Chemicothermal treatment in large-scale production

Abstract

In large-scale production, which the automobile industry is, the use of chemicothermal treatment (CTT) has special features. These are the variety of saturation processes (from low-temperature saturation in salts to high-temperature saturation in a controlled atmosphere), simultaneous saturation by carbon and nitrogen, use of continuous furnaces with a high capacity, the special requirements imposed on steels associated with the narrow range of variation of the chemical composition, the hardenability curves, and grain coarseness, the specific conditions for preparing the controlled atmosphere both in generators and in the functional space of the continuous furnaces, and the continuous development of optimum technologies for each group of parts.