Vacuum heat treating is a form of heat treating that uses vacuum furnaces for metallurgical reactions. Vacuum heat treating is used to harden or soften metals by heating them with vacuum furnaces and then quenching them, usually this occurs with gas.
Vacuum Heat Treating
Heat treating is a process used to change the internal atomic structure of various metals. In order to do this metal must be heated and cooled until the desired product is achieved. It is used to increase the hardness and ductility of the metals by heating or cooling until it is able to reach the desired state. Tensile, impact and yield strengths are also significantly improved or reduced by variable heat treating procedures. Vacuum furnaces are used for different types of heat treatment. A common method is brazing which uses melted metallic filler to bond two base pieces creating an extremely strong and often hermetic joint. Brazing differs from other heat treatments because it does not alter the internal structure of materials in order to effect change. Instead, brazing uses a technique similar to welding and soldering in order to create strong and lasting joints between two components. Today, heat treated metals are products in heavy demand. In many areas, such as medical and aircraft, very precise and specific custom products must be produced. Having precision control and offering low contamination makes vacuum heat treatment vital in these occasions.
Vacuum heat treating is an important industrial process. Like induction heating, it uses a specialized furnace to heat the metal. Usually this is with gas, but it can use induction as well. Vacuum furnaces are used to carry out heat treating processes with a high level of consistency. The lack of air in a vacuum furnace prevents convection, thus removing one risk of contamination for the metal being treated. Since a vacuum removes the presence of all oxygen, vacuum heat treating also preserves surface chemistry and prevents corrosion and oxidation. Vacuum heat treating utilizes nitrogen, or another inert gas, and controlled-pressure quenching to cool molds for tempering. Because of the controlled heating and cooling, and consistent temperatures employed by this method of heat treating, minimal distortion takes place. Consequently, vacuum heat treating is ideal for the manufacture of quality molds. Vacuum heat treating is also commonly used to manufacture many tools used in the medical industry. The vacuum heat treating process produces bright, clean parts. It is also used to make molds for the tool and die and aerospace industries.
