Castool Tooling Systems, a division of Exco Technologies, installed a new, turnkey nitrocarburizing system from Nitrex. The large capacity furnace is part of a significant investment project involving the installation of various pieces of heat-treating process equipment at the company’s facility in New Market, Canada. The nitrocarburizing system will support the company’s ability to process H-13 steels for product of tooling for extrusion and die-casting companies.
Paul Robbins, president of Castool, discusses some of his reasons for selecting the new nitrocarborizing system:
Our company is a major consumer of H-13 steel, which we use for our extrusion and die cast tooling. We need about 4-5 million pounds of H-13 every year, and we process all of it with heat treatment and half of it with nitriding. Recently, we decided to invest in our own heat treatment and nitriding facilities, for several reasons. The most important one is safety. We cannot afford to have our tools fail or break due to poor quality steel or improper processing. This could endanger our workers and damage our machines. Safety is not negotiable in our industry. Another reason is reliability. We want our tools to perform consistently and reliably, without causing defects or delays in our production. This is especially important as we face more challenges from the market, such as increasing demand for structural alloys, more complex and larger profiles, and longer billets that require more pressure.
We also want to improve the longevity and efficiency of our tools, which means reducing wear and tear and increasing productivity. To achieve these goals, we need to pay attention to the quality and composition of our H-13 steel. H-13 is a versatile grade of steel, but it has a wide range of specifications. Some low-cost H-13 steels may have lower levels of chromium, molybdenum, and vanadium, which are essential elements for enhancing the properties of H-13. They may also have higher levels of impurities, such as sulfur and phosphorus, which can degrade the quality of H-13. When we buy high-quality H-13 steels, they will have higher levels of these beneficial elements, which will improve the performance of our tools. For example, vanadium helps with heat treatment, hardness, and temper resistance; molybdenum increases temper resistance; and chromium increases wear resistance. All these factors affect the safety, longevity, reliability, and efficiency of our tools.
The new NX-1625 pit-type nitrocarburizing furnace from Nitrex is capable of processing large workloads of up to 6,000 kg (13,200 lbs) with dimensions of 1,550 mm (61 inches) in diameter and 2,500 mm (98.5 inches) in height. The turnkey solution includes Nitreg®-C controlled nitrocarburizing and ONC® post-oxidation technologies with proven recipes to treat shot sleeves made of H-13 tool steel effectively. These technologies improve the strength and longevity of the shot sleeves while also preventing distortion when used in high-temperature and corrosive environments. Furthermore, component post-finishing is eliminated, since after nitrocarburizing, treated parts retain their dimensional stability.
“Nitriding is an important factor for tooling,” stated Robbins. “We have been using commercial nitrides for a long time at Castool, and they worked well enough. But now we have our own nitriding facility, in partnership with Nitrex, and the difference is remarkable. We can control the thickness of the nitride layer, the white layer, and the diffusion layer. This gives us better wear resistance and a longer tool life.”
