Influence of Scanning Conditions on Properties of Electron Beam Hardening

There are many methods for case hardening such as conventional induction hardening and newly developed electron beam hardening.

Electron beam hardening has been adopted in Isuzu and the reliability of engines has been improved.

The beam power of the electron beam hardening equipment used was 6 kW. Various conditions of electron beam were scanned across specimens (SCM435H) in order to investigate the influence on hardening properties. As a result, relation between case depth and beam current and relation between case depth and beam scanning time were confirmed. And when the depth exceeded 1 mm, there were cracks in surface melted area.

Electron beam hardening was applied to tappets according to the above fundamental experiments, and uniformly hardened layers were obtained. Durability of engines with electron beam hardened tappets was improved twice as much as those with non-hardened tappets.