Find heat treating including heat treating systems, induction heat treating, vacuum heat treating and more. From aluminum heat treating to stainless steel heat treating, you will find the heat treatment you need. Use the time-saving Request for Quote tool to submit your inquiry to all the heat treating services and companies you select.
For more than 35 years, Woodworth has built a reputation by providing superior heat-treating services to the most demanding automotive and tier-one suppliers. Our impeccable processes brought to you at competitive prices include vacuum hardening, carburizing and ultrawear. Always state-of-the-art.
Dynamic Metal Treating has grown since 1984 to offer the patented low-temperature heat treating. Our heat treating process is cost-effective and produces less scrap. We offer steel heat treating as well as other tool steel treating. Let us provide your heat treating solution today!
For over 20 years, Mid-South Metallurgical has been proud to provide specialty and precision heat treating services. From steel heat treating to high-speed specialty tools, we can provide the right heat treatment for your application. We serve numerous industries, and we want to serve you!
We do vacuum heat treating such as hardening, straighten parts & minimize distortions. We specialize in vacuum heat treating technology & offer a wide range of heat treating choices. At Peters’ Heat Treating, our main concern is on precision parts & has been for over 100 years of combined experience.
We have over 40 vacuum furnaces at two locations, Eastern and Western, PA. Furnaces range from lab to 36-ft. long, 150,000-lb. capacity. Services include vacuum heat treatment with specialized processes, vacuum brazing for metal joining, vacuum carburizing and nitriding for case and surface hardening.
Heat treating is a general name for various processes
that are used to harden or soften metals through a series of heating
and cooling until the desired properties are reached. Common metals that
can be used for heat treating services are aluminum, titanium, magnesium
and more, but by far the most common metal that undergoes this process
is steel. Metal heat treating is a $20 billion a year industry with high
operating costs, due to the fact that it is a very energy intensive process.
In order to change the hardness of a metal, the internal atomic structure
is actually changed during the heating and cooling. Metals with high
carbon content have the best success rate with heat treating, because
the more carbon there is, the harder the final product will be.
The most common method of heat
treating steel begins by normalizing the
metal. Normalizing is an important heating and cooling step, because
it erases any effects from previous heat treatments. After this, the
steel is heated to its critical temperature at which point it becomes
red hot and nonmagnetic, an iron and carbon mixture called austenite.
The next step depends on the state of the desired final product. For
a soft steel called pearlite, the austenite must be cooled slowly through
annealing. If, on the other hand, hardness is needed, the steel is cooled
very quickly through a process called quenching, which involves rapid
cooling in a substance such as oil, water or a salt bath. The resulting
product is called martensite, and it is very hard but brittle. To ease
stress, a final process, tempering, can be used. The metal is reheated
to become less brittle, and in some cases, more flexible.
The annealing process used in heat treating services is opposite for
nonferrous metals such as aluminum, copper, silver and brass. The metal
starts out by being heated, but rather than being cooled slowly, a quenchant
is used. Metals without carbon can only be hardened through mechanical
working, such as hammering, bending and rolling or by the addition of
more durable alloying metals. There are several other methods of heat
treating. One of these is flame hardening, which is used in cases when
only a small portion of a metal’s surface needs to be hardened.
This is done by heating the area with a very hot acetylene torch and
then quenching with water. Another is case hardening, which hardens the
surface of a metal by absorbing carbon to create a hard “case.” In
this process, the metal is placed in a container heated with charcoal,
left for a while and then quenched in a salt bath.
There are some basic precautions to keep in mind when heat treating any
metal. Because of intense heat, be sure to wear protective clothing,
not only during the heat treating of the metal, but during quenching
as well, because of dangers from scalding steam and splattered hot water.
Also, quenching with oil can be a potential fire hazard, so it is important
to remove any flammable materials from the vicinity and to keep an extinguisher
nearby. Heat treating services are used to treat metals for more industries
than it is possible to name. Cutlery blades for knives and even swords
are hardened through heat treating, as are railroad components and musical
instruments. Molds for die
casting can also be heat treated to ensure hardness. Some of the
many affected industries include: automotive, hardware, heavy equipment,
construction, fire arms, military, tool and die, stamping, trucks and
trailers, aerospace, machine tools, fasteners and chains.
Aluminum heat treating is used to soften or harden aluminum materials to a desired level of hardness.
Annealing is
the process of softening carbon and alloy steels by slowly cooling the
metals after they have been heated.
Austempering
is a method of hardening steel by quenching into a constant temperature
medium, such as a salt bath. The resulting product is bainite.
Case hardening
is a heat treatment that involves changing the surface composition of
an iron-based alloy for additional hardness.
Cyaniding is
a hardening method that involves carbon and nitrogen absorption on the
surface of steel by heating it in contact with cyanide salt and then
quenching.
Flame hardening
is used when only a small part of a metal surface needs to be hardened.
This method involves heating the surface with an acetylene torch and
then quenching.
Heat treating metal is used to harden or soften metal materials by heating or cooling them until the desired level of hardness is reached.
Heat treating stainless steel is used to soften or harden stainless steel materials to a desired level of hardness.
Induction heat treating uses induction heaters to harden or soften metal materials.
Martempering
is used to harden steel by quenching the hot metal in a heat extracting,
constant temperature substance, such as salt, and waiting until the
temperature is uniform. The metal is then air cooled to form martensite,
and tempered as needed.
Steel heat treating is used to soften or harden steel materials to a desired level of hardness.
Tempering involves
the reheating of ferrous metals to increase hardness and reduce brittleness.
Vacuum heat treating
involves heat treating within a vacuum furnace for metallurgical reactions
and then quenching, usually with gas.
Heat Treating Terms
Air Hardening Steel
– A type of steel that does not require quenching to cool and harden,
simply air.
Alloy – Two or more metals combined
for desired properties, such as greater strength, hardness or a different
melting point.
Austenite – Solid iron and carbon
that is created by heating steel above its critical temperature.
Bainite – The resulting product
when austenite is quenched in a medium at a constant temperature.
Carburizing – The process of
adding carbon to the surface of steel by heating the metal below its melting
point around solids, liquids or gases that contain carbon.
Critical Temperature – The temperature
at which steel will change its structure to austenite.
Decarburization – The loss of
carbon at the surface of a metal, due to high temperatures and contact
with air, oxygen or hydrogen.
Hardenability – The measure
of a metal’s ability to harden after quenching.
Hardness – A metal’s ability
to resist penetration.
Impact Strength – A metal’s
ability to resist cracking after an impact.
Martensite – A type of steel
that results from quenching austenite.
Normalizing – A prelude to many
heat treatments that involves heating a metal above its critical temperature
range and then cooling it. This process is done to erase any effects of
previous heat treating.
Oxidation – A corrosion reaction
on a metal that results from exposure to oxygen in the air.
Pearlite – A type of steel that
is created from the slow air cooling of austenite.
Quenchant – The substance that
is used to cool a metal in the heat treating process, such as water, oil,
brine, liquid salts and air.
Quenching – The process of rapidly
cooling a red hot metal, with a medium such as water, oil or air, to influence
hardness.
Temper – A substance’s
condition, which in most cases can be adjusted.
Temper Color – The color of
clean steel at different temperatures, which indicates the level of heat
during the tempering process.
Tensile Strength – The force
at which a metal will break after being stretched.
Yield Strength – The point at
which a metal will become permanently deformed after stress.
