Hydrogen Embrittlement Susceptibility of Case Hardened Steel Fasteners

Peak Innovations Engineering
9934 N. Alpine Rd., Suite 104
Machesney Park, IL 61115 USA

Hydrogen embrittlement is a potentially catastrophic failure mode of high strength steel fasteners. One of the leading indicators of susceptibility to this phenomenon is hardness. While the susceptibility of case hardened fasteners is undisputed, minimal data exists to explain how the variables of case hardness, case depth, and core hardness work together to influence overall fastener susceptibility to failure. Peak innovations Engineering Principal Engineer, John Medcalf, investigated this topic along with co-authors BrianThomas and Salim Brahimi. Their findings can be found in the following paper. The research indicates hardness levels found in current fastener standards may be susceptible to hydrogen embrittlement in corrosive environments. Future research is planned to address susceptibility to internal hydrogen embrittlement.

A link to the abstract can be found here.

ASTM International logo - hydrogen embrittlement

You can purchase the full article directly from SAE International.

Medcalf, J.S., Thomas, B.G., and Brahimi, S.V., “Hydrogen Embrittlement Susceptibility of Case
Hardened Steel Fasteners,” SAE Technical Paper 2018-01-1240, 2018, DOI:10.4271/2018-01-1240

Company Profile:
Peak Innovations Engineering has a highly technical team to design, test, validate, and enhance the bolted joints within your product application. Joint development and testing are all we do, so we do it better than other available options, both internal and external. Why consume your resources engineering and problem-solving areas that are secondary to your core responsibilities when we can take care of them quickly, definitively, and cost-effectively? www.pieng.com

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