QUENCHING APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR HARDENING STEEL PARTS

摘要

A heat traited steel part and method and apparatus for making the part, comprising a microstructure having a packed martensitic structure with a plate or needle morphology. The heat traited steel part has higher levels of surface compressive stress, greater yield strength and greater tensile strength than steel parts produced by prior art quenching methods. The method includes heating thesteel part to a temperature in excess of the starting austenite temperature and then quenching the steel part in a quenching solution such that both film boiling and a self regulated thermal process is avoided throughout the quenching step.