Ferritic nitrocarburizing (FNC) is a heat treatment that uses carbon and nitrogen to create a “white layer” to protect and toughen steel. Unlike other hardening techniques, ferritic nitrocarburizing uses relatively low temperatures which prevents distortion issues that occur with higher temperatures. But the benefits of ferritic nitrocarburizing don’t stop there. This heat-treating service provides a high level of wear resistance, improves fatigue properties, increases corrosion resistance, and gives a uniform appearance. With its many benefits, ferritic nitrocarburizing is a smart choice for improving the durability and lifespan of steel.
Isothermal annealing is a two-stage thermal service involving austenitizing the material, first at a preferred temperature and subsequently cooling to and holding at a specific temperature to complete the transformation. The isothermal annealing process is used for achieving specific microstructures and hardness in certain grades of steel that are not possible with normalize, or full anneal processes.
Normalizing is a heat treatment process that involves heating the steel to an elevated temperature, typically between 750-980 °C, and then allowing it to cool back to room temperature in ambient air. This process alters the microstructure of the steel, reducing its hardness and increasing its ductility.
Normalizing poses many benefits, making it suitable for various applications and industries. Normalizing helps remove impurities from the steel and improves its strength, toughness, and uniformity throughout the piece. This heat treatment is a cost-effective method for reducing residual stresses and creating a more formable product. If you are looking to learn more about Aalberts, visit our About Us page.
This is a two-step process that involves removing contaminants from the surface of the steel such as scale, stains or rust. Once the contaminates are removed from the steel, the part is submerged in hot oil, which displaces any water from the surface of the steel creating a rust preventative layer.
The quench and temper process provides strength and toughness throughout the part being processed. It is a two-stage heat treat process that includes hardening and tempering.
This process is used in applications where the tensile strength, fatigue resistance and impact strengths are of the utmost importance. Quench media can include oil, polymer, water, gas, or salt.
Tempering steel is a heat treatment process that involves reheating a quenched metal to a specific temperature and then allowing it to cool gradually. This process is performed to reduce the hardness and increase the toughness of the metal, making it less brittle and more suitable for specific applications.
Tempered steel finds numerous applications across various industries due to its improved combination of strength and durability. Tempering is commonly used to produce tools, springs, machine parts, and other components requiring hardness and toughness. With Aalbert’s you’ll receive high-quality tempered steel designed to withstand challenging applications.
Sawing is needed for steel grades that are prone to cracks during the forging process. Cutting bar stock to specific weights or lengths reduces cracking and subsequent stresses on the steel while being forged.
Sawing is needed for steel grades that are prone to cracks in both shearing and further forging operations.
Shearing is done to convert steel bars into billets to be formed into forgings. This process is known to be quicker and less expensive than traditional sawing methods.
Scale on parts must be removed for proper machining and increased tool life. Shot blast cleaning removes scale from any of the heat treat processes by impinging the parts’ surface with hard steel shots.
Spheroidize Annealing is a low temperature process that produces spheroidized carbides. For a given grade of steel, a spheroidized microstructure provides the lowest possible hardness compared to others. With the low hardness, a spheroidized microstructure lowers the flow resistance in a material which is ideal for cold formation.
Operations such as rough machining and cold forming can generate residual stresses in parts. If not removed, these stresses can release themselves in an uncontrolled fashion causing dimensional issues. In stress relieving, parts are taken to and held at an appropriate temperature to relieve the residual stresses created in the prior operations.
Operations such as rough machining and cold forming can generate residual stresses in parts. If not removed, these stresses can release themselves in an uncontrolled fashion causing dimensional issues at subsequent operations. This process is required on welded material to keep them stress-free.
The coating process starts with proper surface preparation of the parts by immersing them in a series of chemicals. Phosphate and lube coating of parts are performed to facilitate cold forming operations. Phosphate coating also produces base for rust preventive material. Phosphate and lube coating is suitable for several types of low carbon and low alloy steels.
Zinc phosphate coated material can also be dipped in oil to create a protective layer on the steel. This provides rust prevention for an extended period.
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