Induction hardening of tool steel for heavily loaded aircraft engine components

Induction hardening is an innovative process allowing modification of the materials surface with more effective, cheaper and more reproducible way to compare with conventional hardening methods used in the aerospace industry. Unfortunately, high requirements and strict regulation concerning this branch of the industry force deep research allowing to obtain results that would be used for numerical modelling of the process. Only by this way one is able to start the industrial application of the process. The main scope of presented paper are results concerning investigation of microstructure evolution of tool steel after single-frequency induction hardening process. The specimens that aim in representing final industrial products (as heavily loaded gears), were heat- -treated with induction method and subjected to metallographic preparation, after which complex microstructure investigation was performed. The results obtained within the research will be a basis for numerical modelling of the process of induction hardening with potential to be introduced for the aviation industrial components