Heat treatment with carburized quenching process is widely used for automotive helical gear to improve its surface properties of hardness and strength. However, the gear can be deformed with the process over the allowable tolerance, which possibly makes noise, vibration and heat problems in operation. In this study, deformation of helical gear during heat treatment of carburized quenching was analyzed with a numerical method, incorporating coupled calculations of thermal conduction, carbon diffusion, phase transformation and thermal stresses. With the analysis, the effect of coolant temperature in quenching on the deformation was investigated. The result of the analysis revealed that the higher the coolant temperature became, the more change of helix angle and the more compressive stresses in the surface generated, because of delayed generation of martensite in the part.
