HEAT TREATMENT POST FORGING

After forging, parts often undergo heat treatment to further enhance their mechanical properties. Heat treatments involve heating, soaking, and cooling, and can increase properties such as: Toughness, Hardness, Tensile Strength, and Ductility.

Annealing

This process involves heating the forged parts to a specific temperature and then slowly cooling them. It reduces hardness, improves ductility, and relieves internal stresses.

Quenching and Tempering

Involves rapidly cooling the heated metal, usually in water or oil, to increase hardness and strength. This process can make the material brittle, so it is often followed by tempering, which is used to reduce brittleness and improve toughness.

Normalization

This heat treatment process involves heating the metal to a temperature above its critical range, then cooling it. Normalization refines the grain structure, enhances machinability, and relieves internal stresses, improving the uniformity of the mechanical properties.