An Insulating Surface Polymeric Layer During Quenching Makes Environment Green, Increases Strength of Materials, and Decreases their Cost

In the paper an overview on elimination of any film boiling process during quenching in Poly (Alkilene) Glycol (PAG) solutions is widely discussed. Such elimination is possible due to
formation an insulating polymeric layer on the surface of quenched steel parts which decreases initial heat flux density below its critical value. An insulating polymeric layer accelerates cooling
process making it uniform and very stable. In such condition, physics and mathematical interpretation of quenching technologies is reliable and creates a basis for automation and software
design. The main attention in the paper is paid to mechanism of polymeric layer formation to accelerate hardening of optimal hardenability steel. All of this creates high surface compression
residual stresses, makes material ductile and super strengthened, decreases steel alloying and makes possible to switch from oils and melted alkalis to low concentration of water PAG solutions. Along with quenching optimal hardenability steel, it is shown that low and high temperature mechanical treatment combined with PAG solutions as a quenchant makes environment green.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Not applicable

The datasets used in this study are openly available at [repository link] and the source code is available on GitHub at [GitHub link].

This work did not receive any external funding.