Heat Treat Tips: 14 Quench Oil Selection Tips

Here are a few of the important factors to consider when selecting a quench oil. 

1. Part Material – chemistry & hardenability 

2. Part loading – fixturing, girds, baskets, part spacing, etc. 

3. Part geometry and mass – thin parts, thick parts, large changes in section size 

4. Distortion characteristics of the part (as a function of loading) 

5. Stress state from prior (manufacturing) operations 

6. Oil type – characteristics, cooling curve data 

7. Oil speed – fast, medium, slow, or marquench  

8. Oil temperature and maximum rate of rise 

9. Agitation – agitators (fixed or variable speed) or pumps 

10. Effective quench tank volume 

11. Quench tank design factors, including number of agitators or pumps, location of agitators, size of agitators, propellor size (diameter, clearance in draft tube), internal tank baffling (draft tubes, directional flow vanes, etc.), flow direction, quench elevator design (flow restrictions), volume of oil, type of agitator (fixed v. 2 speed v. variable speed), maximum (design) temperature rise, and heat exchanger type, size, heat removal rate in BTU/hr & instantaneous BTU/minute.

12. Height of oil over the load 

13. Required flow velocity through the workload 

14. Post heat treat operations (if any) 

Sourcing：Heat Treat Today