Method of carburizing
AssigneeGeorge E. Barbour
InventorGeorge E. Barbour
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of carburizing ferrous metal parts that includes the steps of providing a furnace for heating the metal parts and a process chamber, purging the air atmosphere from the process chamber and heating said process chamber to a temperature of at least 1100° F., feeding a gas to the process chamber and a source of air at a constant flow rate to the process chamber, boosting the process chamber by feeding an enriching gas to the process chamber to create a carbon potential of at least 0.5%, and more preferably of at least 1.4%, cleaning the process chamber by decreasing the flow of enriching gas to the process chamber to create a carbon potential of less than about 0.25%, repeating the boosting step after performing said cleaning step, and repeating the cleaning step after performing said boosting step.
Claims27
A method of carburizing ferrous metal parts comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a furnace for heating the metal parts and a process chamber;
- (b) purging an air atmosphere from the process chamber and heating said process chamber to a temperature of at least 1100° F.;
- (c) feeding a fuel gas to the process chamber and a source of air at a constant flow rate to the process chamber;
- (d) boosting the process chamber by feeding an enriching gas to the process chamber to create a carbon potential of at least 0.5%;
- (e) cleaning the process chamber by decreasing the flow of enriching gas to the process chamber to create a carbon potential of less than about 0.25%;
- (f) repeating the boosting step (d) after performing said cleaning step (e);
- and
- (g) repeating the cleaning step(e) after performing said repeated boosting step (f).
A method of heat treating ferrous metal parts comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a furnace for heating the metal parts and a process chamber;
- (b) purging an air atmosphere from the process chamber and heating said process chamber to a temperature of at least 1100° F.;
- (c) feeding a fuel gas to the process chamber and a source of air;
- (d) boosting the process chamber by feeding an enriching gas to the process chamber to create a carbon potential of at least 0.5%;
- (e) cleaning the process chamber by decreasing the flow of enriching gas to the process chamber to create a carbon potential of less than about 0.25%;
- (f) repeating the boosting step (d) after performing said cleaning step (e);
- (g) repeating the cleaning step(e) after performing said repeated boosting step (f);
- (h) wherein during said cleaning and boosting steps said fuel gas and said air is fed to the process chamber at a constant flow rate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.