Surface & Heat Treatment Services

The traditional way of painting by applying wet paint to parts. It is the right surface treatment method for metals that cannot be heated for powder coating purposes.

Traditional paints have a wider range of colours and allow the application of a thicker coating. Also, it is more long-lasting in some circumstances where powder coating cannot perform.

While laser cutting usually leaves nice clean edges (except for aluminium laser cutting), some other cutting methods may not have such great quality.

To smooth the edges, the parts are put on a deburring machine’s conveyor belt. The conveyor runs through a series of brushes that guarantee a quality surface. The belts are wide enough to accommodate large parts.

During electroplating, a thin layer of metal atoms is deposited onto another material through electrolysis. By adding a layer of a different metal, several physical, mechanical and chemical properties of the workpiece can be improved.

In addition to improved corrosion and wear resistance, for example, electroplating is often carried out to improve the appearance of the product (e.g. nickel electroplating).

Annealing is used to reduce the hardness and increase the ductility and toughness of various steels, cast iron, aluminium and various alloys. It involves heating the workpiece beyond its recrystallisation temperature.

Annealing is usually done after a product undergoes mechanical operations (such as bending, forming, rolling, grinding, drawing, etc.) that lead to hard and brittle metals. This means that the material is difficult to process further and is susceptible to cracking. Thus annealing is most often carried out to return the metal to its pre-work state and make it more acceptable to subsequent operations.

The process is also used to relieve internal stresses as the final heat treatment operation to improve part service life and operational capabilities. In addition, annealing can also soften up weld solidifications and improve electrical conductivity.

Normalising is actually a type of annealing process where the metals are cooled at room temperature instead of letting them cool at a controlled rate inside a furnace. Thus, the benefits and use cases for normalising are often similar to annealing – increased ductility and toughness accompanied by reduced hardness.

In applications where these properties are needed, normalising is a relatively quick and affordable way to achieve them as the process requires less furnace time. In most cases, normalising is enough if the components are not going to be under heavy loads.

For low-alloy and mild steels, the improvement in material properties is almost identical for annealing and normalising.

Tempering is a heat treatment process in which the components are heated and held to a set temperature below the critical point for a certain duration. The components are then cooled to room temperature in still air.

Tempering is most often performed after hardening processes where the material is heated above its upper critical temperature followed by rapid cooling. To reduce the brittleness and restore ductility, the metals are reheated, this time to lower temperatures. This helps to strike a balance between hardness and ductility.

Tempered metals are useful in applications that need a certain level of flexibility from their components. In theory, tempering can be carried out on a wide range of metals but it is generally associated with carbon steel as few other metals react to this heat treatment method in the same manner as steel.

Through case hardening, the surface of a metal is hardened while the core remains soft. This process allows to combine the best properties of a soft and hard metal into one part.

A soft material has superior impact resistance compared to a hard material. It possesses greater toughness, ductility, and strength but it does not have sufficient wear resistance. The presence of good wear resistance is important to prevent material degradation caused by abrasion or friction. By selectively hardening the outer surface, we can effectively minimise material wear while maintaining its other desirable properties.

If the carbon content is sufficient, we only need to heat and quench the part. But if the carbon content is low or extreme hardness is required, elements such as carbon (carburising) and nitrogen (nitriding) need to be added to the material’s surface.