Annealing and normalising

Annealing

In general, the main purpose of annealing heat treatment is to soften the steel, regenerate overheated steel structures or just remove internal tensions.

It basically consists of heating to austenitizing temperature (800ºC and 950ºC depending on the type of steel), followed by slow cooling.

Normalizing

Normalization is an annealing process. The objective of normalization is to intend to leave the material in a normal state, in other words with the absence of internal tensions and even distribution of carbon. For the process the high temperatures are maintained until the complete transformation of austenite with air cooling.

It is usually used as a post-treatment to forging, and pre-treatment to quenching and tempering.

Induction is used in most applications of annealing and normalizing in compared to conventional ovens.

Induction heating advantages:

• Processed in line with control of parameters in real time
• Metallurgical results similar to those obtained in conventional ovens
• Less environmental pollution
• Increase energy efficiency
• Reduced processing time
• Ability to control the heat, temperature accuracy
• Ability to heat small areas without changing the characteristics of the rest of the part
• Cycle accurate and repetitive heat
• Reduction of surface oxidation
• Improved job environment

Some related industries are tube and pipe, medicine, oil and gas and automotive.