Heat treatment
Heat treatment is a process that involves a set of heating and cooling operations to which steels are subjected, under controlled conditions of temperature, time, atmosphere and cooling speed, with the aim of altering their mechanical properties according to the needs of the application.
Heat treatment of fasteners in general
Heat treatment of fasteners is usually associated with increasing the strength of the material, but it can also be used to improve machinability, formability and restore ductility after a cold operation. Therefore, heat treatment is an operation that can assist other manufacturing processes and/or improve the performance of products by increasing their strength or altering other desirable characteristics.
Gas Cementation
Gas carburizing is an industrial process applied to parts with a low carbon content, with the aim of hardening the surface of the part and increasing wear resistance. The process consists of introducing carbonaceous gases to the surface of the part, after which it must be tempered to obtain the necessary properties. It is widely used in the machining, automotive and aeronautical industries, and is commonly applied to parts such as gears, axles, tooling, etc.
Hardening and tempering
Commercially known as beneficiation, the hardening process guarantees a significant gain in the hardness of the steel with the formation of the martensite phase. This treatment uses thermal shock as part of the process. As it demands a lot from the material, it has the characteristic of separating the good and bad quality parts. Normally, after the hardening process, tempering is carried out to adjust the hardness to the desired properties.
Tempering is a heat treatment that aims to reduce the fragility imposed on the material as a result of the abrupt cooling of the hardening process and the stresses resulting from the martensitic transformation. It consists of heating the tempered material to a certain temperature and leaving it at that temperature for a defined period.
Austempering
Special isothermal treatment used for materials that cannot undergo dimensional changes and need a spring effect. The process consists of heating the material to its austenitization temperature, followed by rapid cooling in a molten salt bath to a bainite formation range. It is necessary to remain at this temperature until the transformation is complete. It is used for parts that require high toughness (spring effect). It can be applied to steels, springs, clamps, elastic rings and stamped parts in general.
