Induction Harden 6150

[swall]

I know the conventional wisdom is that induction hardening of SAE 6150 is problematic due to insufficient austenitizing time available to fully dissolve the vanadium carbides. But, has anyone had any experience, good or bad with induction hardening this alloy?

 

[dbooker630]

Alloys such as this one can have better IH response if you furnace pretreat prior to induction hardening. I pretreat 4340 for the same reason, to get everything in solution. I quench and temper but a normalize might work as well, depends on your core hardness requirements.

 

[twistedneck]

Swall, in alloys like 1541v we have issues with temps not being high enough at the mill (well over 2000F needed at the rolling mill billet furnace).. not sure if that helps or not. the steel needs to be really hot to get that V into solution for higher hardness.