JP2014505790A - Heat treatment process for manufacturing drive belt metal ring components - Google Patents

Abstract

  The present invention provides a heat treatment process in a manufacturing method for a metal ring (14) for use in a drive belt (1), wherein the ring (14) is treated at several hundred degrees Celsius in an ammonia-containing atmosphere, In the heat treatment step, the aging of the material of the ring (14) and the heat treatment of nitridation are combined. According to the present invention, in such a combined process, the temperature of the process gas atmosphere gradually decreases and / or the concentration of ammonia in the process gas gradually increases.

Description

  The present invention relates to a manufacturing method for a metal ring used in a drive belt, in particular to a heat treatment process part of the manufacturing method as defined by the preamble of claim 1 below. The drive belt is usually used as a means for power transmission between two adjustable pulleys of a known continuously variable transmission, which is mainly used in automobiles.

  One known type of drive belt is described in detail in EP-A-1403551, in which a number of relatively thin transverse metals are slidably attached to two stacked endless tension means. The elements and the endless tensioning means each consist of a set of flat metal rings stacked on top of each other, alternatively referred to as endless bands or hoops. Such rings are typically manufactured from precipitation hardened steels such as maraging steels, which have high tensile strength properties and excellent durability against tensile stress and bending fatigue. Combined with the relatively preferred possibilities for processing from the sheet material to the desired shape, and preferably the material properties of the final product ring that should not change along the circumference of the ring. In particular, the present invention provides the following basic composition: 17-19% by weight nickel, 4-6% by weight molybdenum, 8-18% by weight cobalt, and optionally a small amount of 1 It relates to a range of maraging steel alloys containing less than% by weight of other alloying elements such as titanium and / or impurities and balanced iron.

  These desired material properties include the appropriate hardness of the ring core material to combine large tensile strength properties with sufficient elasticity to allow longitudinal bending of the ring, and a ring to provide wear resistance Including an extremely hard outer layer. In addition, the outer layer is provided with residual compressive stress to provide high resistance to metal fatigue, which is due to the numerous loads and bending cycles that the ring is exposed to during the service life of the belt. Is an important feature of the ring.

  The basics of known methods for producing such rings are known in the art and are described, for example, in EP 1 538 889. The ring was formed from a sheet base material, which was bent and welded into a cylindrical or tubular shape and was made into the sheet base material to restore its original material properties, i.e. by bending and welding. In order to remove most of the changes, a heat treatment or annealing is performed. The tube is then cut into a number of hoops, which are then rolled and stretched to the required thickness, which is typically about 0.185 mm in the final product. After rolling, the hoop is usually referred to as a ring or band. The ring is subjected to a further annealing step to remove internal stresses created during rolling. The ring is then calibrated. That is, the ring is attached around two rotating rollers and stretched to a predetermined circumference.

  Finally, according to EP-A-1753889, the ring is composed of precipitation hardening, ie aging or core hardening heat treatment, and gas soft nitriding, ie surface hardening by implantation of nitrogen atoms in an ammonia-containing process gas atmosphere. Are exposed to a heat treatment process that includes, ie, combines. This known combined process is carried out at a temperature of 440 to 480 ° C. for 45 to 65 minutes in an atmosphere containing 10% by volume or more of ammonia gas.

  The known combined heat treatment process is very cost effective but more difficult to control with respect to the more conventional, sequential heat treatment process described, for example, in EP-A-1055738. It also has drawbacks. In particular, in a combined heat treatment process, it has been found that it is more difficult to achieve the material properties desired for rings in drive belt applications, at least reliably and / or in mass production. In particular, in a combined heat treatment process, it has been found that the microstructure of the ring at and / or near the outer surface of the ring is often suboptimal in terms of ring fatigue strength.

  The present invention is current in the sense that the drive belt ring produced thereby has a fatigue strength that is at least close to, preferably greater than, a drive belt ring produced according to a sequential heat treatment process of aging and nitriding. The aim is to improve the combined heat treatment process.

  According to the invention, the object can be achieved by an improved combined heat treatment process according to claim 1 below. According to the present invention, the temperature in the combined heat treatment process gradually decreases as the combined process proceeds.

  By this means, ring nitriding occurs in the early stages of the combined heat treatment process, i.e. when the process temperature is still relatively high, whereas ring aging occurs relatively strongly, i.e. relatively fast. It is realized that it is not affected, ie occurs at a more or less constant rate. Since the temperature decreases as the combined process proceeds, the ring aging process is slowed and excessive aging is prevented. Furthermore, ring nitriding occurs primarily only after substantial precipitation hardening of the ring has already occurred. The present invention is based on the applicant's experimental observation that the microstructure thus obtained provides the ring with significantly higher fatigue strength than that obtained from current combined heat treatment processes.

