On the hottest day of the year April 20. We planned an attempt to cleanse the low carbon steel which was failing its purpose) – to sustain prolonged load in service.
Back story
When man decided that he wanted to create things on his own; skipping the existence of good, he chose the path of the devil inside him.
All matter is made of good things and bad things. There is always a probability of good things turning bad or bad things turning good or a completely new existence in the form of anti-matter.
Similar is the case with steel which is an amalgamation of pure-natured Iron and evil alloys. Controlling these devils is an important factor that determines the overall character of steel, and mankind is still trying to master it.
Like humans, Iron and devils have to be heated to sufficiently high temperature, and pressure; in a favorable atmosphere (divine zone) for steel to come into existence. If not for the presence of angels like oxygen this process would be very difficult.
After steel gets made, we impart a purpose to it by forging it into different shapes. This forging ensures an equilibrium between good and evil and aligns them in their combined direction of strength. This equilibrium isn’t lasting long in the real world where evil was taking over – reigning supreme. As expected from kali yuga which isn’t going to end anytime soon.
It was then we decided to approach the catholic mosque. Which contained a group of divine practitioners called “material scientists”. They suggested we cleanse the steel in a divine element called carbon which could easily fit in-between iron and its devils because of its small size. To set up the stage we needed a high-temperature furnace. An angelic dish capable of harnessing huge spiritual power in the form of heat from electricity (consecrated electrons)
Setup;
We choose a traditional conveyor-based system. With the following zones.
- Preheat zones. These were 2 in number and would be breaking the journey up to the divine zone into 2 parts. In the first stage, we would be reaching 400-500C then proceed to zone 2 where we will be reaching 800-900C. this break drops the heating rate thereby reducing the risk of Satan taking over. (dimensional distortion).
- Carburizing zone & diffusion zone. Once the subject is in the divine zone, this zone will help us immerse steel in the divine element of carbon. (900-950C). Giving carbon enough space to penetrate effectively and spread evenly.
- Next, is the quenching zone: Since carbon doesn’t exist in the realm of room temperature it has to be locked inside steel in the form of a phase. So we lower it into an oily consecrated quench maintained at 50c. any delay or temp variation would lead to Satan taking over. (delay quench or NMTP formation
- Next was the tempering cycle at (150-160C) to counter the sudden drop from the divine zone, reduce the stress and keep things sane.
- An Endo generator + LPG inducer (carbon generators) to facilitate a divine atmosphere inside the furnace (CO+H2+N2+others)
As seen, each of these steps is critical and we have to be careful, not to let Satan take over the subject (here steel). So we choose one of us to sacrifice our existence as a human and dive into the steel matrix as a pure iron atom to observe Satan’s flow of work.
I volunteered to fight him.
The fight:
With the help of a soul translator, my sole was transferred to an iron atom on one of the forged steel gear. As soon as I dropped, I could feel a strong metallic bond with my fellow matrix. My electrons were lost in a cloud. I tried my best to spot their position but failed miserably.
As the conveyor moved in, I could hear matrix strain, our bonds were being tested. As the temperature raised my movement was heading towards the threshold, we are getting high on spiritual power. With rising temperature we began to vibrate like crazy inside the furnace, our bonds began to weaken, electrons were jumping orbits emitting lights of different wavelengths ( it was all crazy like a laser show), and gaps in the matrix were born. (these were devils like voids, dislocations)
By the time this was happening we were at the end of preheating zone. Which meant the door was going to open any min. Here I saw the fiercest form of Satan. As soon as the door opened Satan rushed in; in the form of oxygen in the air. (a mixture of N2, O2, and others). And all the devils which had an affinity towards oxygen began forming oxides on the surface at the grain boundaries.
Since the time was very little he couldn’t inflict much damage.
Next, we entered carburizing zone but things were different due to carburizing atmosphere. As soon as I entered few carbon atoms came near me. I felt safe. It also replaced the oxides which previously formed on the surface (at grain boundaries), Kicking them out in the process.
Kicking them out was indeed an advantage to prevent the formation of phases other than martensite after quenching. (as these oxides(Si, Mn) may affect the overall hardenability of the grain by affecting Martensite birth temperature).
As the carbon barged in up to a certain depth from the surface, we moved into the diffusion zone. Here carbon got a little bit of time to adjust and spread evenly. Here we had our second encounter, I didn’t even notice him until he was right in front of my face making a carbide(carbon-dense) network on the grain boundaries. Luckily for me, my team had planned to monitor the carbon potential continuously so we could stop him before he formed a strong network at the grain boundaries by moving to the next stage on time.
Next came the final process of quenching. As we kept moving towards the quenching chamber, he tried to enter through the last door similar to how he did in preheat zone. We knew completely avoiding him would not be possible until we call the angel of vacuum. But we did our best by minimizing the time exposed to the outside air. As the temperature began to drop carbon was diffusing away from our matrix, but before we knew it we were dropped into a consecrated oil quench. It was the most painful experience for all of us. As we were all frozen in an instant. All the carbon had nowhere to escape, it got stuck with us in the interstices. Our size(length) increased. (BCC to BCD transformation) and now we were supposed to be called martensite. We were strengthened using divine carbon to protect ourselves from the wear and tear of service. I feel great but there is a lot of pain in the matrix.
Which is when I remembered there was a final stage called tempering. Unlike the other process before I wasn’t afraid as all of us were just warmed up. The temperature was very low, it felt warm and we had enough movement to ease ourselves.
The fight against seitan was successful for this gear.
But we can’t just always guarantee that this is going to be the way he attacks. He is always looking for an opportunity & we must always try to counter him. It seems to be a never-ending fight.
For I have been protected, for now, I still have to survive the service. I hope I make it long enough to share my experience.
Have a great day
Feeela