Carburising Heat Treatment Plant
Frankwen Forge has developed this facility as a response to the shortage in the South African market for Heat Treatment units capable of providing quality carburising on medium to extra-large gears and pinions.
The department has three Vertical Furnaces, electrically powered, with airtight retorts enabling accurate carburising atmosphere control.
- 2m Ø For Gear Rings
- 5.6m Long For Shafts
Additionally, there are three Temper furnaces, and an onsite Nitrogen Generator.
The Oil Quenching Tank is 60 000 litre tank with four agitation pumps for efficient cooling.
The process of carburising is ” Gas Carburising” in airtight Retorts with a mixture of Nitrogen, Methanol and Propane.
Furnaces are efficiently controlled by means of “Time, Temperature and Carbon Potential”, with permanent 24/7 recording with additional Test Pieces that will be quenched during the cycle for IN PROCESS case depth and case microstructure verification done at our adjoining SANAS accredited Laboratory.
We can accurately control case depths from 1.0mm to 5.0mm as per order Requirements.
We are geared up to carburise mainly 655M13 (EN36B) and 17CrNiMo6 materials.
It is a STRICT REQUIREMENT that all components brought to us for Carburise have previously been “High Temperature Normalised”, and Hydrogen free.
To summarize, this is the process we apply:
Step 01
Clean components and paint with stop off paint, on designated areas not requiring carburising, if so required by customers.
Step 02
Step 03
Decrease temperature to a predetermined temperature, equalise and Oil Quench.
Step 04
Temper and treat Cryogenic as and when required.
Step 05
- Hardness Testing components combined with Laboratory evaluation of Final Load Test Pieces.
- Case depth (Vickers Hardness graph profile.)
- Microstructure evaluation to determine the presence or lack of Carbides and/or Retained Austenite in the case structure.
Carburising Heat Treatment Plant
