🔧 Tech Forum

We apply a variety of surface treatments to steel to enhance surface hardness, provide rust resistance, and minimize vertical runout. For common linear bearings, linear guides, ball screws, splines, and crossed-roller guides, we select various materials or apply surface treatments under operating conditions to prevent rusting. However, these surface treatments pose two problems. One reason is that coatings applied for long-term corrosion protection or chemical resistance create a coating layer, necessitating meticulous management of all existing dimensional tolerances. Especially in environments involving chemical reactions, even high-hardness 440C stainless steel will begin to develop fine rust spots. This is because all materials used in heat treatment must be carbon steel. In other words, carbon-containing steels must be used for heat treatment; strictly speaking, the carbon content contributes to rusting. The surface treatment method that can address these two issues is SMSC surface treatment; however, this will extend the delivery lead time by approximately 20 days compared with the standard lead time.