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What is case hardening? by James Neo
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What is case hardening? |
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Business
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Case hardening at its most simple, is a way of forming an alloy with layers that have different properties that complement each other. The simple way of doing this is to take an iron with low carbon content and to pack it together with a high carbon content substance and then heat this package. This results in a migration of the carbon particles on to the surface of the iron and one achieves a homogenous component with a low carbon steel core and a high carbon steel surface. This gives the case hardened component the advantage of a tougher and stronger core that is soft, with the brittle but hard and wear resistant layer of high carbon steel around it. This gives it the best of both worlds. Today it is a modern metallurgical process but it has been around for hundreds of years and in earlier times it was performed as a simple method that involved packing metal implements with a mixture of ground up bones, hooves and charcoal inside a box, and heating it to a temperature below the melting point of the metal, but high enough to encourage diffusion of the carbon into the surface of the metal. The longer the heating was done the deeper the layer of high carbon steel would be on the metal object or component. The actual process through which this hardening takes place through the transfer of carbon is called carburizing and even though times have changed and bones and hooves are no longer used in the process, the basic technique and the underlying chemistry remain the same. Today the package of metal and carbon compounds that is heated is called a carburizing pack and other elements like nitrogen or boron may be used to achieve similar hardening processes called nitriding or boriding. Other kinds of case hardening include rapidly heating the metal part or component, sometimes even through the direct application of a flame like a blow torch and then cooling it down equally rapidly by dipping it in water. This also creates a layer of a hard crystalline carbon called martensite named after the German metallurgist who discovered this process. Find out much more about modern case hardening processes at http://www.heat-treat.co.uk.
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