CASE-HARDENING TREATMENTS FOR VARIOUS STEELS
Plain water, salt water and linseed oil are the three most common quenching materials for case-hardening. Water is used for ordinary work, salt water for work which must be extremely hard on the surface, and oil for work in which toughness is the main consideration. The higher the carbon of the case, the less sudden need the quenching action take hold of the piece; in fact, experience in case-hardening work gives a great many combinations of quenching baths of these three materials, depending on their temperatures. Thin work, highly carbonized, which would fly to pieces under the slightest blow if quenched in water or brine, is made strong and tough by properly quenching in slightly heated oil. It is impossible to give any rules for the temperature of this work, so much depending on the size and design of the piece; but it is not a difficult matter to try three or four pieces by different methods and determine what is needed for best results.
The alloy steels are all susceptible of case-hardening treatment; in fact, this is one of the most important heat treatments for such steels in the automobile industry. Nickel steel carburizes more slowly than common steel, the nickel seeming to have the effect of slowing down the rate of penetration. There is no cloud without its silver lining, however, and to offset this retardation, a single treatment is often sufficient for nickel steel; for the core is not coarsened as much as low-carbon machinery steel and thus ordinary work may be quenched on the carburizing heat. Steel containing from 3 to 3.5 per cent of nickel is carburized between 1,650 and 1,750°F. Nickel steel containing less than 25 points of carbon, with this same percentage of nickel, may be slightly hardened by cooling in air instead of quenching.
Chrome-nickel steel may be case-hardened similarly to the method just described for nickel steel, but double treatment gives better results and is used for high-grade work. The carburizing temperature is the same, between 1,650 and 1,750°F., the second treatment consisting of reheating to 1,400° and then quenching in boiling salt water, which gives a hard surface and at the same time prevents distortion of the piece. The core of chrome-nickel case-hardened steel, like that of nickel steel, is not coarsened excessively by the first heat treatment, and therefore a single heating and quenching will suffice.