New Steels and Technologies for Nitrided Parts of Long Life Machines

Abstract

The analysis of the used steels for nitrided parts is carried out. On the basis of a new methodology for increasing the strength of structural steels and parts, new scientific approaches and practical solutions are proposed and considered for the creation of gear wheels strengthened by nitriding both when using aluminum containing steels and a new material, 40ХМФА (40KhMFA) steel, that does not contain aluminum. To improve the efficiency and manufacturability of parts production from aluminum-containing 38Х2МЮА (38Kh2MYuA) steel, widely used in mechanical engineering, a fundamentally new technology of preliminary heat treatment of part blanks, “incomplete quenching”, has been developed, which provides both an increase in the machinability and accuracy of large-sized gear wheels, and an increase in strength due to the elimination of flaking of nitrided layer. The research results are presented on 40ХМФА (40KhMFA) steel, which does not contain aluminum, has increased heat resistance, hardenability and workability of parts, as well as the characteristics of the hardened layer. The nitrided layer of gears with a thickness of 0.5–0.7 mm does not contain brittle components, which, with a core hardness of 300–320 HB, also excludes its flaking and subsequent destruction of parts. The use of 40ХМФА (40KhMFA) steel makes it possible to solve the problems of reliability and life of large-sized nitrided gears, but it is also promising for the entire range of gears with internal gearing, as well as parts of movable spline gearings and fine-modular gears in order to replace carburizing with nitriding.