THERMAL TREATMENT
LEAX is an important partner for Commercial Vehicles, Mining and Construction, Agriculture, the Automotive Industry and the Industry in General. Several parts produced require some kind of Surface Treatment. The purpose of surface treatment is to prevent corrosion by using inhibitors in the rinsing step, which, when combined with rust protection bags and a close monitoring system to check the pH and the concentration of the rinse fluid, prevents the shipment of rust-contaminated parts. For assembled parts, we can provide a painting process that is eco-friendly and meets our customer’s requirements.
With the induction process, we can perform partial or full treatment of parts with medium carbon content. The benefit of treating only the bits that need higher tensile properties is that the rest of the part will not be distorted. LEAX can also offer follow-up operations after the heat treatment, such as straightening, crack detection, hard turning and grinding. We have five size-9 controlled-atmosphere furnaces for quenching and carburizing, where we can treat parts up to 700 mm long and a maximum of 700 kg/batch. We also have two shaft furnaces for quenching and carburizing, where we can treat parts up to 1400 mm long and 1200 kg/batch. All our furnaces are equipped with the most modern techniques to produce an efficient process with full traceability from each batch. Fourteen tempering furnaces support the quenching lines with preheating and tempering to adjust the required hardness. All results are verified in a complete, state-of-the-art laboratory. The cleaning of the parts, before and after the hardening process, is done in dual-chamber alkaline washers.
HEATING PROCESS
With the carburizing process, we can make use of low carbon materials that, in the course of the process, will create a high tensile strength surface with a tough core. The benefit of hardening is making high tensile surfaces throughout the part possible. If necessary, LEAX can prevent certain areas of a specific part from being carburized by applying a special paste, which is quite common in threads with small diameters. After the tempering is performed, the parts get totally hard, from surface to core. Usually, the hardness is lower than in carburized parts, ap. 40-50 HRC.
Of course, LEAX provides follow-up operations after the heat treatment, such as straightening, blasting, crack detection, hard turning, and grinding.