Thru hardening sheet metal

[bsdhr]

Hi!

My challange at hand is to heat treat (thru harden) a simple geometry made from 0.050 inch thick sheet metal that runs min 24 inches long. Gas Carburizing or furnance heat treatment is prefered due cost.

The concern I heard is distortion, wraping etc. if the part is just laid in the bucket. Would it be same if I run the part hanging from c clamp inside the furnance?

PS: I am not metallurgist.

 

[Goahead]

From your question it appears that you need to perform some important forming before carburizing and hardening, otherwise you would have chosen a higher carbon steel to begin with.
Carburizing for half that thickness (half from each side) takes a lot of time.
What is usually done to keep high carbon plates from warping is putting them between two plates with clearances as required and pressing before quenching in oil, it helps somewhat.
If you care to provide more details some additional suggestions may come through.

http://www.welding-advisers.com/

 

[bsdhr]

Thanks Goahead!

Yes you are right, I intend to form this long plate into 'C' Cross section prior to heat treating. The overall width and heigth ( of 'C' X-Section)is very small in comparison to the length. I am sorry, the application is confidential at this moment.

Material being considered is any steel that comes in sheet or plate form and can be rolled into C X-section form. Need to be heat treated (thru hardening) in furnance ( cheaper in cost)upto 54-56 HRC. Intent is to maintain part strainghtness without curling or wraping. Minor deformation (less than 0.001 in) is acceptable that can rectified by means of grinding afterwards.

Hope this was useful. Again thanks in advance for your response.

 

[Goahead]

Roll forming has its own set of requirements, including the minimum radius that can be formed in steel strip, for every different carbon level, in annealed condition without cracking.
Depending on the design radius you will be able to select (with help from roll forming equipment manufacturers or of service providers) the most suitable steel that will provide the required hardness upon hardening and tempering.
Plain carbon steel will probably cool too much in air (and therefore produce lower hardness) until it can be put in a press for die quenching, so that you may be better off with an alloy steel of the same carbon content, having higher hardenability.
You may wish to explore induction hardening, if it gives acceptable hardness without unacceptable warping.
Precipitation hardenable stainless steel would harden with a low temperature precipitation treatment, but will be more expensive.

http://www.welding-advisers.com/