Alternating current potential drop for measuring the case depth of hardened steel

Abstract

Multi-frequency alternate current potential drop measurements have been made to estimate the case depth of case hardened steels using four point probes. The probes have four parallel sprung loaded pins in a line with a 1.5 mm separation between the contact points. A printed circuit board has been used to ensure the electrical connections to the pins are close to the surface of the material. This has the effect of reducing the mutual induction between driver and pick-up pins. The case depth is estimated from measurements at frequencies typically from 10 Hz to 10 kHz. The real part of the voltage phasor representing the AC potential drop is used to evaluate the case depth. The imaginary part includes the contribution due to mutual induction. To estimate the case depth of the hardened samples, the measured potential drop has been fitted to theoretical predictions. The substrate material properties of the hardened samples are extracted from multi-frequency potential drop measurements on non-harden samples. The estimated case hardened depths, deduced from potential drop measurements, are similar to those found from destructive measurements.