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Speaker 1: today at m o z y dot com. Welcome to
Speaker 1: brain Stuff from how Stuff works dot com where smart Happens.
Speaker 1: Hi Marshall Brain with today's question, what does case harden mean?
Speaker 1: When it's stamped on a piece of metal? Steel is
Speaker 1: an amazing substance. By mixing in different elements and heating
Speaker 1: and cooling it in different ways, you can create surprisingly
Speaker 1: different properties. Some steels are easily bent, while others are
Speaker 1: so brittle that they shatter some rust, and others don't.
Speaker 1: The huge variety of steels means that they work in
Speaker 1: many different situations. Everything from a surgical scalpel to a
Speaker 1: skyscraper's massive metal frame can be made of steel. The
Speaker 1: idea behind case hardening is to have two different types
Speaker 1: of steel in this same piece. During manufacturing, what you
Speaker 1: would like is a relatively soft steel that's easy to
Speaker 1: bend into machine for a lock shank. However, a soft
Speaker 1: steel is not good because it's easy to cut with
Speaker 1: a metal saw, so after the piece is formed, you
Speaker 1: harden it to make it very difficult to cut. Case
Speaker 1: hardened steel is usually formed by diffusing carbon or nitrogen
Speaker 1: into the outer layer of the steel at very high temperature.
Speaker 1: The carbon combines with the steel to make it nearly
Speaker 1: glass like and its hardness. The core of the metal
Speaker 1: stays soft. This gives you a piece of metal that
Speaker 1: cannot be cut with a saw, but also will not shatter.
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