Metal stamping guides and resources for designers, engineers and metal part buyers. Valuable information for anyone considering metal stampings in their manufacturing process.
Secondary Process --- Heat Treating
Heat Treating is used to change the microstructure of materials. Often materials that are more easily formed need have various properties changed for the final application. Usually this involves adding hardness to the material or making it less easy to bend after the initial stamping and forming have occurred.
Heat treating is highly dependant on the material being worked with and the end properties desired. It can involving various cycles of heating the product to exact temperatures for exact amounts of time followed by cooling processes. This heating and cooling helps to align the atomic structure of the part such that is achieves the desired end properties. Because the process involves high temperatures heat treating usually occurs prior to plating or coating of the final part.
Annealing is a very general term describing the heating of a metal to a suitable temperature, holding for a suitable time, and cooling at a suitable rate to accomplish the objective of the treatment. Annealing may be done to:
Other processes may include heating in a specific chemical atmosphere or pressure in order to alter the surface composition of the metal. Quenching, or rapidly cooling the material may also be done using various chemicals and metals to alter the surface characteristics as well as change the underlying atomic structure of the material.
Because heat treating changes the properties of the part there is a significant risk of changing critical dimensions. This type of change must be designed in to the pre-treated part. It takes years of stamping experience with a wide variety of parts and materials to successfully master the design requirements for heat treated parts. Only stampers with processes and procedures all the way down to the tool design level can assure accurate parts.
Return to Secondary Processes Home
