MODELING OF DISTORTION DURING QUENCHING OF C-RING SPECIMENS OF AISI-SAE 4340 STEEL

Abstract

The quenching heat treatment is, probably, the most common way to adjust the mechanical properties of steels, however, it is also responsible for a high percentage of rejections of manufactured parts, due to the large number of process variables involved. The defects that most contribute to scrap in hardened parts are cracking and distortion outside dimensional tolerances. The C-Ring type specimens have been used as a method of evaluating both the quenching conditions and the hardenability of steels in industrial and laboratory environments, in addition to this, the availability of specialized tools in finite elements simulation allow the design of models that replicate the real behavior of industrial applications that allow designing suitable quenching treatments capable of foreseeing the optimal conditions avoiding known defects.