AGMA 11FTM23

For decades the gear industry has addressed the challenge toproduce high performance components in a cost-efficient manner. Tomeet quality-specifications the components need to be heat treated,which traditionally takes place in a central hardening shop.However this separation between machining and heat treatmentresults in high costs for transportation and logistics within theproduction-plant. Therefore for many years it has been beingdiscussed how to integrate heat treatment into the manufacturingline. For about 10 years it has been possible to integrate heattreatment into the machining facility by applying the technology ofLow Pressure Carburizing (LPC) and High Pressure Gas Quenching(HPGQ). The components are collected after soft-machining into bigbatches and treated with LPC- and HPGQ-technology. This meanshowever that the heat treatment is not synchronized with soft- andhard-machining since the components must be collected in buffersbefore heat treatment and must be singularized again after heattreatment. In order to totally integrate heat treatment into themanufacturing line and in order to synchronize heat-treatment withmachining, a new heat treatment cell has been developed. Followingthe philosophy of “One Piece Flow” the parts are: taken one by onefrom the soft machining unit; then heat treated in time with thecycle-time of soft machining (“synchronized heat treatment”) andthen passed down one-by-one to the hard machining unit. To allowfor rapid case hardening, the components are low pressurecarburized at high temperatures (1050?C) followed by gas quenching.In addition to the cost-savings for logistics, the new concept inequipment offers the following advantages: individual processescustomized for each gear-component; homogenous and quick heating ofthe components and therefore low spread of distortion; homogenousand controllable gas quenching and therefore low spread ofdistortion; environmentally friendly carburizing and quenching; andcompact and space-saving heat treat unit. The paper shows firstresults achieved with the new process technology applied in the newheat treatment cell.

Edition:

11

Published:

10/01/2011

Number of Pages:

12

File Size:

1 file , 850 KB