4130 steel not HTing to 38-42 Rockwell
4130 steel not HTing to 38-42 Rockwell
(OP)
I have more than one OP vendor having trouble getting 4130 steel, 2" thick plate to harden to 38-42Rc. When advising my customer they reported that several vendors are having trouble recently within the past few months. Has anybody heard of this problem? Is it new? Is there a bad foundry batch circulating?





RE: 4130 steel not HTing to 38-42 Rockwell
What is the quenchant? Typically 4130 is done in water or polymer. Need to have a qualified lab check microstructure.
What is the chemistry? Is it really 4130? Have the lab run a sample on a spectrograph.
Let us know...
RE: 4130 steel not HTing to 38-42 Rockwell
The material is 4130.
I haven't received certs yet to analyze chemistry.
My customer is fairly large (caterpillar large), so them saying that other vendors are reporting problems w/ 4130 as well, has me curious.
RE: 4130 steel not HTing to 38-42 Rockwell
The microstructure will confirm if the stock reached austenitizing temperature, and/or may indicate an issue with the heat treater's quenchant such as concentration, agitation, or contamination.
Are the other vendors using the same heat treater?
RE: 4130 steel not HTing to 38-42 Rockwell
To achieve this hardness, you will have to have a well agitated water quench and make sure the water temperature is below 80 deg F.
rp