The effects of vibrator quenching (QV) on the carbon content, microstructure, and mechanical properties (surface hardness number, wear resistance) in the pack carburizing of AISI 9310 steel were studied. The aim of this research is to increase the surface hardness and improve the wear resistance of AISI 9310 steel. The problem that often occurs in the quenching treatment after pack carburizing is that the thick cooling medium does not evenly wet the surface of the specimen, so that the cooling rate is not uniform, the impact is the distribution of the specimen surface hardness is not the same. Therefore, it is necessary to research the implementation of the vibrator in the quenching treatment.
The specimens were treated with pack carburizing at a temperature of 875 °C, soaking time for 3 hours. The carburizing agent consisted of chicken egg shell powder (CESP) and rice husk charcoal (RHC) with various weight ratios of 5 %:95 %, 15 %:85 %, and 30 %:70 %. Followed by quenching treatment using a 10 % cane molasses cooling medium and vibrator. Hardness testing was carried out using a Vickers microhardness tester, wear resistance test using the pin-on-disc method, and a scanning electron microscope (SEM-EDX) was used to observe changes in the microstructure and carbon elemental content on the specimen surface.
The results showed that the application of VQ caused the formation of a small martensite microstructure while without VQ it was large martensite and a few of residual ferrite. The highest surface hardness number is 685 kg/mm2, the wear resistance is 0.32 cm/mg for pack carburizing, using carburizing agent 70 % RHC, 30 % CESP and VQ. VQ causes a more even distribution of the thick cane molasses cooling medium so that the cooling rate of the specimens is uniform.