EQUIPMENT IN HEAT-TREATMENT DEPARTMENTS

MACHINEFOR THE AUTOMATIC HIGH-FREQUENCY HARDENING OF CYLINDRICAL ARTICLES

N. A. Napolov, A. I. Malakhov, UDC 621.784.6:62-434.1

and V. V. Zakharov

During the continuous production of articles in machine building, which includes dif-
ferent components in the form of solids of revolution (axles, bushings , etc.), for which
heat treatment of the working surfaces is required, quality hardening of these articles is
not always ensured, especially for high-volume production.
Type PTsU-30B coarse-tooth saw chains, which have been series-produced at the experimen-
talmachineshop (EMS) of the Central Scientific-Research Institute of Mechanization and Power
of the Wood Industry since 1976, can be cited as an example. Pivotal rivets -- one of the
components of this chain (a stepwise solid of revolution) -- had been hardened using a ring-
type inductor supplied by a high-frequency current (HFC) and with a manual piece-by-piece
component feed. With a large number of rivets to be hardened, the manual feed of the com-
ponents led to their poor-quality heat treatment (nonuniform depth of the surface layer being
hardened along the perimeter of the shoulder of the rivet and nonstable hardness values for
individual rivets). During hardening in the ring inductor, as a rule, one of the sides of
the rivet shoulder was roasted to a greater depth than the opposite side. This hardening of
the rivet gave rise to premature wear of the frictional couple formed between the rivet and
central chain link. Moreover, productivity with the manual rivet feed did not exceed 3000
articles per shift; this did not satisfy production demand for saw chains.
To eliminate these deficiencies, we developed and introduced a machine for the automatic
high-frequency hardening of these components at the EMS of the Central Scientific-Research
Institute of Mechanization and Power of the Wood Industry in 1978 [i].
The technicoeconomic indicators of the machine are presented below:
Turn rate of working drum, min -I . . . . . . 2.5/2.5
Machine productivity, articles/h . . . . . . 900/800
Heating temperature , °C . . . . . . . . . . 800-900/800-900
Heating time of each component, sec . . . . . 1.9/1.9
Hardness of hardened layer, HRC . . . . . . . 50-55/50-55
Depth of hardened layer, m m . . . . . . . . . 0.7-1.0/0.5-0.7
Structure of hardened layer . . . . . . . . . surface zone is
me dium- a ci cu la r
martensite and
troos tite ; tran-
sitional zone is
50% martensite +
50% troos tosorbite ;
core is sorbite
Output of HFC tube generator, kW . . . . . . 63/100
Output of required inductor, kW . . . . . . . 6.3/6.3
Notes: i) Data for 6 and 12 grooves in the working drum are pre-
sented in the numerator and denominator, respectively. 2) Machine
is supplied from high-frequency LZ-2-67 apparatus.
All subassemblies and mechanisms (Fig. la) of the machine are mounted inside common h~us-
ing 3, the lower portion of which is outer drum 23 of the component-cooling system. The auto-
matic machine consists of the following basic subassemblies: mechanism 15 for component orien-
tation, accumulator 4 (Fig. ib), component-pull-through mechanism i0 (Fig. la), inductor 6,
drive 18, and a component-cooling system.
Orientation m e c h a n i s m 15 consists of housing 13, charging bin ii, and orientation disk
12, which sits on shaft 14, at the opposite end of which one Of the pulleys of the V-belt variable-
Central Scientific-Research Institute of Mechanization and Power of the W o o d Industry.
Translated from Metallovedenie i Termicheskaya Obrabotka Metallov, No. i, pp. 32-34, January,
1983.

42 0026-0673/83/0102-0042507.50 © 1983 Plenum Publishing Corporation

 if View of A

\\

Fig. it Machine for high-frequency hardening of cylindrical

components: a) side view; b) view through arrow A and sec-
tional view through B-B.

