Saves 140 metric tons of ammonia while producing a million gears per year with 99% process reliability and 98% equipment availability
A global automotive manufacturer specializing in the production of diesel engines for trucks, buses, construction machines, boats and other industrial applications decided to modernize and relocate the engine gear manufacturing cell that focused on mechanical assembly and heat treatment.
Previously, the heat treatment process step was carried out with the use of traditional gas nitrocarburizing technology in a 30+ year-old pusher furnace with oil bath cooling in a mixture of endothermic atmosphere and ammonia. The traditional technology and equipment no longer met the current specifications for quality, reliability, productivity, energy intensity, environmental protection and safety.
The new system went online in 2014 and is currently operating at full capacity, meeting the stringent requirements for the automotive industry. It has reached the planned production goal of 1 million gears/year with 99% process reliability and 98% equipment availability. It works continuously with one maintenance break a year. The quality of the heat treatment results meets the requirements in terms of the thickness and hardness of the hardened layer, the compound layer and porosity. No deficient gears were found during normal operation. Moreover, fatigue properties have been improved by about 50 %.
