AEROSPACE HEAT TREAT TECHNICAL CONTENT

Reverse Engineering Aerospace Components: The Thought Process and Challenges

op-ed

You can take the aircraft apart, but can you put it back together? Reverse engineering, as anyone who has ever taken apart the TV remote will tell you, is more complicated than it first appears. It is, however, far from impossible. Learn the essential steps to reverse engineering, the role of heat treating, and the challenges the thought process presents.

For this Technical Tuesday piece, take a few minutes to read Jonathan McKay's, heat treat manager at Thomas Instrument, article drawn from Heat Treat Today's March Aerospace Heat Treating print edition. Heat Treat Today is always pleased to share pieces from one of our 40 Under 40 alumnus like Jonathan!

If you want to share ideas about the aerospace industry, our editors would be interested in featuring it online at www.heattreattoday.com. Email Bethany Leone at bethany@heattreattoday.com with your own contributions!


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Jonathan McKay
Heat Treat Manager at Thomas Instrument
Source: Thomas Instrument

Reverse engineering (RE) is the process of taking a component or design and dissecting it all the way down to the raw material. Reverse engineering can range from a singular component such as a piston or gear, to multiple components that make up an overall assembly such as an engine or mechanical actuator. This process allows engineers to analyze and gain an understanding of a component’s overall function and design through deductive reasoning. RE can range in the type of analysis, from geometric measurements and material analysis to electrical or mechanical testing. Each analysis reveals clues of how something can be reproduced. The idea of reverse engineering is to look beyond what’s in front of you and find the unexposed clues that can show why something was designed or possibly the thought process of the original designer.

Reverse engineering typically happens through a third-party manufacturer usually not affiliated with the original equipment manufacturer (OEM). Often this is done because the original manufacturer no longer supports the product, or the original design is outdated and needs to be modernized to improve efficiency, functionality, or life expectancy. To put this in perspective, the U.S. Airforce received its first B-1 Bomber in 1984. Since then, over 100 aircrafts have been delivered. After nearly 50 years the aircraft is still flying, but many OEM manufacturers have moved on to newer programs, thus allocating their capabilities and capacity towards the present and future market demands. This creates a market for fabrication of replacement components and assemblies to support aging platforms. In most cases, the OEM’s retain proprietary data thus creating a need for RE processing.

"[T]he U.S. Airforce received its first B-1 Bomber in 1984.
Source: Unsplash.com/midkiffaries

With aerospace products in particular and specifically aging aircrafts, one will encounter obsolescence issues. The goal is to maintain the aircraft with replacement parts that conform to all form, fit, and function requirements while also assuring they have proper life expectancy with respect to maintenance cycles. With this in mind, you typically work with low volume production and invest more time into the design and planning phase of the process. When engaged in this process, it is critical that one understands and implements a fabrication plan that will yield a product that is equivalent or better than that of the OEM. Some engineers would say “Well, let’s make it bigger and better,” but with aerospace components this is not always the case. Typically, the main focus is to replicate the original design intent to the best of your ability because you have a specific footprint and weight to maintain as well as functionality. The exchangeability of the original design and RE design is key. The reverse engineered product needs to possess the same functional and physical characteristics and be equivalent in the performance, reliability, and maintainability. This allows both items to be exchanged without concern for fi t, performance, or alterations to its adjoining component(s).

Another key point in RE processing could be to limit long lead phases by minimizing the need for additional qualification testing where possible. As plating, heat treat, or materials begin to deviate from the initial design, you must consider requalification testing to prove those changes are not detrimental to the application and do not cause more harm than good. Sometimes engineers create features within a design that are meant to be a weak point; this prevents a more critical component from breaking or being destroyed. When you begin to make deviations, it may push the weak point closer to the critical component.

While there are certainly many steps to RE, the essential steps include:

  1. Collect as much data as possible from an external standpoint without destroying or disassembling; i.e., note the overall measurements, orientation, special features, electrical or mechanical properties, etc. It is also a good idea to analyze mating components and/or the system in which the component is utilized. Mating parts are a big part of the discovery; the mating parts can help determine what alternate materials, plating, heat treat, or finishes can be used.
  2. Start creating preliminary drawings with detailed dimensions, notes, and features that were inspected from Step 1.
  3. Slowly disassemble the part (if an assembly) and inspect key features and create preliminary drawings for sub-assembly components. In some cases, it helps to reassemble the product to ensure an understanding of how it goes back together in order to optimize the assembly process once new components are manufactured.
  4. Evaluate the product(s). Conduct material analysis to acquire chemical and mechanical property data. This will aid in defining the appropriate layout for machining, material conditioning (i.e., heat treatment), external finishes/coatings, etc.

While the design and planning phase may pose some challenges, the more critical challenges that occur during reverse engineering are in the execution of the manufacturing, assembly, and qualification testing. To elaborate, once you begin machining and processing components, there may be special methods of manufacturing that require discovery because standard methods may not have worked when the OEM produced it. When this happens, you go back and forth on updating and fine-tuning the process plans, fixturing, programs, etc. Sometimes this means scrapping parts and starting over or validating if parts are still usable for prototyping. Along the same lines, when the process progresses into the assembly and testing phase, engineers typically discover variability, errors, or weak points that require adjustments. In those cases, the engineer’s drawings must be revised. A large percentage of these issues can be limited through experience with similar components or assemblies, but in most cases, there is a lot of analysis and some trial-and error involved in the manufacturing, assembly, and testing phase that is not apparent upon initial RE processing.

References:

  1. Boeing. “The Bone.” https://www. boeing.com/defense/b-1b-bomber/
  2. DLA. “Master List of Technical and Quality Requirements Version 14.”
  3. MIL-STD-280A. “Handbook for definitions of item levels, item exchangeability, models, and related terms.”
  4. DOD Washington, D.C. 20301.

Special thanks to David V. Jones and Thomas R. Blackburn IV at Thomas Instrument for their input on this topic.

About the Author:

Jonathan McKay is a mechanical engineer at Thomas Instrument, a company specializing in reverse engineering critical aerospace components. At the company, he is manning the establishment of heat treat operations, has created procedures and process plans for Thomas Instrument to be an approved heat treater for an aerospace prime, and has attained Nadcap accreditation for heat treat.

Contact him at Jonathan.mckay@thomasinstrument.com


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Vacuum Furnaces: Origin, Theory, and Parts

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Vacuum furnaces are widely used in the aerospace and automotive industries. These furnaces are used for multiple processes including brazing, aging, and solution heat treating for countless materials. Typically, vacuum furnaces are utilized to ensure a lack of oxidation/contamination during heat treatment. This article will talk about the origins, theory, and main parts of vacuum technology and how it is used in both aerospace and automotive industries.

