About to American Heat Treating

Aging
(Also called Precipitation Hardening) A change in the properties of certain steels, and structural alloys, that occurs at ambient or moderately elevated temperatures after hot working or a heat treatment (quench aging, natural aging, or artificial aging).

Carburizing
A process in which an austenitizable steel object is brought into contact with a carbonaceous environment of sufficient carbon potential to cause absorption of carbon at the surface and, by diffusion, to create a concentration gradient.

Tempering
Reheating a quench hardened or normalized steel object to a temperature below Ac1, and then cooling it at any desired rate.

Annealing
Annealing is used to induce ductility, soften material, relieve internal stresses, and refine the structure by making it homogeneous.

Brazing
A process for joining solid metals in close proximity by introducing a liquid that melts above 850°F. Like the other joining processes, brazing encompasses a variety of scientific disciplines which we are well versed in.

Cryogenic Treatment
(Also called Cold Treatment) Cryogenics, or deep freezing is done to make sure there is no retained Austenite during quenching, resulting in a complete Martensitic microstructure.

Vacuum Heat Treat
Heating metals to high temperatures normally causes rapid oxidation, which is undesirable. A vacuum furnace removes the oxygen and prevents this from happening.

Austemper
A thermal process that produces significantly tougher parts than conventional heat treating. Used in many applications where distortion is critical. The resultant microstructure is very tough, exhibiting 15% higher toughness than a quench & tempered part of the same hardness.

Stress Relieving
Heating a steel object to a suitable temperature, holding it long enough to reduce residual stresses, and then cooling it slowly enough to minimize the development of new residual stresses.

Carbonitriding
Case hardening in which a suitable steel object is heated above Ac1 in a gaseous atmosphere of such composition as to cause simultaneous absorption of carbon and nitrogen by the surface and, by diffusion, to create a concentration gradient.

Induction
Unlike some combustion methods, induction heating is highly controllable regardless of batch size. Varying the current, voltage, and frequency through an induction coil results in fine-tuned engineered heating, perfect for applications like hardening and tempering, stress relieving, annealing and other forms of heat treating. A high level of precision is essential for critical industries like automotive, aerospace, the military, off-road machinery and oil and gas, just to name of few.