Hardening

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High Voltage

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Hardening

In the electron beam hardening process, the electron beam is used for heating the material up to a depth of 2 mm to a temperature slightly below the melting temperature. Depending on the desired hardening depth the temperature is maintained for some seconds. Then the heat input is stopped and the material cools very quickly by self-chilling in the adjacent cold material. This leads to a "martensitic transformation". The hardening depth results from the feed rate, the dwell time and the heat conductivity of the material to be hardened. Materials suited for transformation hardening are in particular steel and cast iron having a carbon content of > 0,25%.

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