Minimising heat treatment distortion

Important results from the project

The aim and effect goals have been to reduce the proportion of unsystematic distortion, which leads to reduced costs and increased competitiveness. The project goals have been increased understanding of how the factors identified in the value chain affect the shape changes and to develop working methods for reducing shape errors. The project has resulted in guidelines and recommendations on how to understand, eliminate or minimize the effect of certain factors that give rise to shape changes in the various process steps. A training package has been developed.

Expected long term effects

The results obtained have provided significantly increased insight and understanding of the underlying phenomena concerning the impact of, for example: - Casting method in the steel mill - Impact of forging and heat treatment after forging - The influence of geometry, hardenability, cooling, hardness depth, heating, position and orientation on a hardening tray. Another important result of the project is the training package that was developed during the project work. The results obtained correspond well to the goals set.

Approach and implementation

The work has been carried out with a combination of experiments, calculations, material analyzes and production follow-ups. Trials and calculations were carried out according to the DoE concept in order to identify interaction effects. The training package is partly a subset of the results obtained, but also a compilation of experiences and the working methods that were developed and exchange of knowledge during project and work meetings. This has been a successful work process, very much dependent on the project group´s composition with companies from the entire processing chain.