The company I work for is considering using cooling tower water as quench rather than city water (current condition). The estimated annual savings is over $30,000. City water here is about 600 PPM salt, while the cooling tower will be controlled at 1200-1400 PPM.
How will this increase in salt effect the cooling rate of the quench? Will these low concentrations of salt make a difference? Scale on the bars? Etc.?
We are processing mainly 1045 steel bar. Typically we acheive around 60 Rc at the surface and 55 Rc @ 0.050" case depth, depending on the setup and requirement.
