J. W. Gottschalk, Surface Combustion, Inc., Maumee, OH

Summary: With an increase in the need for gas nitrided parts, there have been significant developments in the controls for the gas nitriding process. There have been three major reasons for the development of automation in this process; 1) Improve the repeatability of the process from cycle to cycle; 2) Control of the type of nitrided case on the part; 3) Conservation of process gasses. This presentation will detail the merits and limitations of the various measuring systems and how they are applied to automatic control of the nitriding process.