A Novel Heat Treatment Process for Surface Hardening of Steel: Metal Melt Surface Hardening

A novel heat treatment process for surface hardening of steel has been demonstrated and named as “metal melt surface hardening (MMSH).” A surface layer with a thickness of about 400 μm and a hardness of about 700 HV has been achieved by ejecting AISI 304 stainless steel melt at a temperature of about 1783 K (1510 °C) onto the 40Cr steel surface. This proposed MMSH provides a very promising application for surface hardening of steel.