High Pressure Gas Quenching Evolution

Gas quenching has been involved in heat treating for years. Over those years the technology has been looked at by many who heat treat to be limited to single chamber furnaces which would be a 2,6,10 and 12 bar gas quenching with varying methods of introducing the gas through the load. Within the last 20 years, HIGH pressure gas quenching has evolved tremendously to produce quenching with gas to provide properly hardened carbon steels for many applications including most automotive transmission products today. Through the years the technology used in high pressure gas quenching has improved and the amount and method of cooling has improved. Along with using new steels with higher hardenability, we will show the evolution of high pressure gas quenching in heat treating and the systems available today with data of various loads at various cooling rates.