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May 11, 2013
Abstract
The distortion behaviour of a workpiece within the heat treatment process can be controlled by applying inhomogeneous quenching conditions. Locally variable heat transfer conditions at the workpiece surface within the quenching process are realizable by impressing and regulation of adjustable (spatially and/or timewise varying) flexible flow fields on the basis of jet arrays inside the quenching media. With the use of these adapted jet fields it is possible to generate various asymmetric quenching conditions for the heat treatment process. The asymmetric jet quenching process of workpieces originally has been developed in gaseous flow. By controlled quenching in liquid media like water or hardening oil and by means of jet or spray cooling with these media, the heat transfer process can be heavily increased thereby controlling the non-available boiling process and the establishing of the rewetting front on the workpiece surface. This e.g. can be realized by the use of impinging jet cooling by means of a flexible array of liquid jets.
