Economic surface hardening by spray cooling

Abstract

Abstract The objective of the current investigation is a cost analysis of spray cooling based on the assessment of a machine-hour schedule. Here, a gear toothed component is used as an example which is induction hardened by means of the simultaneous dual frequency method and compared with conventional polymer quenching. By using hardness measurements and light-microscope examinations, it is demonstrated that comparable results are obtained for the induction hardening by employing spray cooling and those by polymer quenching. By investigating the influence of the spray's parameters on the hardness results, it was possible to draw inferences regarding the ratios of water to air pressures which lead to the desired hardness profiles. Estimating the costs of employing the two quenching methods have shown that the spray cooling is the more cost-effective of the two methods.