Volume 77, Issue 2

Fisheye failures due to non-metallic inclusions can lead to the reduced endurance fatigue limit of case-hardened, shot-peened gears. Various approaches for preventing crack initiation at non-metallic inclusions are conceivable. As one approach, steel manufacturers have invested much effort in the steelmaking process to produce ultra-clean gear steels. Such ultra-clean gear steels were investigated in a gear research project. For each steel batch, different measures were taken during steel production to avoid or bind off non-metallic inclusions in order to reduce or even suppress the harmful effect of the non-metallic inclusions. However, the influence of the measures taken on the chemical composition of non-metallic inclusions in such ultra-clean gear steels is not investigated in the gear industry in detail so far. Therefore, in the framework of this publication, the chemical composition of non-metallic inclusions in ultra-clean gear steels is investigated. Furthermore, a comparison of the chemical analysis with the crack-initiating inclusions from the experimental investigations is performed.

Surface hardening is an economical and technological alternative to case hardening, especially for larger gear sizes. Due to the high carburization depths required for case hardening with large component dimensions and technological limitations (e. g. furnace size), typical surface hardening processes such as flame or induction hardening show advantages here. In this publication, a flame-spin-hardened variant is compared with an induction-hardened variant using the gap-by-gap method. Both variants have a gear size of m n = 14 mm. A comparison is also made with a case-hardened, shot-peened reference variant of comparable size. In the comparison, the chemical composition, microstructural properties, hardness-depth characteristics and experimental results of the tooth root bending strength tests on the pulsator test rig are presented, comparatively evaluated and discussed. The experimentally determined tooth root load carrying capacities of the two surface-hardened variants are then classified with the reference variant in the state of the art.

A stress analysis for a Hertzian contact of ball on groove is presented. The subsurface stresses, the equivalent stresses and the effect of residual stresses are shown by diagrams. Based on this analysis the requirements for materials applied in rolling element bearings are derived. The basic properties of the bearing steels, the predominantly used materials for rolling element bearing components are described. The influence of the austenitizing temperature, method of quenching and tempering temperature on the material properties is shown on the example of the bearing steel 100CrMnSi6-4. It is demonstrated how the requirements derived by these results can be fulfilled by modern equipment for industrial heat treating. It is also shown, to which extent residual stresses can be induced by different quenching procedures and that bainitic hardening can result in advantages especially for bearing applications.

Additive manufacturing of tool steels represents a great challenge, yet it offers new possibilities for the tool manufacture of, for example, complex forming tools with conformal cooling. First, this contribution gives an overview of the most relevant additive manufacturing processes, the materials and processing concepts. By means of a hybrid manufactured press hardening tool for high-strength sheet metal parts, an example of practical implementation is presented subsequently.

Micromagnetic non-destructive (NDT) methods offer a great potential for the analysis of near-surface properties after machining due to potential time and cost reduction as well as the option to be implemented into the machining process. As a result, the development of soft sensor concepts including micromagnetic NDT methods is in focus of current investigations in order to eventually improve the surface integrity of machined components and, thus, service life and reliability. However, a preceding calibration based on empirical data as well as a reliable validation is often referred to as one of the main challenges of micromagnetic NDT methods. The present study provides insights into the calibration and validation of a micromagnetic 3MA-II system for NDT analysis of the near-surface properties, with a focus on the residual stress depth profiles after hard turning of 51CrV4 specimens. Different calibration functions as well as a combination of different NDT methods are taken into consideration. The results and the potential of the 3MA system as well as open challenges are critically discussed.