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:
Jan. 30, 2001
Filed:
Jan. 28, 1999
Isao Yoshida, Chigasaki, JP;
Kimio Goto, Chigasaki, JP;
Hiroyuki Takeno, Hiratsuka, JP;
Masahiro Nakajima, Tokyo, JP;
Topy Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A method for heat-treating a hollow cylindrical workpiece includes quench-hardening including a first step and a second step. In the first step, during continuously conveying the workpiece in a horizontal direction without a space between adjacent workpieces, an entirety of the workpiece is subjected to induction-heating conducted from an outside surface of the workpiece only, and a temperature of the workpiece is made uniform before the workpiece reaches a cooling portion spaced from a heating portion. Then, cooling the workpiece is initiated before the temperature of the workpiece falls to Ar,temperature and an entire cross-section of a wall of the workpiece is quench-hardened. In the second step, during continuously conveying the workpiece in the horizontal direction, induction-heating is conducted only to an outside portion of the workpiece, the induction-heating being conducted from the outside surface only. Immediately after that, the workpiece is cooled from the outside surface thereby re-quench-hardening the outside portion, so that both the outside portion and the inside portion of the workpiece have a hardness greater than an effective hardness, and a core portion of a wall of the workpiece has a hardness less than the effective hardness.