This Technical Tuesday feature was written by Jason Schulze, director of technical services at Conrad Kacsik Instrument Systems, Inc., and was first published in Heat Treat Today's December 2022 print edition.


A Brief History

Vacuum furnaces began to be used in the 1930s for annealing and melting titanium sponge materials. Early vacuum furnaces were hot wall vacuum furnaces, not cold wall vacuum furnaces like we use today. Additionally, most early vacuum furnaces did not utilize diffusion pumps.

Vacuum Heat Treat Theory

Jason Schulze Director of Technical Services Conrad Kacsik Instrument Systems, Inc.

Vacuum technology includes vacuum pumping systems which enable the vessel to be pulled down to different stages through the process. Degrees of vacuum level are expressed opposite of pressure levels: high vacuum means low pressure. In common usage, the levels shown below in Figure 1 correspond to the recommendations of the American Vacuum Society Standards Committee.

Vacuum level will modify vapor pressure in a given material. The vapor pressure of a material is that pressure exerted at a given temperature when a material is in equilibrium with its own vapor. Vapor pressure is a function of both the material and the temperature. Chromium, at 760 torr, has a vapor pressure of ~4,031°F. At 10¯5, the vapor pressure is ~2,201°F. This may cause potential process challenges when processing certain materials in the furnace. As an example, consider a 4-point temperature uniformity survey processed at 1000°F, 1500°F, 1800°F, and 2250°F. This type of TUS will typically take 6-8 hours and, as the furnace heats up through the test temperatures, vacuum readings will most likely increase to a greater vacuum level. If expendable Type K thermocouples are used, there is a fair chance that, at high readings, you may begin to have test thermocouple failure due to vapor pressure.

Figure 1. Vacuum levels corresponding to the recommendations of the American Vacuum Society Standards Committee
Source: Jason Schulze, Conrad Kacsik Instrument Systems, Inc.

Vacuum Furnace Pumping System

Vacuum heat treating is designed to eliminate contact between the product being heat treated and oxidizing elements. This is achieved through the elimination of an atmosphere as the vacuum pumps engage and pulls a vacuum on the vessel. Vacuum furnaces have several stages to the pumping system that must work in sequence to achieve the desired vacuum level. In this section we will examine those states as well as potential troubleshooting methods to identify when one or more of those stages contributes to failure in the system.

Vacuum furnaces have several stages to the pumping system that must work in sequence to achieve the desired vacuum level. Each pump within the system has the capability to pull different vacuum levels. These pumps work in conjunction with each other (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Vacuum pumps work in conjunction with one another
Source: Jason Schulze, Conrad Kacsik Instrument Systems, Inc.

The mechanical pump is the initial stage of vacuum. This pump may pull from 105 to 10. At pressures below 20 torr the efficiency of a mechanical pump begins to decline. This is when the booster pump is initiated.

The booster pump has two double-lobe impellers mounted on parallel shafts which rotate in opposite directions (see Figure 3).

Figure 3. Booster pump positions
Source: Jason Schulze, Conrad Kacsik Instrument Systems, Inc.

The diffusion pump (Figure 4) is activated into the pumping system between 10 and 1 microns. The diffusion pump allows the system to pump down to high vacuum and lower. The diffusion pump has no moving parts.

Figure 4. Diffusion Pump
Source: Jason Schulze, Conrad Kacsik Instrument Systems, Inc.

The pump works based on the vaporization of the oil, condensation as it falls, and the trapping and extraction of gas molecules through the pumping system.

Image 1. Holding Pump
Source: Jason Schulze, Conrad Kacsik Instrument Systems, Inc.

The holding pump (Image 1) creates greater pressure within the fore-line to ensure that, when the crossover valve between the mechanical and diffusion pump is activated, the oil within the diffusion pump will not escape into the vessel.

Vacuum Furnace Hot Zone Design

The hot zone within a vacuum furnace is where the heating takes place. The hot zone is simply an insulated chamber that is suspended away from the inner cold wall. Vacuum itself is a good insulator so the space between the cold wall and hot zone ensures the flow of heat from the inside to the outside of the furnace can be reduced. There are two types of vacuum furnace hot zones used: insulated (Image 2) and radiation style (Image 3).

The two most common heat shielding materials are molybdenum and graphite. Both have advantages and disadvantages. Below is a comparison (Tables 1 and 2).

Table 1
Source: Jason Schulze, Conrad Kacsik Instrument Systems, Inc.
Table 2
Source: Jason Schulze, Conrad Kacsik Instrument Systems, Inc.

Vacuum Furnace Quenching System

Quenching is defined as the rapid cooling of a metal to obtain desired properties. Different alloys may require different quenching rates to achieve the properties required. Vacuum furnaces use inert gas to quench when quenching is required. As the gas passes over the load, it absorbs the heat which then exits the chamber and travels through quenching piping which cools the gas. The cooled gas is then drawn back into the chamber to repeat the process (see Figure 5).

Figure 5.Diagram of gas quenching
Source: Jason Schulze, Conrad Kacsik Instrument Systems, Inc.

Vacuum Furnace Trouble Shooting

In Table 3 are some helpful suggestions with regard to problems processors may have.

Table 3
Source: Jason Schulze, Conrad Kacsik Instrument Systems, Inc.

Summary

Vacuum furnaces are an essential piece of equipment when materials need to be kept free of contamination. However, there are times when this equipment may not be necessary, and is therefore considered cost prohibitive, although this is something each processor must research. This article is meant to merely touch on vacuum technology and its uses. For additional and more in-depth information regarding vacuum furnaces, I recommend a technical book called Steel Heat Treatment, edited by George E. Totten.

About the Author: Jason Schulze is the director of technical services at Conrad Kacsik Instrument Systems, Inc. As a metallurgical engineer with over 20 years in aerospace, he assists potential and existing Nadcap suppliers in conformance as well as metallurgical consulting. He is contracted by eQuaLearn to teach multiple PRI courses, including pyrometry, RCCA, and Checklists Review for heat treat.

Contact Jason at jschulze@kacsik.com
website: www.kacsik.com


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AMS2750F Review: Calibration Process Instrumentation

Source: TAV Vacuum Furnaces

Heat treat specifications can be tiresome to stay up-to-date on. So it’s great when we find digestible content on AMS2750F to share with you.

In today’s best of the web article, you’ll be able to review the 4 new requirements for process instrumentation and what 18 pieces of information must always be reported in the calibration certificate.

