Core Applications of Heat Treatment Technology in the Automotive Manufacturing Industry: Enhancing Component Performance

I. Applications of Heat Treatment in Core Engine Components

• Crankshaft: The process of "quenching and tempering (quenching + high-temperature tempering) + surface nitriding" is adopted. The core maintains toughness to resist impact, while a hardened layer forms on the surface to resist wear, ensuring that the crankshaft is not prone to bending or breaking during high-speed operation.
• Camshaft: Carburizing and quenching are applied to increase the surface hardness of the cam (above HRC 60), enhance wear resistance, and extend service life.
• Piston Ring: A composite treatment of nitriding and chromium plating is used, resulting in high surface hardness and strong corrosion resistance, which reduces friction loss with the cylinder wall and lowers fuel consumption.

II. Applications of Heat Treatment in Gearboxes and Transmission Systems

• Gear: As the core component of the gearbox, it must withstand high-frequency meshing friction and impact. The carburizing, quenching, and gear grinding process is adopted, with a hardened layer thickness of 0.8–1.5mm, which ensures hardness while minimizing deformation and avoids gear shifting jams or gear breakage.
• Drive Shaft: Quenching and tempering are applied to balance hardness and toughness, ensuring that the drive shaft is not prone to torsion and deformation when transmitting power.
• Bearing: Quenching + low-temperature tempering is used to improve the hardness and wear resistance of rolling elements and races, ensuring stability during high-speed rotation.

III. Applications of Heat Treatment in Chassis and Braking Systems

• Suspension system components (e.g., control arms, connecting rods): Quenching and tempering are adopted to improve fatigue strength and prevent fracture caused by long-term vibration.
• Brake disc / Brake pad: The brake disc is treated with quenching and tempering to enhance heat resistance and wear resistance, avoiding deformation during high-temperature braking; the brake pad's friction coefficient is optimized through heat treatment to ensure stable braking performance.
• Wheel hub bolt: Nitriding is applied to improve surface hardness and corrosion resistance, preventing rust or fracture after long-term use and ensuring driving safety.

IV. Core Requirements for Heat Treatment in the Automotive Manufacturing Industry

1. High Precision: Automotive components have strict tolerance requirements, with heat treatment deformation controlled within 0.01–0.05mm, which requires the use of precision heat treatment equipment (such as vacuum furnaces and atmosphere-protected furnaces).
2. High Consistency: During mass production, the performance of each batch of components must be consistent, relying on automated heat treatment production lines and intelligent temperature control systems.
3. High Reliability: Heat-treated components must pass rigorous tests such as fatigue testing and wear testing to ensure no failure during the entire service life of the vehicle.

V. Development Trends of Heat Treatment Technology in the Automotive Industry

• Lightweight Material Adaptation: For lightweight materials such as aluminum alloys and carbon fiber, specialized heat treatment processes are developed (e.g., solution and aging treatment for aluminum alloys) to ensure strength while reducing weight.
• Energy-efficient Production: Promote continuous heat treatment production lines and waste heat recovery systems to reduce energy consumption in automotive manufacturing.
• Digital Inspection: Adopt non-destructive testing technologies such as ultrasonic testing and eddy current testing to quickly detect heat treatment defects and improve product qualification rates.