Technology and equipment for plasma surface hardening of heavy-duty parts

Local heat treatment is justifiable in many cases in terms of technology and cost effectiveness, where only the most loaded working surface is subjected to hardening, while the bulk of a material remains untreated. Plasma surface hardening allows wear to be decreased and service life of heavy-loaded machine parts to be extended 2-5 times. The novel method of plasma hardening is technically and economically preferable for heat treatment of a large number of parts. One example of its application is high-speed surface hardening of all types of passenger, freight, and locomotive train wheelsets. Tests show that in all cases the amount of wear of the wheelset ridges after plasma hardening is much lower (2.5-3.0 times) than that of the ridges after standard heat treatment.