Archive: 2016

If we’ve placed a great deal of emphasis on materials, there’s a good reason for this seemingly off-kilter approach. Materials must be heat treated if the mechanical and physical properties of a component are to comply with the rigorous requirements found in today’s industrial applications.

Fine manufacturing processes create sturdy cast iron items and robust steel-reinforced components that resonate with structural soundness, but such mechanical solidity doesn’t just happen, not without an incorporated processing stage that intelligently manipulates key metallic properties until they fit a specified application.

In the foundry, blazing hot furnaces melt metal and produce castings, parts that are imbued with crude properties. It is then down to special alloy-refining facilities to alter those material characteristics, to intelligently manipulate key microcrystalline properties within the alloy so that the metal suits its application.

In documenting the essential characteristics of the black oxide coating process, we’ve illustrated the engineering science and the main advantages of the procedure. More than a smart finishing process, a material depositing technique; the metal surfaces that undergo this process are actually converted into a new form, one that shields the underlying metal while gifting it with a superb onyx-black finish.

In adding chemistry to heat, we gain a powerful partnership, a fine means of blending two contrasting metal treatment techniques. Heat, obviously, changes the mechanical characteristics of a processed metal. On the other hand, chemical solutions support and even enhance thermal treatment cycles by providing a secondary transformative pathway. The nitriding process is an eloquent example of process-blending alchemy, an instance where surface hardening pairs chemical compounds with heat to surface harden steel parts.

Oxidation is a chemical reaction that takes place between oxygen molecules and the floating ring of electrons that orbit another element. Rusting iron is an out of control example of oxidation, a reaction that weakens the mechanical strength of the metal, and will actually see the material waste away unless it’s treated or coated in a special finish.

A capacity for uniformly distributing heat is a headlining feature for industrial-grade furnaces. A series of highly consistent geometrical profiles are set to enter this thermally active chamber. They roll into the furnace for carefully timed heating and cooling procedures, exiting after passing through a quenching stage. Critical furnace parameters must be observed, but they’re difficult to maintain when pollutants are abroad.

A number of contrasting heat treatment processes exist. They use atmospheric ovens and special electric blowers to uniformly heat a metal part and optimize targeted mechanical characteristics.