Modern gas quenching chambers supported by SimVaC Plus Hardness application

Vacuum carburizing field experience has demonstrated the need for a more precise control system that controls both case depth and automatically adjusts the furnace cooling rate to achieve a pre-determined Vickers hardness. The Institute of Materials Engineering in cooperation with SECO/WARWICK S.A. has developed the SimVaCPlus Hardness software program to determine carburized layer hardness profiles after gas quenching (cooling). When calculating the cooling speed requirements (cooling pressure), the program takes into consideration the furnace cooling characteristics, load (charge) configuration, part geometry and carburizing case profile. This program reduces the heat treating process design time, and limits or even eliminates, trial cycles. To design the cycle, the user can specify carbon surface concentration and effective case depth, and the software calculates the appropriate cycle. The SimVaCPlus Hardness component is an essential part of already commercialized SimVaC™ expert system that currently provides process advantages, but commercial users that use the SimVaCPlus Hardness program report significant improvements in furnace up-time and fewer errors in the initial heat-treat runs.