Mathematical Modeling of Carbon Flux Parameters for Low-Pressure Vacuum Carburizing with Medium-High Alloy Steel

Low-pressure vacuum carburizing adopts a pulse process mode to improve the carburizing efficiency and reduces gas and energy consumption. Carbon flux is the key to accurately control the time of strong infiltration and diffusion in each pulse. In order to obtain the carbon fluxes with various materials under diffident carburizing process conditions, an evenly segmented carbon flux method is proposed. A systematic study with each model using different materials (12Cr2Ni4A, 16Cr3NiWMoVNbE, and 18Cr2Ni4WA represent different initial carbon concentrations and different alloy compositions), carburizing temperatures, and carburizing pressures to determine the effect of these conditions on carbon flux is conducted. Compared with traditional segmented carbon flux method, an evenly segmented carbon flux method can predict the actual carbon flux more precisely and effectively in order to finely control the pulse carburization process. The paper also indicates that carbon fluxes increase with the increase of pressure. The optimal carburization pressure for low-pressure vacuum carburization is 300 Pa. Raising the carburization temperature to 980 °C instead of 920 °C can increase effective carbon flux by more than 30%. Among the material compositions, alloy content has the biggest impact over the carbon, initial carbon concentration the second, and saturated carbon concentration the third biggest impact.