Evaluation of mechanicalProperties of EN31 steel heat treated using biodegradable oils

Abstract

Heat treating is the controlled heating and cooling of metals to achieve the desired physical and mechanical properties without changing the product shape. Most of the researches reveal thatthe commonly used quenchants is water, but petroleum based quenchants are utilized as quenching medium when lower cooling rates and more uniform cooling is desired for better distortion control and crack prevention. In order to overcome some of the disadvantages of petroleum quenchants such as poor biodegradability, toxicity, flammability and non-renewability, an attempt has been made to find an alternative ie., biodegradable, nontoxic oil and renewable such as Gingelly oil and Soybean oil as quenchants in the heat treatment of high carbon EN31 steel and the evaluation of mechanical properties such as hardness, tensile strength, yield strength has been carried out in both untreated and heat treated condition and compared with the properties of petroleum based SF(super-fast quench) oil as quenchant. Research India Publications.