Heat treating is performed by a process that changes the microstructure of metals and alloys such as steel and aluminum. The goal is to add properties that improve the characteristics and operational life of a component. The benefits that result include enhanced strength, hardness, ductility, and temperature resistance. Case hardening, tempering, normalizing, and annealing are types of heat treating services. Pennsylvania is served by companies offering these services for the benefit of various industries, including automotive, construction, medical, and aviation.
An explanation of some common heat treatment services are as follows:
Hardening and Tempering
Various teaching techniques are used in the hardening process to improve hardness, strength, and the fatigue life of metal parts.
Anealing Heat Treating Services
The process for annealing stainless steel includes two stages. In the first stage, the metal softened as crystal defects that create internal stresses in the metal are eliminated. In the second stage, the nucleation and growth of strain free grains occurs.
Carbonitriding
As a modified form of gas carburizing, carbonnitriding is a surface case hardening process that produces a high hardness, then case. It improves the surface hardness and wear resistance of metal components.
Carburizing
Involving the heating of metal components of low carbon content within a carbon rich gas atmosphere, carburizing is a case hardening process that allows the diffusion of carbon atoms into the component’s surface that needs the case hardening.
Nitriding
The surface hardening process – nitriding – involves the dispersion of nitrogen atoms into the surface of ferrous materials at some critical temperatures. A hard, where, and fatigue resistant nitrided case is developed under the surface one nitrogen atoms react with the base metal. It is an optimum choice for precision parts because of the combination of protective atmospheres, subcritical temperatures, and minimal distortion.
Normalizing
As with austenitizing, normalizing is a high temperature heating cycle that comes before cooling in still agitated air, and is performed for various reasons. One of the major reasons is the homogenization of the microstructure in the removal of nonuniformities that exist at the microscopic level.
Contact an experienced heat treating Services Company serving Pennsylvania to learn more about your options.
