In the treatment of steels to produce file-hard surface, it has been found possible to increase the depth and hardness of case greatly as well as to reduce the temperature required for the treatment, by introducing nitrogen bearing compounds such as ammonium salts, cyanides, cyanamides, etc., along with the pack carburizing medium.
This manner of case hardening is very similar to liquid cyaniding or gas cyaniding, such as carbonitriding, in the type of case formed.
Therefore, it is adequately called “solid cyaniding or solid carbonitriding.”
In the presence of nascent nitrogen supplied by the salts, carbon diffuses into the steel at temperatures well bellow the ordinary carburizing range. Thus, in the region of 750∼850°, a surface high in carbon and nitrogen can be hardened by oil or water quenching.
The type of case produced, namely, hardness and depth, largely depends upon the temperature ranging from 750∼950°, and the duration of time (1 or 4 hrs), and the ratio of salts in solid carburizing constituents. The best results were obtained when the mixture consisted of 20% Ca-cyanamide, 10∼20% sodium, barium or calcium carbonate and the remainder charcoal. The advantage this type of treatments includes the high wear resistance, high case hardness followed by the relatively low treating temperature, and less drastic quenching requirement. In addition, plain steel can be substituted in many cases for alloy steel where the core properties are not too important. Among other advantages of this method its lower cost, much reduced distortion during processing are pointed out. Finally, the operation of this solid carbonitriding equipment is much safer than that of liquid cyaniding.
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