An excerpt:

“The recording tools used on heat treatment plants should not be used to record TUS or SAT sensor temperatures unless it can be demonstrated that the recording channels of the TUS and/or SAT sensors of an integrated system are separated from the recording system of the heat treatment furnace and also meet the requirements of the field test instrument.”

Read more: “AMS2750F Pyrometric Requirements for Heat Treatments: Calibration Process Instrumentation

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Heat Treat Radio #64: Thermocouple 101 with John Niggle, Pelican Wire (Part 3 of 3)

Heat Treat Today publisher Doug Glenn wraps up this three-part series with Pelican Wire experts by talking with John Niggle from Pelican Wire about thermocouple insulation types and considerations.

The first two episodes cover the history, types, vocabulary, standards, and other basics of understanding how thermocouples work. Listen to the previous episodes of the series here.

Below, you can either listen to the podcast by clicking on the audio play button, or you can read an edited transcript.



The following transcript has been edited for your reading enjoyment.

Doug Glenn (DG):  Welcome to Heat Treat Radio!

John Niggle (JN):  Yes, it's good to see you again, Doug.  I know we've run into each other a couple of times out there in the field.  I'm looking forward to having the opportunity to do all of this stuff in person again.

DG:  It will be nice.  Before we hit the record button, we were talking about shows this fall and hoping that they happen because you, like I, are ready to get out and go.

You are the business development manager for Pelican Wire.  If you don't mind, give us just a little bit of background about you and about your experience in the whole thermocouple world.

Pelican Wire headquarters

JN:  Sure, absolutely.  As you said, I am the business development manager at Pelican Wire.  I've been at Pelican since 2013 so we're working out my eighth year here.  I'm a career industrial sales representative.  I do have previous experience also, actually, in the process instrumentation industry.  Way back when, before I even knew how to spell thermocouples, I was selling that stuff when I first got out of college.  My career has, sort of, gone full circle, let's say.

DG:  Very nice.  Well, you've got plenty of years of experience, which is great.  We've had two previous episodes with your colleague, Ed Valykeo, and we covered a good bit of stuff.  We covered a lot of basics in the first episode.  We covered standardization, and things of that sort, in the second episode.  I want to encourage any listeners who haven't listened to those episodes, feel free to go back, Google “Heat Treat Radio and search for “Pelican Wire” and listen to episodes 1 and 2.

John, you and I want to move forward.  I'm always kind of curious about this question:  From your perspective, with your experience, why do we use thermocouples?  Let's talk about what they are and why we use them.

JN:  First of all, we have to assume that somebody is trying to measure the temperature of some sort of a process- a process or an event of some kind.  That's basically what they're trying to do.  Compared to other devices like RTDs, bimetal thermometers, liquid expansion state change devices and so forth, thermocouples are robust, they're inexpensive; they're repeatability, they're ease of use and size  -- all of those factors lead them to be more widely used than another sort of thermal measurement device of any kind.  It is the preferred method.

On top of that, I mentioned the expense part.  Because they're relatively inexpensive, there are certain industries, the heat treat industry and smelting industry, for example, consider these as, actually, consumable or disposable.  So, the cost factors in significantly in the industry that we're talking about here.

DG:  I live in western Pennsylvania and the town where my wife grew up, there was an old Leeds and Northrup manufacturing plant.  I believe they made the consumable thermocouples for melt shops.  You would, basically, throw the thermocouple in and it would melt quickly but it would give you a response during that time.

CLICK to Listen!

JN:  Right.  And, as I mentioned earlier, the response factor is important, or that's one of the factors considered, when people are looking at thermocouple wire.  And, you're correct, Ed Valykeo, as you mentioned, has 40 years of experience in the industry and has seen exactly the same sort of thing that you're talking about where people will just tack weld it onto something that gets thrown into a furnace or it gets thrown into a melting pot or something like that, and they're looking for that instantaneous temperature.

If you don't mind, I'll tell you that we've done some work, actually, in the aerospace industry and we had a customer that we sold significant, literally miles, of thermocouple wire to (when I say aerospace, it was specifically for space exploration) and this was because of whatever we had done with the insulation.  I can't tell you, because it was before my time, but this is what was relayed to me- they were able to get another 3 - 4 seconds of temperature measurement out of that wire.  That critical, extra data for them made all the difference in the world.

DG:  We're going to get to the insulation part which should be interesting.  You won't have to tell us any trade secrets, but we are headed in that direction anyhow.

So, different types of thermocouples.  Again, just a review question for us.  Why use them?  Why the different types and why are we using different types?

JN:  Forgive me, Doug, and the rest of the audience, for that matter, if I end of repeating some of the things that came out in the previous episode.  Basically, when you're talking about thermocouples, there are the two chemistries; for lack of a better term, you have “base” and “noble” metals.  The base metals are really the metals that we focus on at Pelican.  The noble metals are the more expensive ones- rare earth metals, tungsten, titanium, platinum and all those sorts of things that people spend exorbitant amounts of money on.  There are purposes for those, but, typically, what you're going to see in the heat treat industry, in particular, you're going to see a lot of the base metals.

I like to say that, truly, the 20 gauge K, in particular, is the 800 pound gorilla in the room.  It's almost considered, and I think it would be by people in the industry, a commodity.  There are untold miles of that wire that are used in the heat treating and smelting industry.  K is used, really, because of the temperature range.  It fits in well with what people do in the heat treating industry.  It is good for temperatures from zero up to around 1260 C.  It's inexpensive, it covers the ranges that those people are looking for, and, again, it's the 800 pound gorilla in the room when it comes to temperature measurement in the heat treating industry.

Click to read the Heat Treat Today Original Content article on thermocouples.

The other types such as J comes up periodically, particularly if you're looking at lower temperature ranges.  You won't see it quite as often in the heat treating industry.  You will see it somewhat, but not to the degree that you would K.  The J thermocouple wire has an iron leg so it does oxidize and you need to be careful about that sort of thing.  Type T thermocouple wire has a narrower range.  It has very good response times in cryogenic and cold temperature applications.  The higher, upper end of type T thermocouple wire, typically, wouldn't be of terrible interest to the audience that we're involved with here, for the most part, because the upper ends around 370 to 400 C degrees, in lab environments; that's where it's going to be the most popular.

