One of the additional services we offer is heat treatment. Heat treatments are used to increase hardness, temperature resistance, strength & ductility. The metals we print can be treated in the same way as machined parts. This means if there is a specific heat treatment you require, it is likely we can offer that on-site.
For many parts, especially the 3,000-4,000 parts we do for aerospace each year, we do heat treatments in argon – even for Inconel and 15-5 stainless steel. This ensures that the parts do not have any oxide layers on the surface. This helps for internal cavities, etc, and provides a cleaner and more reliable component.
See one of our heat treatment chambers in the image below:
Guide for Heat Treatments:
- H900 is used for Stainless Steel 15-5 to achieve a hardness of 43 – 46 HRC.
- H1150 is a standard stress relief treatment and also used for Stainless Steel 15-5 – this also helps when post machining.
- We treat inconel with a specialist heat treatment – talk to us if you want to know more. Inconel is often used in Aerospace and the Oil & Gas industries as it can withstand extreme environments.
- Each titanium part is heat treated to stress relieve the part.
- Stress relieving is normally done before final finishing such as polishing or grinding.