Heat treatment is a complex part in the manufacturing of gearbox components, especially housing, gears, and shafts. It has a great impact on how it will transmit power or carry the motion to other components. This treatment helps optimize the performance and extend the lifetime of the gear. It can be done by altering their metallurgical, chemical, and physical properties.
Heat treatments have a lot of benefits. Some of them are given below:
- It helps improve physical properties such as surface hardness. This helps prevent tooth and bearing surfaces from wearing out and imparts wear resistance.
- It helped improve the gear’s fatigue life. This is done by generating subsurface compressive stresses. It helps prevent deformation from high contact stresses on the teeth of the gear.
- The gears that have gone through proper heat treatment will be able to handle higher loads without cracking or deforming. It helps improve the load-bearing capacity. It is mostly useful for heavy-duty applications such as mining or construction.
- It helps stabilize the metal and reduces the dimensional changes, which is done during operation.
- It increases the toughness and the impact of resistance on the gears, which allows them to absorb shocks and have impacts without fracturing.
There are different types of heat treatment for gears. Some of them are as follows-
- Carburizing
This kind of treatment is made of low carbon steel. At first it is penetrated by ‘carbon’ and then the metal surface is quenched and tempered in order to harden. The thickness depends on the gear size. It is usually performed after the gear is cut and the gear teeth are formed. It is commonly used for gears that require a combination of core toughness and hardness.
- Induction hardening.
This kind of treatment is made of medium carbon steel. With the help of electromagnetic induction eddy current flows while the metal gear is surrounded with wire and electrified. This treatment takes advantage of the property of eddy current, and mainly focuses on the surface and helps heat the metal.
It is useful for hardening specific areas such as the gear teeth. At first, the area is localized and heated and later rapid cooling is done in order to harden that particular area. It is useful for high load applications where only specific areas are required for hardening.
- Nitriding
It is mostly used for gears that are made of steel and contain molybdenum or chrome. It is a process of surface hardening that introduces nitrogen into the metal. It is done at lower temperatures and helps produce a hardware resistance surface. It comes with excellent corrosion resistance and gives hardness higher than carbonizing and induction hardening.
Some of the real world applications are as follows-
- It is used in aerospace because of its high precision heat treatment. It helps ensure lightweight gears that can withstand extreme temperatures and speed.
- It is used in automotive industries. The hardened gears ensure smooth operation and reduce wear resistance.
- The gearboxes have a great application in the marine world due to its corrosion resistant heat treated components.
- It is of great use in the industrial area as it can handle extreme load and continuous operation.
Conclusion
This treatment plays a very important role in enhancing the reliability, performance, and durability of the gearboxes. If you select the proper methods and techniques, then you can extend the life of the components while also reducing the cost of your maintenance.