HEPU® introduces VANATEC™, a vanadium diffusion hardening technology for timing chain pins that roughly doubles wear resistance compared with standard carbonitriding. The result: timing chains that hold their geometry for longer, keeping engine timing accurate across the vehicle’s service life.
The timing chain’s weakest point is the pin. Under constant load the pin surface wears, the chain elongates, and engine timing drifts. VANATEC™ tackles this at the source. In a molten-salt vanadium diffusion process, HEPU® forms a hard vanadium-carbide layer on the pin surface (infiltration layer approx. 0.009–0.012 mm) over a tough, tempered martensite core. The surface resists wear while the core absorbs load – for a chain that keeps its geometry far longer.
Timing-chain pins can be hardened in several ways, each producing a different surface layer and wear behaviour:
In 800-hour endurance testing that measures chain elongation over time, the difference is clear:
That is roughly half the elongation – about twice the wear resistance of a standard-treated chain.
VANATEC™ pins are produced with a liquid (molten-salt) vanadium process for a uniform, high-quality infiltration layer: material inspection → cleaning → preheating (500–800 °C) → molten-salt vanadium carbide coating (900–970 °C, 5–8 h) → normalizing → cleaning → vacuum quenching (830–860 °C) → tempering (180–300 °C).
Ask your HEPU® contact about the VANATEC™ range →
