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Annealing Services
Annealing services are heat treating processes where a material’s mechanical properties are changed, lowering its strength and hardness. Annealing is used to induce ductility, soften a material, relieve internal stresses, and refine the structure by making it homogeneous. Annealing services will reduce or eliminate cold working properties. It is performed by heating a metal or metal alloy above its re-crystallization temperature, “soaking” for a prescribed period of time, followed by cooling. The cooling rate is determined by the material that is being annealed.
Solar Atmospheres conducts annealing services for various materials in a vacuum furnace for many different industries. The parts are placed in the furnace, and then the furnace is pumped down to a certain vacuum level. The heating and cooling takes place under a vacuum and cooling is typically accomplished using a non-reactive gas such as Nitrogen, Argon, or Helium. When accelerated cooling is required, forced fan cooling is accomplished by circulating the gas through a large, internal heat exchanger.
During the annealing services, a vacuum furnace is used to prevent oxides and nitrides from forming on the surface of the material where they would be detrimental in its intended use. The vacuum furnace is also used when distortion is a concern. The process always starts from approximately room temperature, and heating rates are easily controlled to allow stress to be relieved slowly. In addition, gas cooling imparts much less stress into a material than traditional liquid quenching, meaning less distortion occurs during the cooling portion of the annealing process. Solar Atmospheres uses work thermocouples to ensure the customer’s material is at the prescribed temperature for the prescribed amount of time.
Solar Atmospheres specializes in vacuum technology and is one of the largest vacuum heat treaters in the country. Solar Atmospheres has been in business for over 25 years and is considered the leader in the vacuum heat treating industry because of the high regard for quality and customer service. Please contact us for assistance with all your annealing services needs.
Industries Served
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SOLAR ADVANTAGES OF ANNEALING SERVICES
MATERIALS PROCESSED WITH OUR ANNEALING SERVICES
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