Austempered Materials and their Applications to Drive Line and Suspension Components 2000-01-2563
The Austempering process is a high performance heat treatment that, when applied to ferrous materials, produces components that, in many cases, have properties superior to those processed by conventional means. The Austempering processes include:
Austempered Ductile Iron
Austempered Gray Iron
Austempered Steels and Powdered Metals
Carbo-Austempered™ Steels
Austempered Ductile Iron (ADI) has an exceptionally high strength-to-weight ratio with good fatigue strength and fracture toughness. In fact, with strength three times greater than that of aluminum with only two and a half times the density, ADI can replace aluminum at equal weight for a substantial cost savings.
Austempered Gray Iron (AGI) has an excellent combination of noise damping, wear resistance and thermal conductivity. It has received a great deal of attention as diesel engine manufacturers increase cylinder pressures to meet ever more stringent exhaust requirements.
Austempered Steels exhibit remarkable fatigue strength and toughness at hardnesses exceeding 38 Rc. They also resist hydrogen embrittlement during plating. High density, powdered metal parts do not crack during heat treatment.
Carbo-Austempered™ Steels exhibit low cycle, high load fatigue performance that is 40 to 70% better than that of comparably carburized and hardened components. Carbo-Austempered™ Steels can demonstrate an order of magnitude greater impact strength than carburized and hardened steels.
