Patent ID: 7276204

Claim:
A carburization treatment apparatus, comprising: a transportation room; a carburization room adjacent to the transportation room; and a quenching room adjacent to the transportation room; a gas cooling room adjacent to the transportation room; said carburization room including: a hydrocarbon gas supply unit for supplying a hydrocarbon gas into the carburization room; an oxidative gas supply unit for supplying an oxidative gas into the carburization room; a vacuum pump for reducing an internal pressure of the carburization room; an in-furnace atmosphere analyzer for analyzing an atmosphere within the carburization room; a pressure gauge for controlling the internal pressure of the carburization room; a thermocouple for controlling the internal temperature of the carburization room; a computing device for computing a carbon potential in accordance with analysis values fed from the in-furnace atmosphere analyzer, the pressure gauge, and the thermocouple; and a regulation device for regulating an amount of at least one of said hydrocarbon gas and said oxidative gas in accordance with a computed value fed from the computing device, wherein for steel material to move from one of said carburization room, said quenching room and said gas cooling room to another of said carburization room, said quenching room and said gas cooling room, the steel material must traverse said transportation room, and wherein a pressure within at least said carburization room, said gas cooling room and said transportation room is controlled to at least 0.1 kPa.