A new quenching alternative

The quenching of ferrous alloys implies the controlled extraction of heat from a part at a rate sufficient to harden the part and still control the desired dimensional limitations. Quenchants in common use today are: molten metals, molten salts, petroleum oils, polymer solutions, water, and salt/water solutions. Each type of quenchant has its benefits and limitations. With current waste legislation and the trends toward environmentally friendlier industrial working fluids, many of these quenching products are coming under close scrutiny by the users and legislators. The most widely used quenchant is petroleum oil due to its favorable heat extraction characteristics. The dependence upon imports, price vulnerability, and contamination potential have caused suppliers and users to look into alternative products. Research into renewable resource, non-petroleum, vegetable oils has been going on globally for several years. The drawbacks encountered with many vegetable oils were widely known and only years of research enabled them to be overcome. The presently formulated product not only performs as well as petroleum oil but shows some characteristics better than those of the petroleum products, especially in the biodegradability and ecological aspects of the products. Stability and reproducible quenching properties have been proven with over two and one halfmore » years of field testing.« less