An example bushing of a hydraulic hammer tool includes a bulk region and an inner region. The inner region has a relatively greater hardness than the bulk region. The inner region may also be compressively stressed, while the bulk region may have tensile stress. The stress and/or hardness profile of the bushing may enhance its resistance to wear and galling defects when a hammer of the hydraulic hammer tool is held in alignment by the bushing. The bulk region of the bushing may be relatively soft, resulting in the bushing having a relatively high level of toughness. The bushing may be formed using medium to high carbon steel by rough forming the bushing, hardening the bushing, tempering the bushing, induction hardening the inner region of the bushing, and then quenching the inner region.

A bearing part includes a quench-hardened layer in a surface of the bearing part. The quench-hardened layer includes a plurality of martensite crystal grains. A ratio of a total area of the plurality of martensite crystal grains in the quench-hardened layer is more than or equal to 70%. The plurality of martensite crystal grains are classified into a first group and a second group. A minimum value of crystal grain sizes of the martensite crystal grains belonging to the first group is larger than a maximum value of crystal grain sizes of the martensite crystal grains belonging to the second group. A value obtained by dividing a total area of the martensite crystal grains belonging to the first group by the total area of the plurality of martensite crystal grains is more than or equal to 0.5.

A constant velocity universal joint includes an inner ring and an outer ring. A cage is disposed between an outer spherical surface of the inner ring and an inner spherical surface of the outer ring, and has windows in which respective balls are received. The cage has ball contact surface areas with which the balls come into contact, and includes soft portions that are lower in hardness than the ball contact surface areas. The soft portions are formed by local heat treatment at portions of the windows that are kept out of contact with the balls or surface portions around the windows.

The invention relates to a method and a device for the heat treatment of a metal component. The method comprises at least the following steps: a) heating the component, in a first furnace, b) setting a temperature difference between at least a first sub-region and a second sub-region of the component in a first temperature-adjusting station, c) heating at least the first sub-region or the second sub-region of the component in a second furnace, d) thermally treating at least a sub-region of the component in a second temperature-adjusting station, e) at least partly forming and/or cooling the component in a press-hardening tool.

The production method of a seamless steel pipe includes a heating step of heating an Nb-containing steel material to 800 to 1030° C., a pipe-making step of producing a hollow shell by performing piercing-rolling or elongation-rolling on the Nb-containing steel material, by using a piercing mill including a plurality of skewed rolls, a plug disposed between the plurality of skewed rolls, and a mandrel bar, and a cooling step immediately after rolling, of carrying out cooling using a cooling liquid on a hollow shell portion that passes between rear ends of the plurality of skewed rolls, in the hollow shell, so as to reduce an outer surface temperature of the hollow shell portion to 700 to 1000° C. within 15.0 seconds after the hollow shell portion passes between the rear ends of the plurality of skewed rolls.

Disclosed are a high-strength ultra-thick steel material and a method for manufacturing same. The high-strength ultra-thick steel material comprises in weight % 0.04-0.1% of C, 1.2-2.0% of Mn, 0.2-0.9% of Ni, 0.005-0.04% of Nb, 0.005-0.03% of Ti and 0.1-0.4% of Cu, 100 ppm or less of P and 40 ppm or less of S with a balance of Fe, and inevitable impurities, and comprises, in a subsurface area up to t/10 (t hereafter being referred to as the thickness of the steel material), polygonal ferrite of 50 area % or greater (including 100 area %) and bainite of 50 area % or less (including 0 area %) as microstructures.

An example bushing has three portions along its radial direction including an inner portion most proximal to a central hole of the bushing, an outer portion most distal from the center hole, and a core portion between the inner portion and the outer portion. The core portion has a hardness that is less than the hardness of the inner portion or the outer portion of the bushing. The bushing may be formed using high carbon steel, which in some cases may be spheroidal cementite crystal structure. A rough bushing may be formed using the high carbon steel, followed by a direct hardening process, and an induction hardening process on the inner surface most proximal to the central hole of the bushing. The induction hardening on the inner surface may harden the outer portion while tempering the core portion of the bushing.

Disclosed are a high-strength ultra-thick steel material and a method for manufacturing same. The high-strength ultra-thick steel material comprises in weight % 0.04-0.1% of C, 0.05-0.5% of Si, 0.01-0.05% of Al, 1.6-2.2% of Mn, 0.5-1.2% of Ni, 0.005-0.050% of Nb, 0.005-0.03% of Ti and 0.2-0.6% of Cu, 100 ppm or less of P and 40 ppm or less of S with a balance of Fe, and inevitable impurities, and comprises, in a subsurface area up to t/10 (t hereafter being referred to as the thickness of the steel material), bainite of 90 area % or greater (including 100 area %) as microstructures. And the particle size of crystallites having a high inclination angle boundary of 15° or higher measured by EBSD is 10 μm or less (not including 0 μm).

A method for manufacturing a high-strength steel bar can include the steps of: reheating a steel slab at a temperature ranging from 1000° C. to 1100° C., the steel slab including a certain amount of carbon (C), silicon (Si), manganese (Mn), phosphorus (P), sulfur (S), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), molybdenum (Mo), aluminum (Al), vanadium (V), nitrogen (N), antimony (Sb), tin (Sn), and iron (Fe) and other inevitable impurities, The method can further include finish hot-rolling the reheated steel slab at a temperature of 850° C. to 1000° C., and cooling the hot-rolled steel to a martensite transformation start temperature (Ms (° C.)) through a tempcore process.

A sliding element, in particular a piston ring, includes a base material of martensitic or austenitic stainless steel having a chromium content of at least 6.0% by mass and a nitrided layer having a surface hardness of up to 950 HV1. A method of producing such a sliding layer is also provided.