Wear-resistant chain
AssigneeDaido Kogyo Co., Ltd.
InventorsYoshio Okumura, Mitsuru Yasuta, Yukihiro Kishi
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Abstract
There is provided a wear-resistant chain having a high durability even in severe use environments such as those of a timing chain of an engine even though it is highly efficient and productive. A miniaturizing agent containing silicon is doped in a vanadium cementation process of a base material of steel. Vanadium carbide forming a surface-hardened layer contains a secondary phase composed of an amorphous structure containing silicon within crystal grains and a crystal grain size of the vanadium carbide is miniaturized to 1 μm or less.
Claims7
An article of manufacture, comprising a base material made of steel having a surface on which a hardened layer is formed comprising crystal grains of vanadium carbide and a secondary phase within the crystal grains of said vanadium carbide, the secondary phase including silicon having an amorphous structure, the silicon not migrating from the secondary phase to the crystal structure of the vanadium carbide, wherein a typical crystal grain size of said vanadium carbide is 1 μm or less.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.