Kikuchi Co., Ltd.

Shigeki Kishihara

Satoshi Shimizu

Takao Minagawa

Hisao Hoshino

Shingo Shikuwa

Norihiko Kikuchi

Tatsushi Yurudume

Sou Suzuki

Yahiro Shimizu

Kouji Haya

Hiroyuki Osaka

Makoto Noudou

A heat treatment operation can be executed, suppressing a wave-shaped deformation at a non heat-treatment region of an article to be heat treated. To an elongated-shaped article to be heat treated to which a raised portion extending in the longitudinal direction is formed, a hardening region, as a heat-treated region defined to extend in a longitudinal direction at a part of the raised portion, and a non-hardening region, as a non-heat-treated region defined to extend in the longitudinal direction at flange portion, and other parts of the raised portion are arranged side by side in a width direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction. The flange portion is clamped by a first and a second clamp, arranged in the longitudinal direction, and one first clamp is a tight clamp for holding fixedly the flange portion and a plurality of second clamps are loose clamps for clamping loosely the flange portion, allowing the article to be heat treated to be convex on the side of the heated hardening region.

Clamp device and clamp method for heat-treated article

A press formed article such as a center pillar or the like for a vehicle having a demanded strength distribution achieved by hardening through induction hardening or the like, and a method and an apparatus for performing induction hardening on the press formed article. The center pillar () being a press formed article has an intermediate top portion () which extends in a longitudinal direction of the center pillar (), and two blade portions () which are both bent in the same direction from both sides of the intermediate top portion (), in which hardening regions (Q) are provided on both sides of the intermediate top portion (), extending over the intermediate top portion () and the blade portions (). These hardening regions (Q) hardened by the induction hardening apparatus are regions in a form which widens toward the end and continuously expand from the upper portion to the lower portion of the center pillar (). Therefore, the ratio between the hardening regions and non-hardening regions changes in the longitudinal direction of the center pillar (), resulting in a demanded strength distribution.

Press molding and its high frequency quenching method and its high frequency quenching system

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Kawasaki, Japan

Shigeki Kishihara