There is also type E.  It's a higher temperature, as well.  Response time.  Broader range is a little bit better than K at lower temperature ranges.  An interesting one is type N that you will see fairly often in the heat treating industry.  For those people not familiar with type N, it is different alloys than type K.  It covers virtually the same temperature range that type K does and will, actually, have less drift than type K.  It is more expensive because of the alloys that it is made of, but, again, if you're interested in less drift, then type N is worth looking at.  It hasn't quite caught on in the US the way it has in, say, Europe, in particular, and that really has to do with the infrastructure of the instrumentation.  People have instrumentation that is either calibrated for K or J or something like that.  Now, there is instrumentation out there, now, that would use K and N both, so we may see more, particularly, in the aerospace industry I would think it would become more and more popular.

DG:  That's helpful.  It's always good to hear those things over again.

How about the parameters and/or the factors that need to be considered when you're constructing the wire to start with?  What do we need to be worried about in that area?

JN:  I don't know if I like the word “worried” exactly, Doug.  It's more, what do we need to think about?  What do we need to be concerned about?  Besides the metallurgy that we just talked about, we need to think in terms of what the sensor is actually going to look like.  Is it just the wire?  Thermocouple wire, by itself, can be a thermocouple; that's it, without any protection or anything like that.

As I mentioned earlier, you can tack weld it to an ingot, or something like that, and there you go.  You don't have any probe, there is no thermal well to protect it or anything like that.  But, what we do need to think about, then, is the process that it's going to be involved in.  Where is it going to be used?  Is it going to see an environment where there is a flow.  Is it going to see an environment where somehow the thermocouple wire can become damaged?  In that case, then, we're headed in the direction of talking about what our customers are interested in.  And for a customer for Pelican Wire, we're mainly talking about people who actually assemble thermocouples – they make the connections, they have the molds and all that sort of thing.

To be clear, Pelican Wire just makes wire.  And, again, the thermocouple wire can be used as a thermocouple, but a tremendous amount of wire is actually connected to some sort of a sensor or a probe, as I said, and is protected in a thermal well or something along those lines.

"But, what we do need to think about, then, is the process that it's going to be involved in.  Where is it going to be used?  Is it going to see an environment where there is a flow.  Is it going to see an environment where somehow the thermocouple wire can become damaged?  In that case, then, we're headed in the direction of talking about what our customers are interested in."

John Niggle

DG:  Do we also have to be concerned with oxidizing, carburizing atmospheres, corrosive atmospheres?  Is that, also, something that we need to be aware of?

JN:  Absolutely.  And that is one of the reasons you will see a probe thermocouple is because the wire is protected from that atmosphere.  Nearly all of the wires that we talked about would be affected, particularly, in say, like a sulfurous environment; it would be subject to corrosion, oxidation and something along those lines.

Other factors, of course, are the accuracy and how much space we have.  Believe it or not, if it's going to go into a small orifice, then we need to think about what the age size is going to look like.  And then the environment:  Is it going to be abrasive?  Is there movement?  Is there some sort of braiding motion that could wear a hole in the wire in the insulation and so forth?  There are a lot of things to think about.

DG:  And, it would probably be a good idea, especially if our heat treat people are running anything outside of the norm, regardless of what it is, whether it be atmosphere, configuration, fixturing, if there is anything outside the norm, they would probably be wise to mention it to the thermocouple wire and/or thermocouple probe manufacturer and make sure that they know so that you guys can get help get the right thing on there in their furnace.

JN:  Yes, absolutely.  At the end of the day, we work with this every day.  We have design engineers on staff who can assist with technical questions and so forth and, of course, our customers, and the actual thermal wire assembly people, this is what they do every day of the week.

“I'll tell you that we've done some work, actually, in the aerospace industry and we had a customer that we sold significant, literally miles, of thermocouple wire to (when I say aerospace, it was specifically for space exploration) and this was because of whatever we had done with the insulation.”

DG:  Let's talk about something a little bit new, I guess, to our conversation here in this 3-part series, and that is the insulation that's going to go around these wires.  Can you tell us what are the different types of insulations and what are the advantages and/or disadvantages of each, and why would we be using them?

JN:  I'll break it down into, what I would call, the four basic categories.  That would be an extruded insulation, insulations that are tapes, fiberglass insulations that are routinely worked with and then, of course, high temp textiles.  High temp textiles, in particular, would be of interest to the audience here in the heat treat metallurgy world.

Extruded insulations can be a variety of thermoplastics.  A term that, I think, Ed has probably mentioned before and we've talked about before is extension grade wire.  That typically has a PVC insulation on it and the reason PVC works for that is that it's cheap and extension grade wire, typically, does not see the sorts of high temp environments that you're going to see in processes.  It's really a signal wire that takes the signal from the probe or from the sensor to the process control device.

DG:  So what kind of temperature tolerances can the extruded wire handle?  Are we talking 300, 400 degrees?  I guess you talk C, I talk F.

Teflon frying pan

JN:  We talk whatever language our customer likes to talk, but we do talk C quite a bit.  So, PVC is quite low, it's in the 200s F.  But, when you're looking at fluoropolymer insulations (and Pelican is really a high temp house, so we focus on the higher temp insulations) you have FEP and PFA, those are in the 200s.  PFA actually goes up to 260.  So, you can see, it's probably not suitable for heat treating applications, smelting and that sort of thing.  The advantages to those compounds would be that you're going to have abrasion resistance.  Think about your Teflon frying pan: it's slick, it's smooth.  So, if you're in an environment where there is some movement, it will be good for that.  And, of course, it will have excellent moisture resistance and chemical resistance.  Those would be the advantages to the extruded wire.  The other advantage would be, because you'll have a thinner wall than you will with the other insulations, you'll have some more flexibility.  So, if you have a type N radius, you can go around a corner easily.

The next step up, in terms of temperature resistance, would be the tapes.  Basically, in that area, you're looking at PTFE tape, mica take and capped-on tape or polyamide tape.  Those will give you slightly higher heat resistances.  The mica, in particular, would give you more.  (Mica, as a matter of fact, is used as a supplement to the PTFE to give it even higher heat resistance.)  Mica will go up to 500 C, PTFE and the polyamides match, in terms of heat resistance, the extruder products around 260.  What they do give you, again if you use the tapes, is the heat resistance you're looking for, some abrasion resistance and the moisture resistance.  You'll have less flexibility because those products are stiffer, but they're also going to be a little bit lighter weight unless you incorporate the mica into it.  Then, when you do that, you're going to end up with an even stiffer wire and it will be a little bit heavier, and all those will be larger in diameter than an extruded wire.  If you look at an environment where you need to poke the wire through a hole and that hole is an eighth of an inch, you need to think really hard if what you're doing is going to work.

DG:  So you've got extruded and you've got tapes.

