Material surfaces can wear over time due to the application environment. To combat this, heat treatment is often specified to increase resistance to wear and increase life. For locating pins, many applications will require surface to surface contact of steel and aluminum workpieces therefore it is important for the pin to have a high surface hardness. This surface hardness is key to resist wear and premature failure.
A major North American automotive manufacturer approached MISUMI with their situation. They found that the NAAMS locating pins on their tooling were failing prematurely despite having been purchased to the proper hardness specification. It seemed as though the hardness of the pins were not up to the NAAMS specification.
To validate this claim, testing was performed on 3 different samples taken from the production tooling along with a MISUMI standard configurable as a baseline comparison. These tests included:
• Surface hardness
• Case depth by optical method
• Effective case depth by microhardness
• Grain size measurement
• Cross section micrograph
• Chemical analysis
All tests were carried out by an independent, A2LA accredited laboratory.
Download the White Paper for the Results!