Improving the Environmental Performances of Iron Powders Carburizing Process in a Methane-Bearing Atmosphere

Abstract

Considering the advantages of steel surface hardening, when less expensive low-and medium-carbon steels can be surface hardened without the problems of distortion and cracking associated with the through hardening of thick sections, we developed some research entailing the increase in environmental performance of iron powders carburizing process using methane as carrier. Apart of studies on optimal working parameters and methods, our research addresses improvements in environmental performance of process by selecting powders suppliers, reducing raw materials and energy consumptions, considering products life cycle analysis. A comparison is also performed among the characteristics of three series of research for obtaining ecological steels for automotive industry.

Research on the Reduction of Greenhouse Gases Emissions to the Enrichment in Carbon of the Iron Powders

“…The next phase was improving the environmental performances of iron powders carburizing process in a methanebearing atmosphere. The conclusions of this research were as following: the decrease in raw materials and energy consumptions and also the interest in the life cycle of the ecologic steels lead to an increase in the environmental performances of the PM process [3].…”

“…Carburizing in a methane-bearing atmosphere can be realized in three ways: carburizing at the same time with sintering in a total time of electric energy consumption of 780 min (I) [2], carburizing-sintering with the application of a debinding bearing at 350 o C and with time of electric energy consumption of 415 min (II) [4] and sintering followed by carburizing for 370 minutes (III) [3]. Synthetic cementite was prepared by overcarburizing the iron powder in a methane bearingatmosphere [5].…”

“…In order to reduce the greenhouse gases emissions, actions were taken through the modification of the degree of heating and the reduction in the carburizing-sintering time [3].…”

Analysis of Comfort Indices and Their Impact on the Environment

“…Thermal comfort affects people's physical and mental health [1,2]. A major challenge worldwide is the protection of the natural environment and the improvement of the quality of housing, in the spirit of the concept of sustainable development [11,17,20,23].…”

Research on the Mechanical Characteristics of a Microalloyed Steel with V in the Agreement with Environmental Trends

“…Higher solubility of vanadium carbonitrides allow control of steel deformation microalloyed with vanadium with more some wear of cylinders [1]. Adding vanadium to steel provides improved strength compared to standard steels, providing all requirements for ductility, weldability and tenacity, without greatly increasing costs and lower energy consumption [10,17] The main source of vanadium is the recovery of used catalysts in oil refining operations [4,6,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34].…”