  According to the invention, the object can also be realized by an improved combined heat treatment process according to claim 7 below. According to the invention, the ammonia content of the process gas gradually decreases as the combined process proceeds.

  By this means, in addition, in the early stages of the combined heat treatment process, i.e. when the ammonia concentration is still relatively low, ring nitridation occurs relatively slowly, i.e. relatively slowly, whereas the ring It is realized that aging is hardly affected, i.e. occurs at a more or less constant rate. However, as the combined process proceeds, the ammonia concentration increases so that the nitridation of the ring increases, but at this point, substantial precipitation hardening of the ring has already occurred. The present invention is again an experimental observation by the applicant that the microstructure thus obtained provides a ring with significantly higher fatigue strength than that obtained from the current combined heat treatment process. based on. In the current combined heat treatment process, nitrogen entering the maraging steel lattice can not only react with the alloy elements to form precipitates, but also form nitrogen compounds near the outer surface of the ring. It is assumed that this nitrogen compound adversely acts as a fatigue crack source.

  Preferably, both means are applied simultaneously to further enhance the inventive effect of increasing the fatigue strength of the drive belt ring component when manufactured by a combined aging and nitriding process. In this latter case, during the combined process, the temperature of the process gas atmosphere is preferably reduced from 480-520 ° C. to 400-440 ° C., and the ammonia gas concentration in the process gas supplied to the ring is Preferably, it is increased from 0 to 6% by volume to 4 to 12% by volume, and is preferably mixed only with nitrogen gas.

  Also preferably, the decrease in process temperature and / or the increase in ammonia concentration according to the present invention continues as long as the process continues, i.e. from the start to the end of the process. Also preferably, the increase and / or decrease occurs (is controlled to) substantially linearly. Particularly effective process conditions in this regard are a linear decrease in the temperature from 500 ° C. to 420 ° C. from the start to the end of the combined heat treatment process and a linear increase in the ammonia concentration from 2% to 5% by volume. Is an increase.

  The above basic features of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a schematic diagram of a drive belt to which the present invention relates and a transmission in which such a belt is used. FIG. 4 is a view of the type in which the stacked tensioning means and transverse elements are oriented with respect to each other in the drive belt. FIG. 2 schematically shows a known method of manufacturing a metal ring used by endless tensioning means of a drive belt including combined aging and nitriding process steps. FIG. 4 shows the process conditions of the ammonia NH ₃ concentration at a temperature T and volume% in ° C. in the process gas supplied to the ring during the combined aging and nitriding of the ring according to the invention.

  In the drawings, the separate process steps of the known manufacturing method and the new manufacturing method are indicated by Roman numerals.

  FIG. 1 schematically shows a continuously variable transmission (CVT) with a drive belt 1 wound around two pulleys 4 and 5. The belt 1 is composed of laminated tensioning means 2 and tensioning means in the form of two sets of endless thin flat metal rings 14 (see FIG. 2), alternatively referred to as bands 14, which are superposed on each other. A substantially continuous array of transverse elements 3, alternatively referred to as transverse elements 3, which are mounted along the circumference of 2 and may slide freely along the tensioning means 2, Is formed. Such continuously variable transmissions are known per se.

  FIG. 2 shows a front view of the transverse element 3 and a cross-sectional view of the stacked tensioning means 2. The transverse element 3 has a lateral side 6, by which the transverse element 3 abuts against the conical surface of one sheave of the driving pulley or the driven pulley. The ring 14 of the tension means 2 is manufactured from high quality steel, for example maraging steel. The typical thickness of the ring 14 is 0.15-0.25 mm, the typical width of the ring 14 is 8-35 mm, and the typical circumference of the ring 14 is 500-1000 mm.

FIG. 3 shows here the relevant parts of the known manufacturing method for the belt 1 described above, in particular the ring 14 of the belt 1, as practiced since the early days of metal push belt manufacturing. In the first process step I, the sheet of base material 11 is bent into a cylindrical shape, whereby the sheet ends 12 that are abutted against each other are welded in a second process step II to form the tube 13. In the third step III of the process, the tube 13 is annealed at a temperature higher than 800 ° C. in an inert environment, for example a vacuum or an atmosphere consisting mainly of nitrogen gas N ₂ . Thereafter, in a fourth process step IV, the tube 13 is cut into a number of hoops 14 which are then rolled and stretched to a predetermined thickness in process step V. After rolling, the hoop 14 is usually referred to as the ring 14 or band 14. The ring 14 is subjected to another further annealing process step VI to remove internal stresses created during rolling. Thereafter, in a seventh process step VII, the ring 14 is calibrated. That is, the ring 14 is attached around two rotating rollers and is stretched to a predetermined circumference. In this seventh process step VII, an internal stress distribution is also applied to the rings 14, which defines the so-called winding radius of each ring 14.

