The Spring Meeting will be held on June 5-6, 2024 at the Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO. Please contact mrp@wpi.edu about membership in CHTE and attending the meeting to see our research work firsthand.
“If there is a problem in industry, how do we solve it”
We solve problems related to materials performance through heat treatment. Our focus is on what we can achieve with materials by means of heat treatment and thermochemical surface engineering. At the Center for Heat Treating Excellence (CHTE), we work together with industry members to improve heat treating processes. We can do the same for your organization.
Recent heat treat research includes:
Distortion & residual stress, austempering to form bainite, heat treatment of AM parts, carburization process optimization, understanding, controlling and optimizing quenching, carbonitriding process optimization.
NEW EQUIPMENT AT CHTE
The Netzsch Simultaneous Thermal Analyzer STA 449 F3 Corrosive Version is now fully operational in the new CHTE laboratory. This versatile instrument is for in-situ nitriding, carburizing, oxidizing, etc. and for highly controlled heat treatment. Calorimetry is especially well suited for detecting phase transformation. This instrument is the corrosive version and is compatible with aggressive gases. Some other highlights include:
Small furnace combined with a highly sensitive balance.
Corrosive Version – Reactive atmospheres like C2H2, H2, CO, NH3.
In-situ monitoring of mass changes (thermogravimetry) and release/consumption of energy (calorimetry). Temperature range RT to 1600°C; cooling/heating rate up to 50°C/min.
Also, new and fully operational is the TA Instruments DIL 805-A/D Quenching Dilatometer with three different gas systems, argon, helium and nitrogen. The system is equipped with a deformation module for thermomechanical testing and a cryostat for controlled sub-zero treatment down to -150°C. Some other highlights include:
Cooling/heating rates up to 4000°C/sec.
Temperatures up to 1700°C
Easy determination of thermal behavior (viz. construction of CCT & TTT diagrams)
Additionally, we have direct access to an industrial R & D vacuum furnace for process development and testing. The furnace is capable of temperatures up to 1300°C and is equipped with N2 and Ar for quenching and for providing an active process atmosphere if required.
Thomas Christiansen – Director of CHTE
Thomas joined WPI in July 2023 as Director of the Center for Heat Treating Excellence (CHTE), Robert Essebe Balmat Jr. Dean’s Professor, and Professor in Mechanical and Materials Engineering. He has more than 20 years of experience within thermochemical surface engineering and heat treatment of metallic materials. His research interests are gas-metal interactions, high-interstitial alloys, (thermochemical) surface engineering and microstructure optimization for improving materials performance.
Thomas has a keen focus on the synergistic interplay between science and technology and how this best can be exploited to provide solutions to challenges in industry.
Join us at our next meeting at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, CO.
Contact Maureen Plunkett at (508) 831-5992 or mrp@wpi.edu
CHTE researchers work to identify heat treatment process parameters to control distortion and residual stress in steel parts that rely on heat treatment, especially the rapid cooling process of quenching, to acquire the desired mechanical properties. Rapid phase transformation and high thermal gradients occurring during quenching can cause distortion, which leads to costly hard machining and rejection