Preventing Carburizing By Copper-plating
:
CASE-HARDENING OR SURFACE-CARBURIZING
:
The Working Of Steel
Copper-plating has been found effective and must have a thickness
of 0.0005 in. Less than this does not give a continuous coating.
The plating bath used has a temperature of 170 deg.F. A voltage of
4.1 is to be maintained across the terminals. Regions which are
to be hardened can be kept free from copper by coating them with
paraffin before they enter the plating tank. The operation is as
follows:
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Operation
No. Contents of bath Purpose
1 Gasoline To remove grease
2 Sawdust To dry
3 Warm potassium hydroxide solution To remove grease and dirt
4 Warm water To wash
5 Warm sulphuric acid solution To acid clean
6 Warm water To wash
7 Cold water Additional wash
8 Cold potassium cyanide solution Cleanser
9 Cold water To wash
10 Electric cleaner, warm sodium Cleanser to give good
hydroxide case-iron anode plating surface
11 Copper plating bath of copper Plating bath
sulphate and potassium cyanide
solution warm
There are also other methods of preventing case-hardening, one
being to paint the surface with a special compound prepared for
this purpose. In some cases a coating of plastic asbestos is used
while in others thin sheet asbestos is wired around the part to
be kept soft.