Heat Treatment Process and Parameter Design in Manufacturing
Abstract The heat treatment operation which is carried out post manufacturing is optimized. Simulation of the carburizing and quenching processes with parameter optimization are combined to attain the desired surface hardness with controlled distortion of final products. Parameters of interest for optimization include, the carbon content of gas, carburizing dwell time, material temperature before quenching, quenchant temperature and the heat transfer coefficient. The response surface method is used to obtain closed-form models of the objective (surface hardness) and the two constraints (hardness variance and physical distortion) in terms of the design variables. A finite element simulation tool is used to predict the material response (volume fraction of different phases, temperature and stress/strain) during the carburizing and quenching processes. This paper summarizes the methodology that is used to optimize the carburizing and quenching processes of an axisymmetric disk.