Engineering handbooks describe annealing as a stress reduction process. A workpiece goes into a furnace, is heated to its transformative temperature, then it slowly cools to room temperature. Hard and stressed when going into a heat treatment furnace, the part exits with a softer, plastic-deformable structure. Back with the different […]
Copious quantities of nickel and chromium bolster a base ferrous structure. That’s what gives Austenitic Stainless Steel its face-centred microcrystalline identity. Infused with a little carbon, the alloy family gains its mainstream mechanical properties. So, what is that austenitic edge? The nickel-based flavouring is clear enough, but we want to […]
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. […]