Water Quench & Temper
Typical steels treated:
This process is generally applied to the carbon steel range.
Water Quench Specification
- Rapid transfer from furnace to quench in under 45 secs
- Rapid immersion of the component into the quenchant at 2' / sec
- Highly agitated water above and below the load consistent down the full length of the tank. This initially breaks down the rapidly reforming vapour blanket and then provides very high heat transfer rate into the water.
- Very large volume of water in which to transfer the calourific heat value into. The resulting rise in water temperature is 2 deg c / tonne of steel quenched from 950 deg c.
- The water is constantly purified by bleeding off water resulting in 2 volume changes of tank / week.
- Oscillation of the cradle at all times to ensure the components are always moving relevant to the water and no direct impingment of water jetting.
- Water temperature maintained between 10 deg c and 30 deg c through 3 independent cooling systems.
All the above harden the steel to its absolute maximum potential leading to the required combination of good mechanical properties, good impact values at low temperatures coupled with very stringent hardness specifications.
The final product is orangey red in appearance with a stubborn scale but this can be removed by Shot Blasting. Shot Blast facilities are available at Con Mech Engineers Ltd.
Health & Safety
Con Mech meet all the current legislation regarding water treatment and under the umbrella of NALCO carry out 6 monthly chlorination and legionella checks backed up by 3 monthly laboratory analysis. Con Mech also carry out internally their own weekly dip slide checks.
All heat treated products are removed from furnace and transported by charging machine safely to the quench and cooling tables in a controlled manner. Full risk assessments have been carried out and are available on request.