JN:  The next step after that would be fiberglass.  In the case of fiberglass, you have E glass and S glass.  Of the two, E glass would  have the lower temperature resistance and you're looking at 482 C on the high end.  For S glass, you're up to 704 C.  Now you're starting to talk about insulations that you will see in the heat treat environment; it's quite common, especially on the S glass side where you're looking at the 704, you'll see a lot of people that need 500 C for whatever reason.  The advantage, obviously, to the glass, as I mentioned, is the higher heat resistance.

There are disadvantages.  Think about fiberglass for a minute.  We actually have to saturate the wire to keep it from fraying without it ever really experiencing any abuse.  If we don't saturate it, then the wire can fray, and you can get fiberglass in your fingers even, which is unpleasant.  So, fiberglass has some disadvantages like that.  If you put it in an environment where there is some movement, abrasion, vibration or something like that, it can be problematic.  Also, it's going to be stiffer because it's saturated, typically.  Sometimes you'll even see those saturants even cause problems in a heat treat environment where, if it gets too hot, the saturant can leave an ash behind.  You're going to lose flexibility, as I said.  You're not going to have the abrasion resistance, the chemical resistance or the moisture resistance that you're going to get from an extruded product.

The other one that we see, again, literally miles and miles and miles of, in the heat treat world would be what's called Refrosil and Nextel, (those are both, actually, trade names).  We're talking about vitreous silica and ceramic.  Again, those are, what we call, high temp textiles.  Now, you're looking at products that are in the 1200 C range.  Ceramic goes up to 1204, vitreous silica is in the 870's.  Again, there are some of the same disadvantages with those that you're going to have with glass.  It's going to be somewhat fragile.  We don't saturate those because the saturants are not going to hold up in the environments that they're going to be placed into, so you would have that ash residue left.

Again, it will be stiff, it will be even larger in diameter than the fiberglass, which is larger than tape which is larger than the extruder products.  Of course, you're not going to have the abrasion resistance, the moisture resistance or the chemical resistance.  But it does protect the wire in those elevated temperature environments that are critical for the heat treating industry.

DG:  Let's back up a bit.  I want to understand something you said.  You said, in the fiberglass, it is saturated and in the textiles it's not.  I want to know what you mean by saturated.

JN:  It's either a solvent-based or a water-based saturant that is applied to the wire to protect it.  Think in terms of a varnish.  It would be like a protective coating.  Again, it just keeps the exterior of the wire, the bare wire, from being exposed.  It's a coating, but we call it a saturant.

DG:  High temperature textiles tend to be the stuff we're using, in the heat treat industry, probably most.

JN:  Yes.  Again, when I mentioned the 800 pound gorilla in the room, the 20-gauge K with the vitreous silica or the Refrosil would be an extremely popular product in the heat treating industry, absolutely.

DG:  Let me ask you a very, very fundamental question.  I'm curious of your answer to this.  Why do we insulate wires at all?  Is it done to protect from temperature or is it done simply to protect them from crossing with each other and grounding or shorting out?  Why do we insulate?

"I'll go back to something that I know Ed talked about: the Seebeck effect. You have this loop; if you don't have that loop, then you don't have anything. You don't have the EMF, the electromotive force, that you're looking for."

John Niggle

JN:  It is the second part.  When you look at any wire construction, the two singles have to be insulated from each other.  I'll go back to something that I know Ed talked about: the Seebeck effect.  You have this loop; if you don't have that loop, then you don't have anything.  You don't have the EMF, the electromotive force, that you're looking for.  We do make a wire that is not duplex, but, typically, what you're going to see is a wire that has two singles and then it's duplexed with an insulation over the top.  We do make a wire that the two singles are jacketed in parallel and then no jacket is placed over the top but that is for an application that wouldn't be suitable for the heat treat industry.

DG:  I asked that question, because for those who are unbaptized in this conversation, it's kind of interesting.  So, we're talking about insulation and we're doing a lot of conversation about temperature ranges and, for someone who wouldn't think so, they would say, "Well, that means you're insulating because of temperature."  But, really, the reason you're insulating wire is for electrical.  It's to keep them apart.  It's just how high of temperatures those insulations can handle, not that you're insulating the wire to keep them cool.  Right?

JN:  Absolutely not.

DG:  That may sound very basic, but there may be people that think that, so I want to get that on the table.

JN:  Most of the people in the audience are probably familiar with this already.  Typically, what happens is the wire is stripped so we have exposed ends.  And then those ends, as we mentioned earlier, can be tack welded onto something or they can just be out there.  The thermocouple world, by the way, is an incestuous world where we have customers, we kind of compete with those customers, some of our customers compete with others of our customers but then they buy supplies from each other.  You probably already know that from talking with other people in this industry.  At any rate, the wire is stripped and then it's either tack welded or it's connected to some sort of sensor or probe of some kind.

DG:  It's a tangled web, the whole thermocouple world.  You've got customers, yet you sell to certain suppliers who also sell to those customers.  It can be complicated!  But that's OK, we'll let you guys worry about that; we just want to make sure the thermocouples are good and we'll be in good shape.

Another question for you:  We talked about the process and a lot of different environments about what type of thermocouple you should use, but does the process being monitored influence the type of insulation that should be used?  Obviously, temperature is going to have an impact, but is there anything else?

JN:  Yes.  Let's circle back to what we talked about earlier just a little bit.  When you look at the process, you need to think of what is going to happen to that wire?  Is it going to see, first of all as you mentioned, the temperatures?  That is certainly important so that comes into play with the insulation.  But, we need to think about, Is there movement?  Is there going to be some abrasion?  Is there some sort of activity that could damage the wire somehow?  Then, we need to look at the chemicals, like we talked about.  Do we need some chemical resistance?  Do we need water resistance?  Is it going to be submersed in something?  Those things all need to be considered.

Again, as I mentioned earlier, the actual placement of the wire.  Does it need to be inserted in a hole?  At Pelican, we produce wire down to 40 and actually 44 gauge which, I think, will probably be stunning to most of the people in your audience because, again, 20-gauge K is what these people think about.  In the heat treating industry, what you see is they need a robust wire, something that's going to be able to handle those temperatures and a large conductor like that.

Another thing to think about, actually, is a bend radius.  Are you going to put the wire somewhere where it needs to go around a corner, around a bend?  Then, are you better off using a stranded wire?  A stranded wire is going to have more flexibility.  You can buy a 20-gauge stranded wire, you can buy 24-gauge, 28-gauge, 36-gauge.

DG:  Now, what do you mean by stranded?

