Harden Metals before Heat Treat

[ed72073]

I am looking to use some type of metal to make a valve seat out of, this is a pneumatic valve. The original is urethane type that works well, but I want to make it out of metal without the heat treat process. I have been told that most metals have a hardness of low 20 HRC and anything above that is considered harden metal or harden steel. My thought is to have them made from solid carbide or tungsten carbide which should be hardness of 72 HRC or about. Is this then considered harden metal even though the is no heat treat process?

I has some made from 1018 steel and then coated with carbide and it worked out pretty well, but now I can have them made in solid for about the same cost and faster. Another other option is to have it made from ceramic, but I have looked at that option yet. I have to make these out of something that is not called harden steel or harden metal, long story. Does anyone have input or information on this matter?

Thanks for any help

 

[tomwalz]

We have done brazing on carbide seals for downhole valves.

You can do it and it works well.

What we kept running into was valve seats made from rolled material that would move during the brazing process.



Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.

http://www.carbideprocessors.com

Good engineering starts with a Grainger Catalog.

 

[tbuelna]

If a urethane seat material was providing acceptable service life, why do you wish to replace it with an extremely hard material like tungsten carbide? Making a valve seat from solid tungsten carbide would be very costly. There are common valve seat metals like stellite, that are very durable and corrosion resistant, and that would be far less costly.