Bringing aluminium back to full strength
Optimum properties can be restored to proof-machined products using re-heat treatment, inspection, testing and release to the required temper
Alloy Heat Treatments can restore the strength of products machined from large blocks of alumimium and prevent potentially catastrophic failure.
Alloy Heat Treatments can restore the strength of products machined from large blocks of alumimium and prevent potentially catastrophic failure.
Optimum properties can be restored to proof-machined products using re-heat treatment, inspection, testing and release to the required temper.
Alloy Heat Treatments (AHT) has the capacity to heat treat automotive and aircraft products up to 2.5m by 2m by 1.9m and 5 tonnes gross weight in a drop bottom facility at its Dudley site. In addition to providing straightforward heat treatment to manufacturers and machinists, it also offers both hardening and softening heat treatments to material stockists and suppliers who have difficulty in sourcing material in the required temper.
As components become increasingly complex, AHT plays an increasingly important part in its aerospace and automotive customers’ supply chains. A quench distortion correction function, termed as ‘setting’ and endorsed by Nadcap, automotive OEMs and suppliers is just one added value option provided by AHT.
Setting provides for freshly quenched products to be manipulated to customer supplied checking aids or to specified machining tolerances. The setting process is further supplemented by a refrigeration process, allowing for the storage of freshly quenched products at temperatures as low as -29 degrees Centigrade, which retards natural age hardening that prevents setting. This allows distortion to be corrected without detriment to the mechanical properties in accordance with prime contractors’ and OEMs’ specifications.
Alloy Heat Treatments will be at the Aero Engineering Show at the NEC November 9 - 10 on Stand 316 Hall 20
Images for this article - click to enlarge
Unless otherwise stated, all images copyright © Mercator Media 2012. This does not exclude the owner's assertion of copyright over the material.