JN:  Stranded wire would be instead of just one solid 20-gauge conductor, you have multiple strands that make up that 20-gauge.  But, if you think about it, multiple strands of wire will actually be more flexible.  You'll still get the same results, but it will be more flexible if you need to go around a corner or if you need to insert it into something.

DG:  It's almost like a braided wire as opposed to a solid.

JN:  Yes.  Now braiding is a little bit of a different process.  When we're talking about stranded wire, it's, basically, just spiral.  Braided is more crossed into each other, which, coincidentally, is the way that the fiberglass and the high temp textile insulations are made – those are actually braided.  And, by the way, I'll just toss this out, it's made on equipment that really hasn't changed since the ‘20s.  I'm not talking about the 2020s, I'm talking about the 1920s!  Rumor has it, some of that braiding equipment was, actually, designed by Thomas Edison.  I'm not sure if that's really true.  But that is the process used to apply the fiberglass and high temp textiles.

DG:  So, anything else as far as any other considerations we need to take into consideration when we're talking about choosing insulation?  If not, that's fine.

JN:  I think I covered them, Doug.

DG:  At Pelican Wire, your company, I know you guys deal with a broad number of markets, I'm sure, one of them being heat treat.  What do you see as any special demands or special concerns that are, maybe, unique or, at least, inherent in the heat treat market?

". . . what you see is insulations that are higher in temperature resistance, as well. In some cases, as I mentioned earlier, in ovens where there is a saturant involved, we could see ash. Some people ask that saturant not be applied to the fiberglass and that's certainly something that can be done."

John Niggle

JN:  For the heat treat market, again, I'll go back to what I said earlier, we see a lot of 20-gauge K used.  It's because of the higher heat requirements, the higher heat that is involved with the processes of heat treating.  Secondly, what you see is insulations that are higher in temperature resistance, as well.  In some cases, as I mentioned earlier, in ovens where there is a saturant involved, we could see ash.  Some people ask that saturant not be applied to the fiberglass and that's certainly something that can be done.

Sometimes we're even asked to not put tracers.  We go back to what we talked about earlier with the metallurgy- you have two legs, a positive and a negative leg.  Well, how do those end users tell those legs apart if they look similar, if they're an alloy of some kind?  So, we put a tracer wire in there so you have a red leg and a yellow leg, in the case of type K, or sometimes you just have a red leg depending on what they ask for.  Those tracers can, actually, cause problems, too, if the ovens are hot enough and they are in there for long enough times.  We even have customers who ask us not to put tracers in their wire, for that matter.

Accuracy, of course, is extremely important.  I know that Ed, in a previous episode, talked about standard limits, special limits and all that sort of thing.  Typically, you're going to see special limits used in the heat treat industry and, in some cases, we're asked even for special calibration points.  In previous podcasts, I've heard you talk with other people about AMS2750 and how that comes into play.  It is extremely critical for the folks in the heat treating industry and something that clearly a thermocouple wire producer has to understand.

Episode 1 of 3 of AMS2750 series

DG:  Let's say you've got a customer that calls you and wants to talk about their thermocouple needs, let's say there is some sort of special need.  What would you suggest they have, in hand, when they call you?  What do you need to know from them to help you do a better job with their thermocouple needs?

JN:  Honestly, the first question we do ask is:  What temperature are you going to be running this at?  How hot are we going to be?  We, absolutely, need to know that.  That helps us narrow down the alloy that we might be looking at, whether it's type K, type J, type E, or whatever.  And then, of course, it's a natural thing to dial in the insulation after that.  Quite honestly, one of the things that frustrates me is when people say, "I need Teflon."  Well, OK.  Do you need FEP or do you need PFA?  Those are both fluoropolymers like Teflon is.  We need to talk about temperature resistance, so don't tell me you just need Teflon.  We do need some specifics when it comes to that sort of thing.  Again, we talked earlier about stranding and stranded wire.  Do you need some flexibility?  What gauge size do you think you need?  How robust does this wire need to be?  Those are some of the key factors we need to know about.

DG:  Let's say, for example, somebody does want to get a hold of you or Ed, your colleague who was on the first two episodes, how is best to do that?  How can we get a hold of Pelican Wire?

JN:  Our web address is www.pelicanwire.com, about a simple as it possibly gets.  Our email addresses are, actually, quite simple, as well.  If anybody wants to email me, it's jniggle@pelicanwire.com.  You can contact me directly, if you want to, or we have a sales inbox and that is simply sales@pelicanwire.com.  We do have a phone number, but it seems a lot of people don't care about phone numbers as much these days.  But the number is 239-597-8555.

DG:  I have one, unrelated, question for you that I know the world is wanting to know:  How is it having a company in Naples, Florida, that's what I want to know?

JN:  I'll tell you what, Doug, the answer today will be different than the answer in October or December.  It's actually quite nice.  We moved down here 8 years ago in 2013.  I moved from the Midwest and didn't really feature myself owning palm trees, but I own palm trees, which is pretty darn cool.  We are, as the crow flies, about 3 miles from the water, where I live anyhow, 20 minutes by car.  Our office and manufacturing facility are, actually, on the very edge of the everglades.  You can see the picture in the background behind me.  That's our building.  That's actually facing east.  That is a sunrise over the everglades.  We're on the very edge of the everglades.  There is a lake right next to our building and then, after that, it's everglades all the way over to Miami.  And, real quick, our weather pattern comes from the east.  It doesn't come from the Gulf.  This time of year, in the summer at about 3:00 in the afternoon, about the time that we're doing this call right now, a thunderstorm blows up and it comes from the east over the everglades and it moves to the west.  The trees blow that direction, you can see it coming.  It's interesting.  During the wintertime, I have to tell everyone, you'd probably be jealous, but it is truly paradise.

DG:  Yes!  I've been to Naples, ate at a nice restaurant down there, years ago, but it was very nice.

You guys are also employee-owned, right?

JN:  That's correct, yes.  The company is over 50 years old.  The founder of the company passed away in 2008 and, before he passed away, he converted the company to an employee-owned operation.  So, we've been employee-owned since 2008.  We've purchased a couple other companies since then that folded into, what we call, the Wire Experts Group.  Pelican Wire is part of that.  We have a sister company out in Colorado.  We bought another facility in Chicago and folded that into our company in Colorado.  So, yes, we're employee-owned and it works out really well for the employee owners, I'll tell you that much.

DG:  That's great.  John, it's been a pleasure talking with you.  Thanks for taking the time.  I appreciate your expertise.  Hopefully, we will see you out on the pavement somewhere in the real world.

