Development of Computer Aided Heat Treatment Planning System for Quenching & Tempering (CHT - q/t) and Industrial Application of CHT-bf & CHT-cf

Singh, Amarjit Kumar

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Development of Computer Aided Heat Treatment Planning System for Quenching & Tempering (CHT - q/t) and Industrial Application of CHT-bf & CHT-cf

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Heat treatment can be defined as a combination of heating and cooling operations applied to a metal or alloy in solid state. It is an important manufacturing process, which controls the mechanical properties of metals, therefore contributes to the product quality. Computerized Heat Treatment Planning System for Quenching and Tempering (CHT-q/t), a windows based stand alone software, is developed to assist the heat treatment process design. The goal of CHT-q/t is to predict the temperature profile of load in batch as well as continuous furnace during heating, quenching and tempering of steel, then to predict the mechanical properties as Quenched & Tempered, and finally to optimize the heat treatment process design. The thesis reviews existing heat treating simulation software and identifies the industrial need of a software tool which integrates part load and furnace model with heat treating process. The thesis discusses cooling curve of specimen and Time Temperature Transformation (TTT) diagram to determine the microstructure evolution and subsequently the mechanical properties of steel after quenching. An extensive database has been developed to support the various function modules. The thesis focuses mainly in the TTT and quenchant database development, property prediction after quenching and tempering and the implementation of software. The properties determined in the thesis are hardness, ultimate tensile strength, yield strength, toughness and percentage elongation. Hardness has been predicted by the use of some well known analytical equations and the TTT database, finally regression analysis has been used to give the value as a function of carbon percentage and volume fraction of martensite. The other mechanical properties are calculated based on a relation of hardness and volume fraction of martensite. Various case studies were performed to show the application of CHT-bf and CHT-cf at Bodycote Thermal Processing, Worcester & Waterbury. The objective behind the case studies was to study the effect of change in load arrangement, production rate and cycle time on the heat treated parts and finally to give recommendations in order to save energy and improve productivity and quality.

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