Heat treatment is an old process, of hardening metals, that keeps improving as the demand changes. The theory, of heating a metal to austenite temperatures and then cooling to form martensite and relieve stresses, has not changed. However, the process has changed to meet the changing consumer demands and to employ better plant efficiencies. Hansen Balk show evidence of this in the wide range of technology they employ.
Hansen Balk uses equipment from the companies earlier days as well as the newest computer controlled equipment. The older equipment does not signify that the process is out of date, but rather that the company has the flexibility to generate products in various ways. Also, this equipment would not be in use if the efficiencies were less than another process of production.
The process of heating the products is done with gas or electricity. One of the gas processes is the flame hardening of metals. This process provides a surface hardening and an surface appearance like a snakes belly. The metal is cooled, with a plastic water, immediately after the flame has the heated the metal. The other methods of heating, gas or electric, are done in large ovens.
The process of applying heat in an oven is either manual or automatically controlled. The temperature in the oven is raised in incremental steps so as to provide an approximate isothermal temperature rise throughout the part. Thermocouples are placed in various locations within the oven and the parts. Graphical analysis of the temperature rise is then displayed in a control panel on the side of the oven, ensuring process control. These graphs also provide information necessary to improve plant efficiency. These graphs show when the oven is increasing in temperature and when the oven is holding a temperature. When the oven is holding a temperature, waiting for equilibrium, another machine may start its temperature rise. This will cause a constant net energy flow into the plant producing less strain on the companies plant.
The cooling processes have also changed within Hansen Balk. Quenching is done in molten salt, oil, and nitrogen. The company also cools the product by annealing. Nitrogen quenching is the companies newest cooling process. The advantages of the process is two fold. The heat treated products become harder and they do not oxidize. Both of these results are a function of the cooling rate. Oxidized parts have to be sand blasted thus adding more time and overhead casts to the heat treat process.
This is just a brief overview of the capabilities that Hansen Balk posses.