Carbon Pickup in heat treatment
Carbon Pickup in heat treatment
(OP)
I have discovered that low carbon steels pickup a lot of carbon some times in the range of 100% while heat treating these steels in a natural gas fired furnaces. I noticed this carbon pickup in steels containing less than 0.03% carbon. It appears that the part less than 3" thick gets fully carburized in about 10 hours of heat treating time.
Has any one else faced a similar problem? I know that diffusion of carbon is very quick when the difference in carbon concentration is high but was surprised to find my low carbon steels approaching 0.05% carbon even in the center of cross section.
Please share your experiance in this matter.
Thank you.
Mahadhatu
Has any one else faced a similar problem? I know that diffusion of carbon is very quick when the difference in carbon concentration is high but was surprised to find my low carbon steels approaching 0.05% carbon even in the center of cross section.
Please share your experiance in this matter.
Thank you.
Mahadhatu





RE: Carbon Pickup in heat treatment
RE: Carbon Pickup in heat treatment
3" thick carburized to center in 10 hrs does not seem right. I don't have the formula handy but as I recall, depth of carburizing is inversely proportional to the square root of time. Are you certain that the original chemistry was correct or maybe the material mislabled?
Jesus is THE life,
Leonard
RE: Carbon Pickup in heat treatment
Stanweld, I will post my findings after checking the flames on the burners. Thank you for the suggestion.
RE: Carbon Pickup in heat treatment
The heat treatment of CA6NM must be performed in a neutral atmosphere furnace to avoid carbon pick-up.
RE: Carbon Pickup in heat treatment