The hoe production capacity that is
increasing the hoe industry competition in the country and abroad. Therefore it
raises the problem of the number of foreign hoes from China that have better
quality, especially the hardness of the hoe eye surface , t his threatens the hoe industry in Indonesia. To overcome the
above problems, research was carried out with the aim of improving the quality
of hardness of the surface of SS400 steel material with the pack carburizing
method. This research was conducted to determine the effect of variations in
coconut shell media, corn cobs, and teak wood on the pack carburizing method on
the hardness and microstructure of SS400 steel.
The method used is the experiment pack carburizing with variations of
coconut shell charcoal media, corn cobs, and teak wood. SS400 steel with
dimensions of 100 mm x 50 mm x 2 mm are inserted into containers (containers)
that have been filled with a mixture of calcium carbonate (CaCo3) and charcoal
media then the container is closed heat treatment
using a muffle furnace to a temperature of 950ºC, holding time 2 hours and
quenching with media water. The test used in this study used the Vickers scale
hardness test and microstructure test.
The results of this research indicate
that pack carburizing process with variations in coconut shell charcoal, corn
cobs and teak wood influence the violence and microstructure of SS400 steel.
The results are, the coconut shell charcoal has 861 HV, the corn cob charcoal
has 669.6 HV, and the teak charcoal has 838.1 HV. Which showed that the
hardness media is coconut shell charcoal, and the lowest hardness media is corn
cob charcoal. The results of microstructure testing are formed martensite phase
on the SS400 steel surface after doing pack carburizing process with variations
in coconut shell charcoal media, corn cobs, and teak wood then continuing by
holding time and quenching, the martensite phase formed is more dominant in the
variation of shell charcoal media than the variety of teak charcoal media and
corn cobs.
Keywords :
pack carburizing, SS400 steel, variation media
carburizing, holding time, quenching.