Claims
- 1. A method of operating an aqueous polymeric quenching bath so as to maintain a preselected severity comprising the steps of:
- (a) establishing a quenching bath containing an aqueous solution of a polymeric quenchant having a predetermined molecular weight distribution and a resulting severity at a given concentration;
- (b) utilizing the quenching bath for cooling of heated metal articles thereby skewing the molecular weight distribution of the polymeric quenchant toward a higher population of lower molecular weights with a resulting change in the severity of the quench at the given concentration;
- (c) drawing off a portion of the solution and filtering the drawn off portion to eliminate a substantial portion of the lower molecular weights from the drawn off portion until the molecular weight distribution of the filtrant exhibits a higher population of higher molecular weights than the original bath; and
- (d) returning filtrant to the bath until the original predetermined molecular weight distribution has been substantially achieved.
- 2. The method defined in claim 1 further including the step of continuously monitoring the refractive index of the bath and initiating the steps of drawing off and returning filtrant when the refractive index exceeds a predetermined value.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 909,074 filed May 24, 1978, now abandoned.
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Continuation in Parts (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
909074 |
May 1978 |
|