What is selective surface hardening?

• These methods heat only the work surface , or local areas of the work surface. They differ
from surface hardening methods in no chemical changes occur. Here the treatments are only
thermal.
• The basic requirement for these processes is that the steel must have sufficient carbon and
hardenability.
• Medium carbon steels are usually suited for these processes.
Why selective hardening?
1-Parts to be heat-treated are so large.
2-Only a small segment ,section ,or area of the part need to be heat-treated.
3-Better dimensional accuracy of a heat-treated part.
What type of selective surface hardening?
Flame Hardening.
Induction Hardening.
Laser Hardening
Electron Beam hardening
Flame Hardening
Is a common  method. Metal surfaces, such as steel, are heated with a high-temperature flame and then
quenched. The result of flame hardening is a hard surface that is more resistant against wear and
corrosion.
Oxy acetylene or oxyhydrogen torch is used.
For good result carbon content should be between 0.3-0.6%.
 Only certain steel can be hardened.
Depth of heat penetration into metal is difficult to control
Deep cases up to 6mm.
Induction hardening
Process involve induction heating with induction coil . Induced eddy currents heat the surface of the
steel very quickly and is quickly followed by jet of water to quench the component.
Hardness to depth of 0.8mm is achieved in 1 to 5 sec . Suitable for heat treatment for camshafts ,
crankshafts gears etc.
Induction heating is widely used in industry for processes such as soldering , adhesive curing and various
heat treatment . The depth of hardening increases as the frequency of the alternating current decreases.
Other variables important to the process include the coil current, heating time, and the coil design .
The process lend itself to high production as well as midrange production because heat cycle time are
short.
Depth of case can be controlled by varying freq and time. Temperature
produced is about 700-800 C. can be handled easily with irregulars shape.
Laser Hardening
Laser surface heat treatment is widely used to harden localized area of steel and cast iron machine
components.
Phosphate ,coating is applied over surface to absorb laser energy.
Depth of heat absorption can be controlled by varying power of laser. Depth is (0.75-1.3) mm .
Temp. of 900-1400 C is obtained.
Electron Beam hardening
Electron beam heating involves localized surface of steel in which the electron beam is focused onto a
small area . Use to harden the component which cannot be harden by induction hardening . In this heat
source is a beam of high energy electrons.
Process is self quenched and hardened by heat transfer to the surrounding cold metal.
Depth of case varies from 0.1-1.5mm.
A disadvantage of EB heating is that best results are achieved when the process is performed in a
vacuum at 0.6 bar pressure.
 Flame Induction
Oxy acetylene or oxyhydrogen torch is used. Power supply, inductor, quench system

Significant skill required Little skill required after setup

Attention required Very precise

Hot, eye protection required Can be done in suit

LB Hardening EB Hardening
No need of vacuum -1 Needs vacuum -1
Distance between source and component-2 Distance between source and component is-2
.is relatively high .relatively small
.Beam guidance by mirrors and lenses-3 Beam guidance by electromagnetic-3
.coils