Comparison of Property Determination Methods

The ability to accurately predict the properties of a heat treated part has been the Holy Grail of the industry. There are many methods and software packages that are capable of predicting hardness and properties of a heat treated part.

In this paper, we will compare several techniques of hardness prediction, from the vary simple, to complex modeling, and compare the calculated results to those that have been published previously. Using "old-school" methods based on the Grossman H-Value, and Lamont charts, we predict the expected hardness for two different alloys (SAE 1045 and SAE 6140), in three different geometries - 1" (25mm), 3" (75mm), and 5" (125mm) round bars. Water is used as a quenchant. The resulting data is compared to that previously published by Bain and Grossman. Additional comparisons are performed using different methods and software packages. Again, this data is compared to previously published data.