Heavy truck & bus

The complexity of today’s heavy trucks and buses is growing at an increasing pace. As well as the evolution of electric trucks and buses, environmental and efficiency requirements are driving advances throughout many components. Bodycote’s extensive range of treatments combined with our technical expertise supports the heavy truck and bus industry through advances in operational performance to more sustainable production.

Gear shift

The gear shift is connected to the transmission, allowing the driver to change gears, and therefore needs to operate safely and reliably. Bodycote’s proprietary Corr-I-Dur® process is a thermochemical treatment for simultaneous improvement of corrosion resistance and wear properties through generating a nitride-oxide combination layer, which has very little effect on distortion and dimensional changes of components compared to higher temperature case hardening processes.

Joint cross

The joint cross forms part of the universal joint used in the drive shaft of heavy trucks. Case hardening is used to harden the surface of the metal by infusing elements into the material’s surface, forming a thin layer of a harder alloy, to provide toughness, surface hardness for wear resistance and good fatigue strength.

Shafts

A splined shaft transmits rotation and torque to a mating piece. Induction hardening is a case hardening process carried out to enhance the mechanical properties in a localised area of a ferrous component, such as the end splines of a shaft. It increases wear resistance, surface hardness and fatigue life through creation of a hardened surface layer while maintaining an unaffected core microstructure.

Engine gears

Engine gears operate at high rotational speeds. Case hardening is used to harden the surface of the metal by infusing elements into the material’s surface, forming a thin layer of a harder alloy, to provide toughness, surface hardness for wear resistance and good fatigue strength.