speed drive 16 is located. Accumulator 4 (Fig. ib) is a curved channel of special shape for
collecting and feeding components to inductor 6 in the oriented position.
Component-pull-through mechanism i0 (Fig. la) consists of feed disk 9 made of asbestos
cement, shaft 8, bearing subassembly 7, and drive gear 17. Through-transverse grooves 2
(Fig. ib), in which the component 7 to be hardened are placed~ are located about the rim of
feed disk 9o
Slotted inductor 6 (Fig. la) is affixed to housing 3 of the automatic machine using a
special cantilever bracket 5, made of an antimagnetic material, and is positioned so that the
component being hardened lies in groove 2 (Fig. Ib) in the rim of feed disk 3; the inductor
is displaced along guide 1 of cantilever 5 between its working arms. Inductor 6 is connected
to the high-frequency generator and the water-cooling system.
A u t o m a t i c - m a c h i n e drive 18 (Fig. la) consists of variable-speed electric motor 20, worm-
gear couple 19, shaft 4, toothed couple 17, and variable-speed V-belt drive 16.
The system used to cool the components being hardened consists of external tank 23 with
a water-circulation system, internal removable tank 22 with an inclined bottom, hoisting cart
i, interchangeable reticulated basket 2, and manual winch 21 for raising and lowering the
cart.
The machine operates on the principle of the continuous flow of components undergoing
hardening.
The components are placed in charging bin Ii (Fig. la) of orientation mechanism 15.
While rotating, orientation disk 12 captures components from the general mass by grooves,
which are placed in the oriented position, and, moving them around the circumference, drops
them one by one into accumulator 4 (Fig. ib). Under gravitational forces~ the components
move in a continuous stream through the accumulator from orientation mechanism 15 (Fig. la)
to pull-through mechanism i0 via inductor 6~ Feed disk 9 with special grooves 2 (Fig. ib)
captures one component in each groove from accumulator 4, moves them along open guide ring 1
between the working arms of inductor 6, and after heating, ejects them into tank 22 (Fig. la)
containing a coolant.
All mechanisms of the automatic machine are operated by electric motor 20. The rotary
motion is transmitted from the motor onto intermediate shaft 4 via worm-gear couple 19.
Orientation disk 12 of orientation mechanism 15 rotates off intermediate shaft 4 via
variable-speed V-belt drive 16, which is intended to establish the required correspondence

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between the angular velocities of orientation disk 12 and feed disk 9 of pull-through mecha-
nism i0.
Feed disk 9 of pull-through mechanism i0 rotates off intermediate shaft 4 via open gear
drive 17. The speed of rotation of disk 9 is determined by the time required for heating the
component in inductor 6 and is regulated by the speed of rotation of electric motor 20.
The scheme devised for passing the components through inductor 6 is presented in Fig. lb.
The components in accumulator 4 are restrained by the outer surface of feed disk 3 of pull-
through mechanism i0 (see Fig. la). When the groove of feed disk 3 (Fig~ ib) coincides with
the channel exit of accumulator 4, the extreme component falls into the groove of disk 3
under gravity and is moved by it into the heating zone. The components are displaced into
the heating zone of inductor 6 via the channel formed by guides 1 of cantilever bracket 5,
which are made in the form of part of a ring. The unrestrained position of the component in
the grooves of the feed disk allows it to achieve rotation, i.e., to roll, upon moving into
the heating zone. The shape of the path of the stationary open guide ring allows the com-
ponent to exit from the groove of feed disk 3 under gravity (Fig. ib) and run off into basket
2 of tank 22 (see Fig. la).
Oil or water can be used as the coolant in tank 22; the coolant is maintained at a con-
stant temperature by the circulation of water in tank 23.
The hardened components are removed from tank 22 using manual winch 21. The basket with
the finished components is overturned atop a container, and the hardening cycle is repeated.
The machine makes it possible to completely automate the HFC hardening process for pivot-
al rivets and to attain high-quality heat treatment. The productivity of the machine is six
times greater than the obsolete unit with the manual component feed for hardening in the ring
induc to r.
The machine has established its reliability in service and simplicity of maintenance over
many years of operating experience.
Shaft 7 (Fig. ib) of a steel 40Kh saw chain, which is a Solid of revolution with a
stepped shape and thickened central portion -- a shoulder and identical collars symmetrically
positioned on two sides of the shoulder -- is hardened in the machine. The component weighs
i0 g, its shoulder diameter is 12 mm, abe neck diameter 8 ram, shoulder length 6.3 ram, and
overall length 16.5 mm. The pivotal rivet should satisfy the following requirements: To
avoid cracking during riveting, the hardness of the neck should not exceed HRC 28-32 during
bulk hardening of the entire component, the hardness of the cylindrical surface of the shoul-
der should be HRC 50-55, and the thickness of the hardened layer 0.5-1.0 ram. These require-
ments are satisfied when the shoulder is subjected to HFC surface hardening. The obsolete
apparatus used for HFC hardening in the ring inductor with a continuous component feed had
a low productivity and poor quality of component heat treatment (nonuniformity of the thick-
ness of the hardened layer, exceeding the allowable limits~ and large deviations in terms of
hardness). The nonuniformity of the hardened layer resulted from the fact that it was virtu-
ally impossible to mount the component precisely in the center of the ring inductor, since a
steel component subject to electromagnetic forces created by the inductor coil was constantly
drawn to the wall of the guide bushing.
Use of the solotted inductor and primarily the new method used to pass the component
through the heating zone of the inductor made it possible to improve the quality of the com-
ponent's heat treatment and, in turn, increase the service life of the saw chain by 10-15%
and realize a saving of ~i00,000 rubles per year per machine.
T h e machine design that we have developed can also be used to harden any component of
the most complex configuration in the form of solids of revolution, having changed, corre-
spondingly, the shapes of the grooves in the feed disk, accumulator, and orientation mecha-
nism.

LITERATURE CITED
i. Inventor's Certificate No. 825652.

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