What is Heat Treatment?

A process whereby an unrefined metal product is taken through a range of intelligently managed heating and cooling stages. Each processing step modifies specific characteristics, removing stresses from the metal. Machinability is improved, as is mechanical strength and other key metallurgical attributes.

Metal Hardening

The incorporation of pure solidity, a densely locked crystalline structure is the object of this initial process. The metal is superheated to its critical transformation point then rapidly cooled by quenching the part in a water or oil bath. The resulting metal embodies hardness, but this hardness factor also carries some caveats, including brittleness.

The Tempering Process

Specially developed low-temperature furnaces (approximately 150ºC to 650ºC) are employed at this stage to reduce alloy hardness. Strength is incorporated into the component, ductility and machinability increases, and hardness-induced brittleness is eliminated. The temperature approaches the stated equilibrium point of the alloy and is held there for a set period until the final properties of the alloy are achieved.

Adding the Brush Strokes of Detail

In saying metal heat treatment science hardens and tempers a part or series of parts would be a disservice to the manufacturing facilities that produce these refined metals. Immense furnaces and crucibles purify the ore and inject the metal with precise percentages of additives, carbon and chromium among them. The process also includes annealing, the gradual softening of the metal to form a targeted microstructure. Chemical processes then use salt baths and pack cementation to infuse the metal with a greater carbon content or alter the surface finish.

State-of-the-art technological solutions partner with old-world techniques to form modern metal heat treatment cycles. The formed product is hardened and tempered by precision automated systems, logic gate controlled vacuum heat management stations that incorporate oil quenching baths. Induction hardening evenly distributes heat throughout the complex geometrical outline of carbon steel components, guaranteeing uniform strength and structural consistency. Finally, the part is delivered to equally advance processing stations, case hardening and tempering facilities that gift the parts with specific characteristics as set by demanding clients.

Special heat treatment processes are the tool of choice here, with extreme temperatures altering the internal structure of a metal component until it shades through red and white hot intensity. As the part cools, brittleness is gone and the now toughened metal is stronger than ever. The Secret is in the Processing Mix Heating and cooling techniques gift unrefined metals with extraordinary properties. These new and improved capabilities are controlled by carefully managed furnaces and cooling facilities, by superheated induction furnaces and giant pools of cooling oil. Carbon steel, for example, changes as the heat cooks the carbon, forcing the iron atoms to shift, and the result is a permanent strengthening of the bonds that lock the crystalline structure in place. Heat treatment, even in this simplified description, can be seen as an essential engineering system for hardening metal components.

Alchemic Workability

The key to changing the state of a metal has been the subject of research for over a thousand years, and, while lead can’t be transmuted into gold, furnaces can manage the next best result, the alteration of metallurgical properties. Of course, if this practice was reserved for hardening, then the word would likely feature in the label, but that’s not the case. The discipline is all about heat treatment, a process that isn’t limited by hardening. Above and beyond mechanical rigidity, the technique also highlights ductility and workability, two essential parts of the metalworking craft. Indeed, it’s fairer to say that structural alterations on the atomic scale emphasize some traits while minimizing or entirely eliminating others. Here’s a summarized list of some of the techniques that cause these metallurgical changes.

Heating and cooling cycles are typically partnered with one or more of the above methods, which means a tempering cycle accompanies a quench phase, and so on until the metal reaches equilibrium. A new molecular form now cools, one that displays the desired surface finish and hardness quotient.