Typically, for automotive shafts, shape distortion manifests itself in most cases after the induction hardening by an effect known as bending. The distortion results in a boost of costs, especially due to machining parts in the hardened state to fabricate its final tolerances. In the present study, residual stress measurements were carried out on automotive drive shafts made of DIN 38B3 steel. The samples were selected in consequence of their different distortion properties by an industrial manufacturing line. One tested shaft was straightened, because of the considerable dimensional variation and the other one not. Firstly, the residual stress measurements were carried out by using a portable difractometer, in order to avoid cutting the shafts and evaluate the original state of the stresses, and afterwards a more detailed analysis was realized by a conventional stationary diffractometer. The obtained results presented an overview of the surface residual stress profiles after induction hardening and displayed the influence of the straightening process on the redistribution of residual stresses. They also indicated that the effects of the straightening in the residual stresses cannot be neglected.

Plasma nitriding is a surface modification process that uses glow discharge to diffuse nitrogen atoms into the metallic matrix of different materials. Among the many possible parameters of the process, the gas mixture composition plays an important role, as it impacts directly the formed layer's microstructure. In this work an AISI 4140 steel was plasma nitrided under five different gas compositions. The plasma nitriding samples were characterized using optical and scanning electron microscopy, microhardness test, X-ray diffraction and GDOES. The results showed that there are significant microstructural and morphological differences on the formed layers depending on the quantity of nitrogen and methane added to the plasma nitriding atmosphere. Thicknesses of 10, 5 and 2.5 µm were obtained when the nitrogen content of the gas mixtures were varied. The possibility to obtain a compound layer formed mainly by γ'-Fe4N nitrides was also shown. For all studied plasma nitriding conditions, the presence of a compound layer was recognized as being the responsible to hinder the decarburization on the steel surface. The highest value of surface hardness - 1277HV - were measured in the sample which were nitrided with 3vol.% of CH4.

In this work, a drawing processed was simulated to calculate forces and the resulting residual stresses in the material. The calculated residual stresses were compared with experimentally measured residual stresses by the Neutron Diffraction Method. The modeled process was the Wire Drawing. The necessary parameters to model the process were taken from an industrial currently used process. Rods of an AISI 1045 steel with nominal diameters of 21.46 mm were reduced to 20.25 mm by drawing with an drawing angle of 15°. Compression tests were used to determinate flow curves of the real material an used in the simulation models. The possibility to estimate drawing forces by numerical simulation was evaluated by comparing simulated results with values from empirical equations given by the literature. The results have shown a sufficient accuracy for the calculation of forces, but the comparison of residual stresses has shown differences to the experimentally determined ones that can be minimized by the consideration of high strain rates in the compression tests, anisotropy of the material and kinematic hardening.

In this investigation a DoE (Design of Experiments) analysis of distortion for a typical manufacturing process of pre-straightened, cold drawn and induction hardened AISI 1045 cylindrical steel bars was carried out. A careful characterization of the material, including residual stress states and geometrical changes, was done for the different manufacturing steps. In order to identify effects and correlations on distortion behavior, the investigated variables included the drawing process itself with two different drawing angles, a stress relief treatment, which was applied to one part of the samples, and, finally, induction hardening with two different case depths. Main and statistically significant effects on the distortion of the induction hardened samples were found to be in this order, the drawing angle, the stress relief treatment and the induction hardening depth. It was also found that the distortion potentials are transmitted from the drawing process to further manufacturing steps and, consequently, from one production site to the next.