Control of Irregular Expansion of Bearing Races after Heat Treatment

Through hardenable bearing races are prone to distortion and size changes during heat treatment as a result of the complex interaction of stress induce by thermal gradient and phase transformation dimensional changes essentially depend on precipitation of fine carbide from martensite and decomposition of transformation of retained austenite. In the present work, an attempt has been made to provide the required dimensional stability to bearing races after heat treatment by optimization of the heat treatment process parameters through design of experiments. Results have been discussed in light of phase transformation, i. e. , stabilization of retained austenite