N.H. Ball Bearings Expands Heat Treat

The HiTech Division of N.H. Ball Bearings, Inc. has announced that it has validated a process for carburizing steel. As a result, HiTech has begun working with its customers to design carburized bearing prototypes for new aerospace applications. Full-scale production of bearings made from this highly specialized process could begin sometime this year. "By bringing this capability in-house, we move closer to becoming a full-range manufacturer," said Jim Geary, HiTech's product sales manager. "A company that can build an increasing number of specialized products becomes that much more valuable to its customers." HiTech began developing the process after completing work on its 11,000-square-foot expansion which houses the heat treatment facility and materials testing lab. In the fall of 2005, HiTech relocated its furnaces, ovens and cooling units to the new space and installed a new furnace equipped to handle vacuum carburizing. Afterwards, a team of engineers worked steadily for nine months to develop a robust carburizing process. "When it comes to carburizing steel, choosing a new furnace is merely the first step in a larger effort to develop the know-how," said Steve Carey, HiTech's manager of materials engineering and the person who led the effort. Carburizing is a heat treatment process used to case-harden a specific kind of steel (M50 NiL). Case-hardened M50 NiL is typically used in high-speed main shaft engine applications where conventional through-hardened steels cannot perform. M50 NIL can handle much higher stress levels that result from the speeds involved in turbine engines.