Carburizing Behavior of AISI 4115 Steel with a Flow Rate of Acetylene and Specimen Location in an 1 ton-class Mass Production-type Vacuum Carburizing Furnace

The influence of acetylene flow rates on the carburizing behavior of an AISI 4115 steel in 1 ton-class mass production-type vacuum carburizing furnace has been studied through microstructure, carbon concentration, hardness analyses. The AISI 4115 steels were carburized with various flow rates (20, 32.7, 60 l/min) and locations in the furnace (top, center, bottom) at 950℃. The acetylene flow rate played an important role in controlling the carburizing properties of carburized samples, such as effective case depth and uniformity carburizing according to location in the furnace. At an acetylene flow rate of 20 l/min, the carburized samples had a shallow average hardened layer (0.645 mm) compared to the target hardening depth (1 mm) due to low carbon flux and spatial uniformity of carburization (17.8%) in the furnace. At a flow rate of 60 l/min, the carburized samples showed an average hardened layer (1.449 mm) deeper than the target hardening depth and had the spatial uniformity of carburization (98.8%). In particular, at a flow rate of 32.7 l/min, the carburized samples had an average hardened layer (1.13 mm) close to the target hardening depth and had the highest carburizing uniformity (99.1%). As a result, an appropriate flow rate of 32.7 l/min was derived to satisfy the target hardening depth and to have spatial uniform hardened layer in the furnace.

1 톤급 양산형 진공 침탄로에서 아세틸렌 유량과 로 내 위치에 따른 AISI 4115 강의 침탄 거동