Quenching of steel shaft in water containing a polymer

With some steels, it is necessary to rapidly cool a component in order to achieve martensitic transformation and the desired strength and hardness. Rapid cooling is associated with large temperature gradients, which in turn lead to the development of residual stress. The component will distort when the stresses are not uniform. The heterogeneous distribution of the stresses which lead to distortion can be induced either by a nonuniform shape or nonuniform cooling.

The movie is from experiments conducted by Professor M. Narazaki (Utsunomiya University, Japan) and reproduced with the permission of Dr K. Arimoto for teaching purposes.

It shows the quenching of a shaft with a keyway parallel to its length. The quench is in a water based polymer solution which enables a more uniform quench.
http://www.msm.cam.ac.uk/phase-trans/2007/HT/heat_transfer.html

Category:

Education

Tags:

• quenching of steel
• heat treatment
• metallurgy
• distortion
• polymer quench
• heat transfer
• residual stress