20th International Forgemasters Meeting - IFM 2017

L&T Special steels and heavy forgings private limited is India’s one of the largest forging plant with integrated steel melting facility which started its operation in 2012.It has got all associated facilities to deliver finish forged products up to 150 MT. This paper explains the process of establishing ultra-modern agitation system in quenching tank with specialized headers and nozzles. The reason for installation is to get effective cooling rate which is one of the most critical parameter in heat treatment process that governs achieving required mechanical properties & metallurgical structure. In quenching operation, agitation system and quenching media physical conditions directly influences cooling rates of heavy forgings which are of extreme important to get desired properties. Due to heavy thickness of forgings, there always been a large difference in cooling rates from the surface to center of forged product which results in different microstructure at different depths. In this paper we have also included study of the cooling rates at various depths for various profiles of different forged thickness & grades of steel forgings. A Comparative study is also carried out between various tanks with different quenchant volume for analyzing quenchant effect.