Method for producing a cam that can be placed on a hollow shaft to form a camshaft

Abstract

A process is provided for the production of a cam to be joined to a hollow shaft to form a camshaft. In order to make the cam suitable for stable long-term operation on the camshaft, the internal compressive stresses achieved in the cam track before the joining of the cam to the camshaft being so high that the tensile stresses resulting from joining are permanently overcompensated, it is provided that the material selected for the cam is a steel in which the carbon can be dissolved easily as cementite in the pearlite and martensite or is in the form of a fine composite carbide. The cam, which is composed of a hardenable steel, should be fully hardened and, during tempering in the hardening operation, the basic hardness should be set in a range of between 25 and 40 HRC. The cam should then be edge-zone-hardened in a two-stage heating process by induction hardening at a medium frequency of 10-35 kHz, after the preheating stage of the heating process, the introduction of heat being interrupted for 0.3-1.5 seconds. After the action of the preheat, the cam track should then be heated in such a way by means of medium frequency that an edge-zone hardening depth of between at least 0.5 mm and at most 2.0 mm relative to the cam base circle and the cam flanks and at most 2.2 mm relative to the cam tip is obtained in the middle of the track, after which the cam is sprayed with a quenching medium immediately, within a matter of milliseconds of the end of the heating process.