×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

4130 steel not HTing to 38-42 Rockwell
2

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

Is the spec for surface or core or both? The noted range should not be a problem at the surface but questionable in the core, at least at the center.

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

(OP)
The spec is for surface.
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

I would go ahead and have a piece of the stock analyzed for both chemistry and microstructure, don't wait for the cert, you can compare later.

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

Low and/or spotty hardness on 4130 is not uncommon, particular with a 2" thick section.  4130 does not have very high hardenability, particularly for a 2" plate.  

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

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources