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BACKGROUND: Walnuts (Juglans regia L.) are considered of high value for human nutrition and are cultivated worldwide. With globalization, however, the demand for regional products has increased. Isotopic fingerprints ( 2 H-, 15 N-and 13 C-values (‰)) created by means of stable isotope ratio mass spectrometry provide the possibility of tracing the geographical provenance of plant foods. RESULTS: Authentic walnut samples from different geographical regions in Germany could be separated from each other by means of their bulk 2 H-values (‰) with samples from northern regions being more enriched in 2 H than samples collected from southern Germany. Next to precipitation data, the topography of the surrounding landscape of the sampling sites was taken into account for data interpretation by the creation of approximate elevation profiles. Moreover, German walnuts could be separated from French walnuts which showed significantly higher 2 H-values (‰). Variations in annual total precipitation was reflected by the shift in 2 H-ranges (‰) depending on the harvesting year. Additionally, organic walnuts could be well separated from conventionally produced walnuts due to their distinct 15 N-values (‰) which could be ascribed to a cultivation practice common for organic farming.CONCLUSIONS: The data presented here outlined the potential of determining isotopic fingerprints of walnuts from different sites within one country for tracing their regional origin and revealing their cultivation conditions. Including topographic characteristics between the sampling locations as well as precipitation data helped to even differentiate walnuts from two adjoining countries.

KurzfassungDas induktive Anlassen bekommt aufgrund der kurzen Prozesszeiten und der dadurch wirtschaftlicheren Produktionsmöglichkeiten vor allem bei Stabmaterial eine immer größere Bedeutung. Allerdings kommt es durch die schnelle Erwärmung und die kurzen Haltedauern zu einer veränderten Ausscheidungskinetik und dadurch zu einem unterschiedlichen Härte-Anlass-Verhalten gegenüber einer konventionellen Wärmebehandlung. Des Weiteren tritt bei der induktiven Erwärmung das Problem des sogenannten “Skin-Effekts“ auf, welcher bei schlechter Prozesssteuerung zu einer überhöhten Randtemperatur, verglichen mit der im Kern, führt. Diese prozessbedingten Charakteristika erschweren das Verständnis der Auswirkung des Prozesses auf die Mikrostruktur des untersuchten Vergütungsstahles. Diese Arbeit möchte daher mithilfe eines kombinierten Ansatzes aus Experimenten an einer Laborinduktionsanlage und Simulationen mithilfe der Finite-Elemente-Methode (FEM) die Optimierung bzw. individuelle Feineinstellung von induktiven Anlassvorgängen für Stab-Geometrien aus dem betrachteten Werkstoff aufzeigen. Dazu wurde mittels FEM-Simulationen die zeitliche Entwicklung des Temperaturfeldes im Werkstück berechnet und diese mit experimentellen Resultaten zu Mikrostruktur, Härte und Zähigkeit in Verbindung gebracht.

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Induction heating processes are of rising interest within the heat treating industry. Using inductive tempering, a lot of production time can be saved compared to a conventional tempering treatment. However, it is not completely understood how fast inductive processes influence the quenched and tempered microstructure and the corresponding mechanical properties. The aim of this work is to highlight differences between inductive and conventional tempering processes and to suggest a possible processing route which results in optimized microstructures, as well as desirable mechanical properties. Therefore, the present work evaluates the influencing factors of high heating rates to tempering temperatures on the microstructure as well as hardness and Charpy impact energy. To this end, after quenching a 50CrMo4 steel three different induction tempering processes are carried out and the resulting properties are subsequently compared to a conventional tempering process. The results indicate that notch impact energy raises with increasing heating rates to tempering when realizing the same hardness of the samples. The positive effect of high heating rate on toughness is traced back to smaller carbide sizes, as well as smaller carbide spacing and more uniform carbide distribution over the sample.

Abstract/KurzfassungThis study focuses on the influence of a fast heat treatment, as occurring with induction heating processes, on the microstructural features, and their effect on the mechanical properties of a 50CrMo4 steel. To this end, three different heating rates (1 K/s, 10 K/s, and 100 K/s) and three different austenitizing temperatures (950 °C, 1000 °C, 1050 °C) were applied to a ferritic-pearlitic steel. After quenching, the resulting martensitic microstructures were investigated and compared to a conventional furnace heat treating sequence using electron back scattered diffraction (EBSD). Thus, the effect of variable heating rates during austenitization on the resulting martensitic microstructure, including the evaluation of packet and block sizes and orientations, was analyzed. Through the investigations of this work, it could be shown, that the adaption of the Kurdjumov-Sachs (K-S) variants is changing with the prior heat treatment. The occurrence of all 24 K-S variants in the same intensity increases and the misorientation angle across a martensite block decrease with higher austenitizing temperatures, despite fast heating rates. Therefore, it is suggested, that the austenitizing temperature has more impact on the martensitic structure than the heating rate.

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