The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 07, 1999
Filed:
Dec. 23, 1997
Glen A Gibbs, Warren, MI (US);
ITT Manufacturing Enterprises, Inc., Wilmington, DE (US);
Abstract
A process for manufacturing push rod balls including the steps of introducing a metal ball, having an exterior surface, into contact with a carbon enriched medium for an interval sufficient to diffuse carbon into metal matrix forming the exterior surface region and, then, rapidly cooling the carburized metal balls. After the carburized metal balls are cooled, a central bore is drilled through the body of the metal ball. After drilling, the metal ball is brought into contact with a hardening atmosphere at a suitable temperature for an interval sufficient to harden the metal region proximate to the exterior surface of the metal ball. After contact with the hardening atmosphere, the metal balls are oil quenched. The resulting push rod balls have an exteriorly oriented wear surface surrounding an interior core. The interior core is composed of a steel or steel alloy containing between about 0.1 and about 0.2% by weight carbon. A hardened case layer is of an essentially uniform depth is located between the exterior surface and the inner core. The push rod ball has a cylindrical throughbore transiting its diameter. The push rod ball can be positioned on a suitable push rod shaft to provide a push rod assembly in which the weld region connecting shaft to ball extends through the hardened case region into the central core of the push rod ball.