Modeling and Design of Quenching and Tempering Process for Alloy Steel Tubes

High quality steel tubes are often quench hardened for superior mechanical properties, and the process includes austenitizing, spray quenching, and tempering. During spray quenching, the cooling rate is affected by the type of quenchant, nozzle design, flow rate, spray zone and spray time. In this paper, the hardening process of a steel tube made of AISI 4140 is designed by using DANTE modeling, a commercial finite element heat treatment software. The hardening process includes austenitizing by induction heating, spray quenching with water through angled nozzles, and tempering by innovative induction heating with water cooling. The modeling results include hardness, phase fractions, residual stresses, and distortion. Tempered martensite is the final microstructure phase of the tube in this case.