At a glance
Risk identified before production.
- review of customer-supplied documentation
- assessment of process impact on component geometry
- recommendation of ionic, or plasma, nitriding
- process change agreed before manufacture
The challenge
The specified process required an engineering review.
The customer supplied component documentation before production began. During the review, Silma identified that the specified gas-nitriding process could increase the risk of dimensional change and make the required geometry more difficult to maintain.
The risk was communicated before manufacture, allowing the process to be changed instead of correcting avoidable distortion after production.
Technical approach
Preventing a problem before it reaches production.
Documentation review
Engineers assessed the geometric, tolerance and surface-hardness requirements.
Risk identification
The potential dimensional effects of gas nitriding were identified before work began.
Silma recommendation
Ionic nitriding, also known as plasma nitriding, was proposed and agreed with the customer.
Result
The required hardness was achieved while reducing the risk of dimensional change.
Outcome
Early engineering review reduced process risk.
The choice of nitriding process can affect not only surface hardness but also the final geometry of a precision component.
In this project, the process change was recommended from the customer’s documentation and agreed before production started. Process scope, requirements and acceptance criteria are defined individually for each component.
The photographs show the actual components. Customer-identifying markings have been removed for confidentiality.