Air Quenching Process for Heat Resistant Steels
Air Quenching Process for Heat Resistant Steels
January 22nd, 2025
C Paul Qiao, David Doll, Joe Schreiner, Dan Tanguay, Dan Csaki, Dominic Grillo
L.E. Jones Company
Menominee, MI 49858
Iron-based heat-resistant alloys are often used in hardened and tempered conditions. The hardening or quenching treatment can be processed by rapid cooling of the alloy components with cooling mediums such as, air, oil, water, or brine. Compared to other cooling medium, the primary advantages of air quenching include lower cost, safer process condition, and environmentally friendly operation. Air or compressed air quenching process can be the optimal heat treatment selection for most iron-based heat-resistant alloys.
Air quenching process has been used by many heat-resistant or tool steel manufacturers, however, lack of common standard procedure/parameters makes it difficult to directly compare the quenching results among the products manufacturers. Therefore, establishment of a standard procedure and practice from a quality product manufacturing consideration.
An air quenching process study has been conducted adopting some widely used iron-based heat-resistant alloys namely, J120V, J130, and J160 along with a heat treatable iron-based intermetallic strengthened alloy, J513. This investigation exhibits that standard air quenching procedure should be established based upon alloy product.