What is carburizing

What is carburizing

        Carburizing is a kind of metal surface treatment. The carburizing is mostly low-carbon steel or low-alloy steel. The specific method is to place the workpiece in an active carburizing medium and heat it to a single-phase austenitic at 900-950 degrees Celsius. In the tensite zone, after holding for sufficient time, the activated carbon atoms decomposed from the carburizing medium can penetrate into the surface of the steel part, thereby obtaining high carbon in the surface layer, and the core part still maintains the original composition. Similarly, there is low temperature nitriding treatment. This is a common heat treatment process for metal materials, which can make the surface of the carburized workpiece obtain high hardness and improve its wear resistance.

        The carburizing process in China can be traced back to before 2000. The first was carburizing with solid carburizing media. Liquid and gas carburizing appeared in the 20th century and was widely used. The United States began to use rotary drum furnaces for gas carburizing in the 1920s. In the 1930s, continuous gas carburizing furnaces began to be used in industry. High temperature (960～1100℃) gas carburizing was developed in the 1960s. In the 1970s, vacuum carburizing and ion carburizing appeared.