ADVANCED QPQ COMPLEX SALT BATH HEAT-TREATMENT

Salt bath surface treatment has been used widely for various industria l applications for many years. However, the technology is able to be a pplied in mass scale production only in limited countries, such as USA , Japan, Britain and France, due to the specific salt being obtainable only from one single company in Germany. This article reveals that a new salt, developed especially for salt bath surface treatment, has be en produced successfully in China offering superior surface properties and distinct benefits such as: the elimination of the need to pass ai r into the nitriding salt bath and the use of a centrifugal pump in th e oxidation stage; simple equipment; low cost; and ease of operation. This paper also describes the effects of temperature and process durat ion on the hardness, fatigue, corrosion resistance and wear resistance of the treated components. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.