It is just short of 110 years since the tragic sinking of the unsinkable ship, the RMS Titanic. During construction, some 2,000 hull plates were used along with approximately 3 million rivets to join the hull plates together.

Conduct the temperature uniformity survey (TUS) on the furnaces each week. Be sure to remember to conduct the TUS anytime that a repair has been completed on the furnace. 

Temperature uniformity within a furnace can be defined as: “a uniform temperature set to operate within a specific tolerance band to create conditions under which a final uniform resulting metallurgy will be accomplished in the treated component.”

If the objective of the hardness test is to measure the depth of case, it will be necessary for the test operator to understand the definition of case depth. Case depth is the formed case that has occurred to whatever depth was specified. 

For through-hardened steels, in order to achieve a good and true hardness result, it is necessary to test the substrate material by grinding beneath the oxide and decarburized layer.

Hardness testing determines the success of the heat-treatment procedure and the material’s response to that heat treatment. The results of a hardness test can indicate...

Here is the third and final installment of David Pye's blog series on safety in the heat-treat workplace.

Quite a large number of both captive and commercial plants have integral-quench furnaces, which are used for atmosphere heat-treatment procedures such as carburizing, carbonitriding and neutral hard-ening. More often than not, the furnaces are filled with combustible atmospheres and an internal quench tank of specialty quench oil. 

Safety in the workplace regarding heat treatment connects each and every person who works in either a captive or a commercial shop. We all have an obligation to one another to minimize the risk of accidents and injuries (no matter how minimal or extensive that injury might be). 
 

The cause of the retained austenite can be attributed to the following conditions...