Case studies

Automatic system for induction hardening and tempering for steering racks

Technical requirements

  • Complete heat treatment, in full automatic cycle, for automotive steering rack:
    – Induction hardening of shaft
    – Induction hardening of tooth
    – Full steering rack stress reliving
  • New type of steering rack could be setup for production in 15 minutes.
  • Full control of parameters process and production data quality monitoring. Full automatic machine production without human presence.

Product

Steering rack length up to 1300 mm and diameter up to 36 mm.

Solution

Machine MTR8 – 2T2R, made by:

  • Vertical hardening machine with turn table. Hardening vertical “scanner” on two pieces per cycle. Connection ready to robot for automatic load-unload pieces. Hardening by two independent generator 100 kW at 12 kHz.
  • Tempering stress reliving generator 100kW×2 pieces at 300 Hz.
  • Monitoring production system of hardening and tempering process with full trackability IPC 5.0.
  • Production up to 200 pieces/hour.
  • New tooling setup: 15 minutes