Bluewater Thermal Solutions services

Bluewater’s Age Hardening which is also called Precipitation Hardening is used to increase the tensile and yield strength of materials including most alloys of aluminum, magnesium, titanium, nickel and some stainless steel.  Age Hardening creates changes in physical and mechanical properties by producing fine particles of a precipitate phase, which impede the movement of dislocations, or defects in a crystal’s lattice.  Since dislocations are often the dominant carriers of plasticity, this serves to harden the material.  The precipitates play the same role as particle substances in particle-reinforced composite materials. Just as the formation of ice in air can produce clouds, snow, or hail, depending upon the thermal history of a given portion of the atmosphere, precipitation in solids can produce many different sizes of particles, which have radically different properties.

Annealing is a type of heat treatment that alters the microstructure of a material causing changes in properties such as strength and hardness and ductility.  Bluewater’s processes takes place in stages; 1) softening of the metal through removal of crystal defects and the internal stresses which they cause, 2) nucleation and growth of new strain-free grains. To avoid oxygenation, scaling and decarburization, Bluewater can carry out the annealing process in protective inert atmospheres such as endothermic gas, hydrogen gas, nitrogen gas, argon gas, or vacuum.  Components to be annealed are heated in production furnaces and then slow cooled under a controlled environment.

Austenitic Nitrocarburizing (ANC) produces a surface compound layer of epsilon iron nitride and a diffusion zone that contains transformed martensite. By processing at higher temperatures than a Ferritic Nitrocarburizing (FNC) process, a portion of the diffusion zone under the compound layer is austenitized as it is stabilized by additional nitrogen content and transforms to martensite upon quenching. This additional hardened diffusion zone below the compound layer creates additional case depth over a ferritic nitrocarburized surface. Steel components processed by Austenitic Nitrocarburizing will have a compound layer hardness typically ranging from 58-65 HRC along with a diffusion zone hardness that may exceed 55 HRC as well.The Austenitic Nitrocarburizing process is still a low temperature subcritical process that will yield very low distortion as the core material does not undergo any phase transformations.

Bluewater’s Carbonitriding is a surface hardening process that provides a thin, high hardness case on lower hardenability steels. This thermochemical treatment diffuses both carbon and nitrogen into the surface of the component simultaneously. The use of nitrogen to increase the hardenability of the carburized case allows plain carbon or lower alloy steels to be case hardened successfully with full transformation to martensite in order to maximize the case hardness and obtain the best possible mechanical properties. The process adds wear resistance and improvements in strength to the case.

Carburizing is a case hardening process in which a metal part or component of low carbon content is heated in conjunction with a carbon rich substance in gas, liquid or solid form. The process of heating the metal component in a high carbon environment via means of controlled gas environment allows for diffusion of the carbon atoms directly into the surface of the part that needs to be hardened. The amount of carbon that and resultant case depth that gets infused into the metal surface depends upon the carbon potential of the atmosphere, the temperature at which it is heated and the time it is exposed to that temperature and carbon potential. Higher temperatures and longer times with higher carbon potentials will increase the amount of carbon diffused into the surface and the depth of case.

Bluewater specializes in a wide variety of thermochemical treatments in which we create durable, wear resistant finishes on shaped carbon and ferrous alloy steels. Case Hardening, also known as surface hardening, is the process utilized to construct a hardened exterior shell and strong ductile core on low carbon steels in an effort to improve abrasion resistance, wear-resistance and fatigue strength. Some variations of this process include carburizing, carbonitriding, nitrocarburizing and nitriding.

Bluewater’s Ferritic nitrocarburizing (FNC) has a high resistance to wear, excellent scuffing and seizure resistance as well as improved corrosion resistance. While Ferritic Nitrocarburizing is the more generally specified process, the greater load bearing capability of the Austenitic treatment has resulted in its adoption as an attractive alternative to the high temperature surface hardening techniques. Ferritic Nitrocarburizing is often selected to replace chrome plating or shallow case carbonitriding. FNC is a low temperature process that can be performed without distortion or loss of precise dimensional requirements. Ferritic nitrocarburizing creates a shallow surface layer of epsilon iron nitride compond that typically has a hardness ranging between 58-65 HRC. This compound layer also increases the base materials resistance to corrosion.

What is hardening? Bluewater’s hardening methods enlist a wide variety of heat treatment techniques in which we increase the hardness, strength, and fatigue life of metal parts and components via surface hardening and through hardening. There are several different methods and types of equipment that can be used to neutral harden or case harden small lots to high production volumes of metal components.

Our low-temperature Malcomizing operation for stainless steel produces a durable hardened surface on finished surfaces that have been machined and properly pretreated. While Malcomizing is similar to gas nitriding, it does require the addition of an activator to destroy the protective oxide layer on stainless steel and then hardens this surface through the diffusion of nitrogen.