Identification of the important process parameters to control distortion and residual stress during heat treating

The finite element (FE) model combines a commercially available heat treatment software DANTE to the finite element analysis software ABAQUS have been used to identify the important heat treatment process parameters to control distortion and residual stress. It is found that the Ms temperature of the steel, the temperature dependence heat treatment coefficient of the quenching agent, quenching orientation, immersion speed, quenching temperature, austenitizing temperature and the part geometry are ranked based on their impact. In this paper, the result of these simulations will be presented and discussed.  The main purpose of this paper is to provide processing guidelines to control residual stress and distortion.