow rate played an important role in controlling the carburizing properties of carburized samples, such as effective case depth and uniformity carburizing according to location in the furnace. At an acetylene flow rate of 20 l/min, the carburized samples had a shallow average hardened layer (0.645 mm) compared to the target hardening depth (1 mm) due to low carbon flux and spatial uniformity of carburization (17.8%) in the furnace. At a flow rate of 60 l/min, the carburized samples showed an average hardened layer (1.449 mm) deeper than the target hardening depth and had the spatial uniformity of carburization (98.8%). In particular, at a flow rate of 32.7 l/min, the carburized samples had an average hardened layer (1.13 mm) close to the target hardening depth and had the highest carburizing uniformity (99.1%). As a result, an appropriate flow rate of 32.7 l/min was derived to satisfy the target hardening depth and to have spatial uniform hardened layer in the furnace.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.24-31
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• 2015

In this study, a simulation was used to derive an optimal process of heat treatment with carburizing, and compared the derived result with SCr420HB helical gear in heat treatment with carburized quenching process about a change of the quenching method. The optimal carburizing process time is derived by the simulation with the theoretical time. The process has been performed by oil quenching and salt quenching method. Through the comparison of the results from the simulation(Hardness, effective case depth hardened by carburizing treatment and deformation) and the actual process, analyzed the error value of each quenching. And it verified the applicability of the simulation.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.78-84
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• 2005

The development of eco-friendly low pressure carburizing system with high pressure gas quenching (LPC_GQ, 500kg/charge) led to new stage in the fundamental case-hardening treatments. This is due to its ability to provide tighter tolerances on the carburizing process with notable reductions in distortion of the carburized and hardened workpiece. This system is characteristics by high uniformity and reproducibility of heat treatment results, absence of an intergranular oxidation layer, carburizing of complex shapes, reduced cycle time, low operating costs, simplified production, eliminate post washing, and reduced grinding costs.