Heat Treatment Influence Area

One of the most striking characteristics of steels is their heat treatability. A soft structural state can be produced for mechanical processing. Under operating conditions, wear resistance and power transmission are essential properties that can be optimized through targeted heat treatment. The unalloyed case-hardening steel C15E, 1.1171, has a hardness of 140 HV in the annealed state and can achieve hardness values of 850 HV on the surface through carburizing and case hardening. This corresponds to a factor of 1:6. The hot-work steel X37CrMoV5-1, 1.2343, is pre-hardened or annealed before mechanical processing and the hardness is then 220 HV. After a nitriding treatment, the hardness is up to 1100 HV, which means a max. hardness increase by a factor of 5.