from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
The unique combination of properties of surface as well as core of steel can be achieved by the electron beam hardening. However, in order to achieve desired results, it is first necessary to obtain a surface of sufficient hardness (i.e. to increase the hardness of the surface layer using surface hardening techniques). Due to the high power of electron beam welding machines and properties of the electron beam itself, the above-named technology makes it possible to harden workpieces within a wide range of thicknesses up to about 2 mm. However, it should be noted that for such low depth of modified materials wider range of mechanical tests such as impact test or hardness maps are difficult for conducted. The analysis of the process is limited. Thus, the numerical simulation or physical simulation allow to analysis many different aspects of surface hardening. In the paper the results of electron beam hardening as well as physical simulation based on Gleeble system for C45 steel were compared. The different cooling systems were applied such as: air and water. The results indicated that at the proper cooling time the results of electron beam welding as we as physical simulation can be effectively compared. The light microscopy as well as SEM were adopted and detailed microstructure were discussed. The similar microstructure after EB process as well after physical simulation were obtained. However, only for narrow range of cooling time the results are comparable.
Keywords: electron beam hardening, heat treatment, physical simulation© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.