Comparative study of cooling curves with JIS silver specimens and alloy 600 specimens in relation to additive effectiveness

Abstract

Quenching- oil cooling curves obtained using a silver specimen (Japanese Industrial Standard K 2242) in-dicate three stages of cooling: vapor blanket, boiling, and convection. The temperatures at which the va-por blanket stage transfers to the boiling stage and the boiling stage transfers to the convection stage are referred to as the characteristic temperature (CT) and the convection- stage starting temperature (CSST), respectively. As the amounts of CT- improving additives are increased in increments of 1,2,3,6, 8, 10, and 12%, the CTs become higher, as clearly shown in the cooling curves obtained using a silver specimen. Likewise, as the amounts of CSST- improving additives are increased from 1 to 2 to 3%, the CSSTs become lower. These tendencies are similarly observed when using an Alloy 600 specimen, and both additives effectively improve cooling performance. However, in the case of 6,8,10, and 12% CT- im-proving additions, the differences among the additive concentrations are more pronounced in cooling curves obtained using the silver specimen than in those obtained using the Alloy 600 specimen. This can be attributed to the greater temperature sensitivity of the silver specimen thermocouple. In field quench-ing operations, such phenomena as insufficient hardness, inverse quench hardening, and unstable distor-tion can be remedied by additive treating. However, one must know what type of additive and how much to use. To this end, cooling curve measurement using silver specimens is useful.