A Study on Development of Pre-heat Treated Steel Head Bolt for Swashplate Type Compressor of Car Air-conditioner

This paper is a study on head bolts that are used in A/C compressors to reduce production cost and solve leak problems on the head bolt seat area that causes massive intermittent malfunctioning during production. In this study, the pre-heat treated steel, which was used as a material in the head bolt, eliminated the heat treatment process after forging. The pre-heat treated steel head bolts, which have 10 % lower tensile strength than the conventional SCM 435 head bolts, were selected after considering the results of creeping rupture properties, axial force, and stress concentration per tensile strength variation. Then, the performance test and the durability test with the A/C compressor that was assembled with the pre-heat treated steel head bolts were performed and verified. Based on the results, the pre-heat treated steel head bolts developed in this study saved 7.3 % in production cost by eliminating the heat treatment process and the logistics process. Furthermore, the leak problem on the head bolt seat area in the A/C compressor was addressed significantly on the mass production assembly line.