Development of a Prototype Plant for the Heat Treatment of Workpieces with Preferably Bainitic Properties

Abstract In vehicle construction, components with high tensile strengths are used, especially in the chassis area. At the same time, these components must have high toughness and be insensitive to cracking. For this purpose, hardened and tempered but also salt-bainitized components are used. The associated usual process chain after steel production consists of forming processes with subsequent cooling of the forging blanks and subsequent heat treatment with renewed heating to set the required material properties. From an energy point of view, heat treatment from the forging heat is desirable, which in addition to shortening the process chain is also associated with a reduction in CO2 emissions. A prototype system for controlled bainitization has been developed, which implements the heat treatment immediately after hot forming by utilizing the still existing forming temperature. Here, a controlled spray field generates both a quenching and an isothermal holding phase. Various sensors generate input variables to cool the workpieces in a controlled manner. This paper gives an overview of the system technology, realized cooling curves and the resulting hardness.