JN:  I'll, actually, be seeing you at the heat treat show in about 3 weeks.

DG:  That's about right, yes.

JN:  Hopefully, some of the people that are listening we will see, as well.

Doug Glenn <br> Publisher <br> Heat Treat Today

Doug Glenn
Publisher
Heat Treat Today


To find other Heat Treat Radio episodes, go to www.heattreattoday.com/radio and look in the list of Heat Treat Radio episodes listed.

Heat Treat Radio #64: Thermocouple 101 with John Niggle, Pelican Wire (Part 3 of 3) Read More »

Fatigue Improvement for Gear Steels in Helicopter Powertrains, Phase 2

OC"A compressive surface stress can benefit bend fatigue performance by reducing the mean stress experienced during service, effectively offsetting the tensile stress generated by the cyclic loading conditions." In this Technical Tuesday by Justin Sims of DANTE Solutions, learn how a simulation program, funded by the U.S. Army, modeled the method of Intensive Quenching®.

This article covers Phase 2 of the project, a follow up to an article that was previously featured on Heat Treat Today. Check out more original content articles in this digital edition or other editions here.


Justin Sims
Lead Engineer
DANTE Solutions

Helicopter powertrain gearing can be subjected to tremendous loads during service. The high tensile loads experienced in the root of the gear tooth, combined with the cyclic loading conditions inherent in gear operation, can lead to cyclic bend fatigue failures. To improve cyclic bend fatigue performance, low alloy steels are often carburized and quenched. The combination of a high carbon case and low carbon core leads to increased strength and hardness in the carburized case, while maintaining a tough core. In this manner, the case resists wear and can carry a high load without fracture, while the core is able to absorb the energy imparted to it during operation. Besides the increased strength and hardness, the addition of carbon creates a chemical gradient from the surface of the component towards the core. The carbon gradient creates delayed martensite transformations, relative to the low carbon in the core, and is responsible for imparting residual compressive surface stress. A compressive surface stress can benefit bend fatigue performance by reducing the mean stress experienced during service, effectively offsetting the tensile stress generated by the cyclic loading condition

Since the timing of the transformation to martensite is the main driver in the generation of compressive residual surface stresses, it is possible, to some extent, to control the magnitude of the surface stress by changing the quenching process. Historically, transmission gears have been carburized and quenched in oil. However, as more and more attention is paid to improving part performance through processing techniques, other forms of quenching have become available that show promise in increasing surface compressive stresses, and thereby improving bend fatigue performance. Of particular interest, is a quenching method which utilizes high pressure, high velocity water to quench parts.

Source: DANTE Solutions
Table 1. Pyrowear 53 nominal chemistry.

Known as Intensive Quenching®, the method was developed by Dr. Nikolai Kobasko as an alternative means of quenching components to achieve deep residual surface compression and improve bend fatigue performance.1–3

The technology works by inducing a large temperature gradient from the surface to the core of the component. In non-carburized components, the process has been shown to provide an extremely rapid and uniform transformation to martensite in the surface layers, while the core remains austenitic. This creates a hard shell, under extreme compression. As the part continues to cool, the surface is pulled into an even deeper state of compression. As the core transforms, some compression is lost due to the expanding core, but the compression that remains is generally greater than that achieved by oil quenching.4–7

Source: DANTE Solutions
Figure 1. Gear CAD model (left) and actual test gear (right).

To evaluate the possibility of improving bend fatigue of helicopter transmission gears, a program was conceived to compare the bend fatigue performance of carburized gears quenched in oil versus carburized gears quenched using the Intensive Quenching process. Funded by the US Army, the project was comprised of two phases. Phase 1, described in a previous Heat Treat Today article, was a proof-of-concept phase, designed to prove that intensively quenched components could outperform oil quenched components in high cycle bend fatigue testing. Phase 2 then moved to actual transmission gear testing. DANTE heat treatment simulation was used extensively throughout the project to guide processing decisions and understand the mechanisms responsible for improved bend fatigue performance though the creation of residual surface compression. This article will examine Phase 2 of the project.

DANTE Solutions
Table 2. Test gear specifications.

Pyrowear 53 was the material of choice for the project, as it is used extensively in helicopter power transmission gearing. Table 1 lists the nominal alloy chemistry for Pyrowear 53, which is a low-carbon, carburizing grade of steel. Figure 1 shows a CAD model of the test gear (left) and a picture of an actual test gear (right); the actual test gear is copper plated to selectively carburize only the gear teeth. The gears were carburized as one batch, and then hardened and tempered to a tooth surface hardness of 59 HRC and a core hardness of 42 HRC. An oil quenching process was used to harden half of the gears and an Intensive Quenching process was used to harden the other half of the gears. Table 2 lists the dimensional specifications of the gear.

One benefit of using the Intensive Quenching process over a conventional oil quenching process is the development of high residual surface compression. Compressive surface stresses benefit fatigue performance by offsetting any tensile stress generated during loading, effectively reducing, or eliminating, the tensile load experienced by the material. Figure 2 compares the residual stress predicted by DANTE for the test gear subjected to an oil quenching process (top) and an Intensive Quenching process (bottom). It is clear that the Intensive Quenching process induces a greater magnitude of compression in the area of the tooth root, which is the location of most gear bending fatigue failures. The residual stresses present in the tooth flank appear equivalent between the two quenching processes, but the oil quenched component has higher tensile stresses under the carbon case. This could lead to problems should any inclusions or material defects be present in that location.

Source: DANTE Solutions
Figure 2. Residual stress prediction for test gear, comparing oil quench and Intensive Quench.

Figures 3 – 5 compare the residual stress profiles of the two gears at three gear tooth locations: flank, root-fillet, and root, respectively. The residual stress profiles for the two processes at the tooth flank, shown in Figure 3, are equivalent, as inferred from the contour plots shown in Figure 2. Both quenching processes generate a surface compressive stress of 275 MPa on the tooth flank. However, the residual stress profiles in the root area of the gear vary greatly between the two processes. Figure 4 shows the residual stress profile at the root-fillet, which is the location of the highest tensile stress during gear service. At this location, the rapid surface cooling afforded by the Intensive Quenching processes creates a large temperature gradient from the surface to the core, allowing more thermal shrinkage to occur after the surface transforms to martensite. The additional thermal shrinkage, combined with the concave geometry of the gear root area, creates additional compressive stresses in this area.

Source: DANTE Solutions
Figure 3. Residual stress versus depth prediction for test gear at point A, comparing oil quench and Intensive Quench.

