Selecting the right steel saves CO2
Increasingly sophisticated applications, as in e-mobility, lead to increasingly exacting demands and thus the need to provide new, advanced materials concepts. GMH continuously optimizes its steels and develops new solutions in steel with properties that, on the one hand, fulfill these growing demands on the steels’ performance quality and, on the other hand, enable economically efficient manufacturing processes.
Cog wheels, gear parts and other components made in case-hardened steels can be produced more economically and with a smaller carbon footprint by using high carburizing temperatures for case-hardening, as this reduces the time needed to achieve the desired hardening effect. However, this requires the use of exactly the right steel grade and the know-how to understand how the entire process chain may influence the carburizing process. This understanding is essential to assure sufficient fine-grain stability. Further CO2 savings can be achieved by using advanced, state-of-the-art vacuum furnaces for the carburizing process. Compared to conventional carburizing, the sum of all these measures can save more than 50% of CO2 during case-hardening.
GMH also specializes in the production of PHFP and bainitic steels, which attain their final properties by controlled cooling from the forging heat. The use of PHFP grades, such as 18MnVS5, 38MnVS6 or 46MnVS5, or bainitic grades, such as 16MnCrV7-7, makes a heat treatment unnecessary. A process without a heat treatment considerably reduces a product’s carbon footprint.