Image analysis of titanium carbonitrides

A manufacturer of crankshafts uses steel stock purchased from several vendors. The steels differ in their behaviour during the manufacture of the crankshaft, although they are the same grade. Some steel stock batches were repeatedly associated with much faster wear of grinding wheels than others. What is more, the crankshafts also suffered damage in production. As a result, the cost of production increased to unacceptable levels. Titanium precipitates were suspected to be the cause of the grinding wheels going dull. Therefore, an investigation was carried out to determine in which phases the titanium addition is present. The quantities, sizes, distributions and morphologies of particles containing titanium were measured using image analysis. Finally, the data were correlated to the method of steel production, the vendor and the titanium content.