Services & Special processes we offer

Engineered Heat Treat offers a wide range of processes for all types of jobs with both special process and standard specifications. We have a full Metallurgical Laboratory staffed with Metallurgists and well-qualified technicians, which use state-of-the-art testing equipment to ensure conformance to all customer requirements and specifications. See below for specific processes.

We are committed to provide heat treat services that meet or exceed our customer’s expectation of quality, cost and delivery. Our objectives will be achieved through our commitment to continuous improvement, quality and innovation to ensure customer satisfaction.

Plug Quenching

A process in which tooling plugs are inserted to critical areas of the part during the quenching process to limit the dimensional changes of the part such as a spline.

Gleason Die Quenching

A quench press is a machine that uses concentrated forces to hold an object as it is quenched. These types of quench facilities are used to quench large gears and other circular parts so that they remain circular.

Vacuum Heat Treating

Vacuum furnaces are used in a wide range of applications in both production industries and research laboratories. At temperatures below 1200 °C, a vacuum furnace is commonly used for the heat treatment of steel alloys. Many general heat-treating applications involve the hardening and tempering of a steel part to make it strong and tough through service. Hardening involves heating the steel to a predetermined temperature, then cooling it rapidly in water, oil or suitable medium.

Hardening - Atmosphere

Atmosphere – Martensitic transformation, more commonly known as quenching and tempering, is a hardening mechanism specific for steel. The steel must be heated to a temperature where the iron phase changes from ferrite into austenite.

Automated Gas Nitriding

In gas nitriding the donor is a nitrogen-rich gas, usually ammonia (NH3), which is why it is sometimes known as ammonia nitriding. When ammonia comes into contact with the heated work piece it dissociates into nitrogen and hydrogen. The nitrogen then diffuses onto the surface of the material creating a nitride layer.

Hardening - Neutral salt bath

Salt baths are used in a wide variety of heat treatment processes including neutral hardening, liquid carburizing, liquid nitriding, austempering, martempering and tempering. Parts are loaded into a pot of molten salt where they are heated by conduction, giving a very readily available source of heat. The core temperature of a part rises in temperature at approximately the same rate as its surface in a salt bath.

Gas Carburizing

Case hardening is specified by "hardness" and "case depth". The case depth can be specified in two ways: total case depth or effective case depth. The total case depth is the true depth of the case. For most alloys, the effective case depth is the depth of the case that has a hardness equivalent to HRC50; however, some alloys specify a different hardness (40-60 HRC) at effective case depth.

OTHER PROCESSES

Straightening

A device and process used in metalworking to straighten material.

Deep Freezing (-120F Below)

Further transformation of the austenite into martensite can be induced by slowly cooling the metal to extremely low temperatures. Cold treating generally consists of cooling the steel to around -115˚F (-81˚C) but does not eliminate all of the austenite.

Stress Relieve

Stress-relieving is a technique to remove or reduce the internal stresses created in metal. These stresses may be caused in several ways, ranging from cold working to non-uniform cooling.

Heat Treat Austenitic Corrosion Resistant Steel

This microstructure is achieved by alloying steel with sufficient nickel and/or manganese and nitrogen to maintain an austenitic microstructure at all temperatures, ranging from the cryogenic region to the melting point.

Austemper

A heat treatment for ferrous alloys in which a part is quenched from the austemping temperature at a rate fast enough to avoid formation of ferrite or pearlite and then held at a temperature just above Ms. until transformation to bainite is complete.

Martemper

Martempering is also known as stepped quenching or interrupted quenching. In this process, steel is heated above the upper critical point (above the transformation range) and then quenched in a hot-oil, molten-salt or molten-lead bath kept at a temperature of 150-300 °C.

Hot Oil Capabilities

Hotter oil for quenching helps the hardenability process and helps with part distortion.

Homogenize

Holding at high temperature to eliminate or decrease chemical segregation by diffusion.

Grit Media or Aluminum Oxide Blast

High speed steel grit or aluminum grit blast to clean all surface areas of a part.

Tempering

Untempered martensitic steel, while very hard, is too brittle to be useful for most applications. A method for alleviating this problem is called tempering. Most applications require that quenched parts be tempered.

Normalizing

Normalize, Quench, Temper

Normalizing is a technique used to provide uniformity in grain size and composition (equiaxed crystals) throughout an alloy.

Annealing

Annealing consists of heating a metal to a specific temperature and then cooling at a rate that will produce a refined microstructure either fully or partially separating the constituents

Precipitation Hardening – Age

Some metals are classified as precipitation hardening metals. When a precipitation hardening alloy is quenched, its alloying elements will be trapped in solution, resulting in a soft metal.

Certified Metallurgical Lab Testing

Several certified pieces of lab equipment used in testing and certifying a parts physical and microstructural characteristics post heat treating.

X-Ray Diffraction Testing

the scattering of X-rays by the regularly spaced atoms of a crystal, useful in obtaining information about the structure of the crystal.

Copper Plating

The process of electroplating a layer of copper onto the surface of a metal object. Copper is used both as a standalone coating and as an undercoat onto which other metals are subsequently plated.