Intensive Quenching of Limited- Hardenability Steels Saves Energy and Increases Service Life of Products

nikobasko www.itl.kiev.ua Abstract:- Low and limited hardenability steels and their new technology of heat treating in the paper are discussed. It has been shown that standard materials can be used as steels of limited hardenability. In this case there is no need to develop and produce new steel grades. It has been developed a method for the selection of optimal chemical composition of steel on the bases of the correlation DI/D. This allows providing the optimal distributions of residual stresses in the part, which is based on the similarity theory. The steel quenching process for limited-hardenability steels is performed on the basis of new patents. The wide use of limited-hardenability steels in the production may be reached if the appropriate industrial equipment is designed. New patented technologies related to the limited-hardenability steels save the energy resources, increase the service life of steel parts, and increase the labor productivity. For the production of small gears, one can use carburized steels reducing the carburizing time by 30 – 40 % at IQ process