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Looking at making your metallurgical processes more efficient and less costly? ECM solutions can help.
ECM's low pressure carburizing and gas quenching solutions drive down costs of metallurgical processes. Gains range from massive drop in the costs due to poor quality to the possibility of opting for cheaper materials for equivalent, if not better parts properties.
Operated under vacuum, low pressure carburizing eliminates risks of oxidation associated with atmosphere carburizing, enabling the usage of cheaper, less-alloyed steels (see how Ford saved on material). Better mechanical properties, obtained with the specific StopGQ gas quenching method, allow the design of parts with less expensive steel grades with maintained or improved impact and fatigue strengths results
The perfect surface state of treated parts and improved control of deformation with gas quenching lead to a massive drop in the costs due to poor quality . Uniformity of results greatly reduces the percentage of scrapped parts and the need for hard-stage rectifying operations.
Convinced by the quality and flexibility of the process, Ford USA is expanding the use of low-pressure heat treatment for parts of its six-speed automatic transmissions. And the
result?
A substantial reduction in production costs.
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