A range of commercial components use heat-treating to realize the desired strength and hardness for their application. If you’re looking to achieve better performance with your metal materials, it’s important to understand how each aspect of heat treatment plays into the final result. The right equipment and capabilities can optimize this process and positively impact metal strength.
Our dynamic team at Heat Treat Now has decades of expertise working with heat treatment equipment. We can help you create a unit that meets precise specifications and realizes the desired results for your application.
How Does Heat Treating Impact Metal Strength?
Heat treatment alters the microstructure of metals, significantly impacting their strength. When heat-treated metals reach a certain temperature, the atoms within the steel begin to move freely. This process helps eliminate dislocations, impurities, and defects that can weaken the metal. As the material cools, the atoms lock into a more organized structure and reach the desired hardness and strength.
Heat treatment also helps control the grain size of the material, which affects the strength of the metal. When the metal cools slowly, larger grains form, decreasing toughness and strength. Conversely, rapid cooling (quenching) can cause smaller grains to form within the material, significantly enhancing hardness and strength.
Benefits of Heat Treating Metal
There are several key advantages of heat treating for enhanced metal strength.Increasing Hardness
Heating and cooling metal in a controlled manner allows manufacturers to increase the material's hardness, which makes it more resistant to:
- Abrasion
- Deformation
- Wear
This can be crucial in applications where the material experiences high stress.
Improving Durability
By controlling the material's microstructure, manufacturers can reduce the likelihood of the following:
- Cracking
- Failure
- Fracturing
This level of durability is essential in applications where the metal encounters cyclic loading or impact.
Improving Fatigue Resistance
Fatigue resistance can improve as the metal becomes more failure-resistant under repeated stress.
Enhancing Formability
Altering the microstructure makes the metal easier to bend, form, or machine without sacrificing crucial mechanical properties. This can be vital in applications where the metal needs to be fabricated or shaped into specific parts of components.
Improving Machinability and Workability
Heat treating significantly improves manufacturability by removing any internal stresses from prior fabrication processes, such as:
- Cold Work
- Hot Work
- Machining
- Stamping
- Welding
If the metal is too hard to bend or machine, it can be stress-relieved or annealed to reduce the hardness. Heat treatment by induction or flame can also soften a specific area of the part, leaving the remaining area unchanged.
Improving Wear Resistance
Heat treating can also harden the material to improve strength, toughness, and wear resistance in metals like Inconel, titanium, steel, and copper alloys. This process is known to greatly enhance durability in inexpensive steels like 1018 or A36.
Localized hardening by induction or flame can target one area of the part, leaving the rest unchanged. Nitriding can reduce distortion by hardening the part's surface at a low temperature.
Improving Toughness and Strength
Toughness and strength are a trade-off, as increasing the strength of a material (its hardness) may introduce brittleness and reduce toughness. Heat treatment can be used to alter the following properties in metal:
- Yield Strength
- Tensile Strength
- Fracture Toughness
Both through hardening and case hardening will increase strength, but the parts must be drawn back or tempered to decrease brittleness. The amount of tempering can be determined by the ultimate strength desired in the material. If the material becomes too brittle, it can be heat treated (re-tempered or annealed) to make it more usable.
Enhancing Magnetic Properties
Materials like 316 or 1008 gain magnetic permeability when hardened (bent, stamped, formed, machined, etc.). A specific annealing process can reduce the material's magnetism, which is critical if the part is intended for an electronic environment.
Conclusion
Since 2010, Heat Treat Now has equipped businesses with the necessary tools to advance their manufacturing processes. We specialize in delivering high-quality heat treatment products and exceptional customer service to clients in a breadth of industries.
Request a customized quote and let our team provide real-world, diverse heat-treating solutions for your next project.