Finally, in the eighth step VIII of the known manufacturing method, the ring 14 is heat treated at 460 ° C. for 60 minutes in a combined heat treatment process of ring core hardening or aging and ring surface hardening or gas soft nitriding. . In this example, the process gas atmosphere is mainly composed of an inert gas, that is, nitrogen gas N ₂ , but also contains 10% by volume of ammonia gas NH ₃ .

  As shown also in FIG. 3, by fitting a number of rings 14 selected according to the purpose from a number of such processed rings 14, that is, one ring 14 is surrounded by another ring 14. The tensioning means 2 is formed by being arranged concentrically with each other, in which case a small positive or negative play is allowed between adjacent rings 14 of the tensioning means 2.

According to the present invention, the above known manufacturing method, at least its combined heat treatment process step, is significantly improved by using one or both of the following means, as shown in FIG. That is,
Control the temperature of the process gas atmosphere to gradually decrease or gradually decrease during the combined process (in the example shown, it starts at 500 ° C. at the beginning of the combined process and finally decreases to 420 ° C.) Or-control the ammonia concentration of the process gas supplied to the ring 14 in the combined process and preferably additionally of nitrogen gas to gradually increase or increase from 0 (in the example shown, the combined Starting at 2% by volume at the beginning of the process and increasing to 5% by volume at the end)

  In accordance with the present invention, this new condition of the combined aging and nitriding process provides significantly improved fatigue strength for the ring thus treated and the final manufactured drive belt. According to the present invention, such a suitable fatigue strength is such that, in the early stages of the combined heat treatment process, a relatively rapid initial precipitation growth occurs when nitrogen atoms are not yet sufficiently penetrated into the ring material. It comes from the effect of being realized. In the later stages of the combined heat treatment process, the exact opposite effect is achieved to prevent excessive aging while still ensuring sufficient penetration of nitrogen atoms into the ring (surface) material.

  Preferably, the combined heat treatment process is carried out for 10-60 minutes from start to finish, for example to prevent excessive aging and / or so-called composite layer formation.

  All details of the invention other than those described above and of the drawings not described but immediately and clearly apparent to those skilled in the art are further related to all details of the following claims.

Claims (10)

  A heat treatment process in a method of manufacturing a metal ring (14) for use in a drive belt (1), wherein the ring (14) is treated at a temperature of several hundred degrees Celsius in an ammonia gas-containing atmosphere. A heat treatment process, wherein the temperature of the process gas atmosphere is lowered or controlled to be lowered during the heat treatment process.   The heat treatment process according to claim 1, wherein the temperature of the process gas atmosphere gradually decreases from the initial 480 to 520 ° C. to the final 400 to 440 ° C. during the heat treatment process.   The heat treatment process according to claim 1 or 2, wherein during the heat treatment process, the temperature of the process gas atmosphere gradually decreases from the first 500 ° C of the process to 420 ° C at the end of the process.   The heat treatment process according to claim 1, wherein the temperature reduction occurs at a substantially linear rate.   5. The heat treatment process according to claim 1, wherein the concentration of ammonia in the process gas supplied to the ring (14) is increased during the heat treatment process.   The heat treatment process of claim 5, wherein the increase in ammonia concentration occurs at a substantially linear rate.   Heat treatment process in a manufacturing method for a metal ring (14) for use in a drive belt (1), said ring (14) being in particular ammonia according to one or more of claims 1-6. In a heat treatment process that is performed at a temperature of several hundred degrees C. in a gas-containing atmosphere, the concentration of ammonia in the process gas supplied to the ring (14) during the heat treatment process is changed from the first 0 to 6% by volume to the last 4 to 12 A heat treatment process, characterized in that it is increased to volume%.   The heat treatment process according to claim 7, wherein during the heat treatment process, the concentration of ammonia in the process gas gradually increases from 2% by volume at the start of the process to 5% by volume at the end of the process.   9. A heat treatment process according to claim 7 or 8, wherein the increase in ammonia concentration occurs at a substantially linear rate.   The heat treatment process according to claim 1, wherein the process is performed for 10 to 60 minutes from the start to the end.

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