Figure 4 shows that the Intensive Quenching process generated a compressive stress of 700 MPa on the surface of the root-fillet, while the oil quenched gear produced a 500 MPa compressive surface stress in this location. The intensively quenched gear also has a deeper layer of high compression, not rising above 600 MPa compression until after 1 mm below the surface. Figure 5 shows a similar trend for the root, but with an even larger difference between the two quenching processes, since the geometry is even more concave at this location. Again, the gear subjected to the Intensive Quenching process has high compression up to 1 mm under the surface and a compressive surface stress magnitude 300 MPa higher than the oil quenched gear at the root location. The modeling results indicate that the intensively quenched gears should outperform the oil quenched gears in bend fatigue given the increased surface compressive stress present.

Figure 4. Residual stress versus depth prediction for test gear at point B, comparing oil quench and Intensive Quench.

Figure 5. Residual stress versus depth prediction for test gear at point C, comparing oil quench and Intensive Quench.

All of the hardened gears were tested at the Gear Research Institute, located at Pennsylvania State University in State College, PA, using a servo-hydraulic testing machine with a specially designed fixture to apply a cyclic bending load to two teeth. A schematic of the fixture is shown in Figure 6. A load ratio of 0.1 was used for all fatigue tests to ensure the gear did not slip during testing by having a constant tensile load applied. The fatigue test was considered successful, defined as a runout, if the gear completed 107 cycles given a certain maximum load. The maximum bending stress, calculated for a stress-free initial condition, was used to compare the two processes.

Figure 6. Schematic of fatigue testing apparatus.

As previously mentioned, the effect of residual compressive stresses during tensile bend fatigue is to offset the tensile stress generated by the load. Figure 7 shows a DANTE model of the test gear subjected to oil quenching showing the residual stress from heat treatment (top) and the stress redistribution during the application of a 900 lb. load (bottom). Figure 8 shows the same conditions for the test gear subjected to the Intensive Quenching process. As can be seen from the two figures, in which the legend ranges are the same, there is substantially more compressive stress remaining in the root-fillet area of the gear subjected to the Intensive Quenching process when the load is applied. This means the effective stress experienced by the intensively quenched gear is less than that of the oil quenched gear, given an identical load.

Source: DANTE Solutions
Figure 7. Stress predictions for the oil quenched gear, showing the residual stress from heat treatment (top) and the stress change when a 900 lb. load is applied (bottom).

Source: DANTE Solutions
Figure 8. Stress predictions for the Intensive Quenched gear, showing the residual stress from heat treatment (top) and the stress change when a 900 lb. load is applied (bottom).

Figure 9 shows the residual stress profile from the surface at the root-fillet for both processes, in the unloaded and loaded conditions. From the plot, a load of 900 lb. generates a tensile stress of approximately 200 MPa, which is offset by the compressive residual stresses. With a 900 lb. load, neither gear sees any tensile stresses during loading, and thus, should runout during fatigue testing.

Source: DANTE Solutions
Figure 9. Comparison of predicted stresses versus depth for the oil quench and Intensive Quench gears in the unloaded (Initial) and loaded (Final) state.

Figure 10 shows the results of the fatigue testing. As expected, the gears subjected to the Intensive Quenching process have an increase in fatigue performance. The endurance limit of the intensively quenched gears is approximately equal to the difference in surface compression, though additional tests should be conducted to confirm this. Regardless, increasing the magnitude of surface compression through a process change can significantly improve fatigue performance of power transmission gearing.

Figure 10. S-N curves for the oil quench and Intensive Quench gears tested.

In conclusion, achieving higher residual surface compressive stresses during hardening of a carburized power transmission gear by way of a process change was shown to improve bend fatigue performance. This was confirmed by the company's simulations, which showed a significant increase in compressive surface and near-surface stresses when the gear was quenched using the Intensive Quenching process, as opposed to an oil quench. The cause of the increased compression was determined from simulations to be due to the combination of martensite formation in the surface layers of the gear and the accompanying thermal shrinkage of the austenitic core, which draws concave geometric features, such as a gear tooth root, into a higher state of compression. The large temperature gradient induced during the Intensive Quenching process is necessary to produce these conditions. Physical fatigue testing confirmed the simulation results, showing a significant improvement in fatigue performance for the gears quenched using the Intensive Quenching process. Accurate process simulation pointed to a heat treatment process change that could be used to achieve increased power density through a transmission as opposed to more expensive and time-consuming design changes.

 

  1. N. I. Kobasko and V. S. Morganyuk, “Numerical Study of Phase Changes, Current and Residual Stresses in Quenching Parts of Complex Configuration,” Proceedings of the 4th International Congress on Heat Treatment of Materials, Berlin, Germany, 1 (1985), 465-486.
  2. N. I. Kobasko, “Intensive Steel Quenching Methods. Theory and Technology of Quenching”, SpringerVerlag, New York, N.Y., 1992, 367-389.
  3.  N. I. Kobasko, “Method of Overcoming Self Deformation and Cracking During Quenching of Metal Parts,” Metallovedenie and Termicheskay Obrabotka Metallov (in Russian), 4 (1975), 12-16.
  4.  M. Hernandez et al., Residual Stress Measurements in Forced Convective Quenched Steel Bars by Means of Neutron Diffraction”, Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Quenching and the Control of Distortion, ASM, (1996), 203-214.
  5. M. A. Aronov, N. I. Kobasko, J. A. Powell, J. F. Wallace, and D. Schwam, “Practical Application of the Intensive Quenching Technology for Steel Parts,” Industrial Heating Magazine, April 1999, 59-63.
  6. A. M. Freborg, B. L. Ferguson, M. A. Aronov, N. I. Kobasko, and J. A. Powell, Intensive Quenching Theory and Application for Imparting High Residual Surface Compressive Stresses in Pressure Vessel Components,” Journal of Pressure Vessel Technology, 125 (2003), 188-194.
  7.  B. L. Ferguson, A. M. Freborg, and G. J. Petrus, “Comparison of Quenching Processes for Hardening a Coil Spring,” Advances in Surface Engineering, Metallurgy, Finishing and Wear, SAE (01) 1373, (2002).

About the Author: Justin Sims has been with DANTE Solutions for eight years and is an excellent analyst and expert modeler of steel heat treat processes using the company's software. His project work includes development, execution, and analysis of carburization, nitriding, and quench hardening simulations. For more information, contact Justin at justin.sims@dante-solutions.com.

All images were provided by DANTE Solutions.

Fatigue Improvement for Gear Steels in Helicopter Powertrains, Phase 2 Read More »