ANALISIS PENGARUH MEDIA QUENCHING ALOE VERA TERHADAP KEKERASAN DAN STRUKTUR MIKRO BAJA AISI 1045 UNTUK PRODUKSI GOLOK DI CIBATU- SUKABUMI

Cibatu Village is a village located in Cisaat District, Sukabumi Regency. Some Cibatu villagers work as blacksmiths, Cibatu blacksmiths use oil as a quenching medium for the reason that it has an appropriate cooling rate. Even though the use of oil as a quenching medium is not environmentally friendly, a more environmentally friendly quenching media is needed which is almost the same as oil. Aloe Vera can be used because it has almost the same properties as oil, especially at the cooling rate. This study aims to determine the effect of Aloe Vera on hardness and microstructure in Cibatu cleaver production. Sampling was carried out at RT 21/RW 5 Cibatu village. The tests carried out are hardness tests and microstructure tests. The results of microstructure observations showed that until without treatment had ferrite and pearlite microstructures, Aloe Vera quenching media samples had martensite and ferrite structures and oil quenching samples had martensite, ferrite and pearlite microstructures. Hardness test results average hardness value of at least 21.60 HRC of untreated samples, followed by oil quenching cleaver sample values of 34.67 HRC and the highest hardness values were found in Aloe Vera quenching cleaver samples with a hardness value of 43.56 HRC. The results of testing the chemical composition between Aloe Vera media and oil are not much different between elements. The conclusion of this study is that the Aloe Vera quenching cleaver has ferrite and martensite microstructure and the hardness value of the Aloe Vera quenching cleaver is greater than the traditional cleaver Cibatu.

Kata kunci: heat treatment, golok, quenching, Aloe Vera, Cibatu