What do visitors want to see when they stop by a heat treatment facility? Watching from behind a thick glass plate, they enjoy the sight of an orange-hot workpiece as it is processed in a furnace. Next on their agenda, they want to experience the explosive sizzle that’s discharged as […]
Old Smithy sheds are viewed as our heat treatment grandfathers. They didn’t install massive furnaces, but there was always that flickering red flame. The hot coals burned bright in primitive townships. Then, at day’s end, there would be that rattling hiss as a forged part was quenched in water. And […]
As the temperature rises in a heat treatment furnace, strange transformations occur. In steel workpieces, the grain structure of the component changes size. Alternatively, new grains form. They undergo phase transformative processes. There’s carbon in the mix, too. As those phase changes take place, the alloy-strengthening element becomes more soluble. […]
Ferrous metals are those that contain iron. Laced with carbon and other exotic elements, iron is a durable, structurally capable alloy. It exudes a polished finish when formed into stainless steel, becomes malleable and machine-formable when forged as mild steel, and it even demonstrates a high measure of corrosion resistance […]
Heat treatment science employs an equal opportunities approach to the field of metal strengthening. That’s another way of saying the techniques used here aren’t just used to harden ferrous workpieces. Indeed, full-service heat treatment facilities toughen soft non-ferrous components, too. Needless to say, though, a different set of processing standards […]