Individual component gas quenching

The application of nozzle gas quenching to single components has been proposed in order to achieve higher cooling rates than those possible in conventional batch quenching with expensive high-conductivity gases. It has been shown that, by using the delivery pressure available from liquid storage systems, if is possible to generate the velocities of lower-cost nitrogen required to produce oil-like quenching characteristics. The challenge is to lower the running cost of such a system by appropriate nozzle-array design to minimise gas usage.