Carburizing is one type of heat treatment process in which iron or steel absorbs carbon while the metal is heated in the presence of carbon-bearing materials like charcoal or carbon monoxide and make the metal harder. Let us have a deep insight into the pros and cons of the carburizing process in this article.
Advantages of the carburizing process :
- Carburizing is applied to low carbon steels.
- Low carbon steel is in contact with a high-carbon in the form of gas, liquid or solid because of carburizing.
- Carburizing produces a hard steel surface by increasing the carbon content of the surface.
- The steel cores largely retain their ductility and toughness.
- Carburizing process produces case hardened depths of up to 6 mm.
- In some cases carburizing serves as a remedy for undesired decarburization which has happened earlier in a manufacturing process.
- The increase in surface hardness results in enhanced wear and fatigue resistance.
- Good adherence due to diffusion.
Disadvantages of the carburizing process :
- Dimensional deviations due to high-temperature process and hardening treatment.
- Expensive machine so cost is high.
- The dimension of a workpiece is limited.
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