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Heat Treatment
Heat Treatments are a vital link in the manufacturing process for the aerospace, power generation, automotive, railway and general engineering industries, amongst many others. Quality heat treatment ensure component reliability, efficiency and delivery to the customer.
The optimum combination of hardness, strength and toughness is developed throughout the cross section of an engineering product made from steel, by means of hardening and tempering. This treatment consists of heating the work-piece to an appropriate hardening temperature, which is dependant upon the particular steel analysis involved, holding for sufficient time to ensure the whole work-piece is at temperature and then rapidly cooling it in a suitable medium (quenching). This medium can be air, oil, water, molten salt, fluidised bed or a pressurised inert gas, such as nitrogen. Selection of the quench medium is dependant upon steel analysis, component geometry, the heat treatment furnace used and the manufacturing stage at which hardening and tempering is carried out. The resultant temperature changes induce physical transformation of the steel, resulting in mechanical property changes.
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Experienced