Abstract
The main objective of the die heat treatment is to enhance the surface hardness and wear properties to extend the die service life. In this paper, a series of heat treatment experiments were conducted under different atmospheric conditions and length of treatment. Four austenitization atmospheric conditions were studied and although each heat treatment condition resulted in a different hardness profile, it did not affect the results for gas nitriding. All samples subjected to the nitriding process produced similar thicknesses of hardened case layer with average hardness of 70 - 72 HRC if the initial carbon content is not too low. It was shown that heat treatment without atmospheric control results in a lower hardness on the surface since the material was subjected to decarburization effect. The stainless steel foil wrapping around the sample and heat treatment in a vacuum furnace could restrict the decarburization process, while pack carburization heat treatment resulted in a carburization effect on the material.
Highlights
Heat treatment is an important process to the manufacturing industry, as the mechanical properties of metals can be improved in various ways during the process
To investigate the dynamics of the carbon content on the efficiency of case hardening by gas nitriding, the last part of the remaining treated samples were cut into three different pieces and subjected to once, twice or thrice times of nitriding case hardening process
The effect of the heat treatment atmosphere on H13 tool steel hardness has been investigated in this paper
Summary
Heat treatment is an important process to the manufacturing industry, as the mechanical properties of metals can be improved in various ways during the process This modification has significant influence on the performance of the die material [1]. In the world of aluminium extrusion industry, heat treatment of steel plays a major role on the determination of process efficiency and product quality This is because the die, which is made of tool steel, must undergo a series of heat treatment processes to obtain the desired properties. Arain [12] investigated the difference between the open atmosphere heat treatment and the vacuum heat treatment, Open Access His focus was mainly on the toughness behaviour and the effect of the atmosphere condition on the hardness of the H13 tool steel is still not clear. The heat treated samples would further be subjected to nitriding case hardening process with hardness profile being measured and compared
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