City Steel Heat Treating offers a full range of heat treating capabilities.
We have the equipment and the dedicated staff to perform to customer and industry specifications. The following heat
treatments are typical of the work we perform everyday.
ANNEALING
Annealing is a process involving
heating and cooling, usually applied to produce softening of the metal to facilitate machining or forming operations.
The term also refers to treatments intended to alter mechanical or physical properties, produce a definite microstructure,
or remove gases. The temperature of the operation and the rate of cooling depend upon the material being annealed and
the purpose of the treatment.
Full Annealing is a softening process in
which steel is heated to a temperature above the transformation range, and after being held for a sufficient time at this
temperature, is cooled slowly in the furnace to a temperature below the transformation range. Depending upon the alloy,
temperatures for this process range from 1450°F to 1650°F. This process is typically only required for higher alloy
steels, cast irons, and complex alloys.
Process Annealing, or sub-critical annealing,
is usually applied to steel to soften the steel sufficiently to allow further processing, such as cold working or machining.
The steel is heated close to, but below the transformation range, and then cooled. Temperatures for this process range
from 1000°F to 1300°F, depending upon the alloy.
Stress Relief Annealing can be used to relieve
internal stress from forming, machining, or welding in steel if further processing is not required. The steel is heated
to about 1000°F and cooled.
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NORMALIZING
Normalizing
is a process in which steel is heated to a temperature above the transformation range and then cooled in still air.
The purpose of the treatment is to obliterate the effects of any previous heat treatment and to insure a good result on re-heating
for hardening or full annealing.
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HARDENING
Hardening and Tempering are
used to provide the best combination of hardness, strength, and toughness in a steel for a given engineering purpose.
This treatment consists of heating the steel above the transformation range, holding for a long enough time to insure uniform
temperature and solution of the carbon and alloying elements in an austenitic microstructure, followed by rapid cooling (quenching)
to a fully martensitic structure. The cooling medium can be air, oil, water, molten salt, fluidised bed, or a gas such
as argon or nitrogen. Upon completion of hardening, the steel is in it’s hardest but most brittle condition.
It is necessary to perform a subsequent tempering or drawing or process to produce a softer but much tougher condition.
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TEMPERING (DRAWING)
Tempering, sometimes
called Drawing, is the process of re-heating hardened steels to reduce hardness and increase toughness. The tempering
temperature depends upon the desired properties and the purpose for which the steel is to be used. Increasing the tempering
temperature will reduce the hardness of the steel while increasing the toughness.
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Serving Santa Fe Springs, California and the surrounding Southern California communities
with Heat Treating
Services.
Altadena, Anaheim, Arcadia, City of Industry, Corona, Cost Mesa, Cypress, Downey,
El Monte, Fontana, Garden Grove, Glendale, Glendora, Hollywood, Huntington Beach, Inglewood, L.A., LA, Long Beach, Los Angeles,
Norwalk, Ontario, Paramount, Pomona, Riverside, San Fernando, Santa Ana, Santa Fe Springs, Santa Monica, Torrance, Upland,
Van Nuys, Whittier
