Heat Treating Services

AAA Metals specializes in the distribution of stainless steel, nickel, titanium, and hard-to-find metal alloys. In addition to our core shearing, sawing, waterjet cutting, laser cutting, and polishing capabilities, we offer a variety of value-added metal processing services to ensure customers receive materials that meet their needs. One of our secondary service offerings is heat treatment.

Overview of Heat Treatment

Heating treating involves heating and then cooling a material under carefully controlled conditions. This process enhances the properties of the material to improve its performance in the target application. For example:

• It can increase the softness of the metal to improves its formability.
• It can increase the hardness of the metal to improve its strength.
• It can increase the surface hardness of the metal to improve its abrasion resistance.
• It can increase the corrosion resistance of the metal to improves its durability in corrosive environments.

While the conditions of the process can vary with regard to temperature (as high as 2,400° F), heating time (a few seconds to several days), and cooling time (gradual to quick), the general basics remain the same from operation to operation.

1. The material is heated to a specific temperature.
2. The material is held at that temperature for a specific amount of time.
3. The material is cooled by a specific cooling method.

Our Heat Treating Capabilities

There are a number of heat treatment processes available, each of which results in different final properties in the material. AAA Metals offers four types of heat treating services:

• Vacuum heat treatment. Vacuum heat treatments involve heating and cooling metal within a specialized chamber to minimize the effect of reactions between the metal and atmospheric compounds. The oxygen and other undesirable materials are removed from the chamber and replaced with inert gases such as argon or nitrogen. The vacuum formed also austenitizes steel materials.
• Air quenching. Air quenching is a rapid cooling process that uses forced air or inert gas to lower the temperature of heated metal. It changes the basic structure of the metal, resulting in a stronger and harder material.
• Annealing. Annealing is a heat treatment process that involves raising a metal above its transformation temperature and then slowly cooling it. It reduces the stress in the material generated by other metalworking processes, removes hard spots caused by flame cutting and other thermal processes, and decreases material hardness, resulting in a material with greater strength, structural integrity, and workability.
• Sintering. Sintering is a heat treatment process used to bond and impart strength to powdered metal. It heats and/or compresses the metal to form a solid mass without liquefying it.

Materials Processed

Our heat treatment experts accommodate the following metals:

Industries Served

We are proud to offer metal heat treating services to customers in a wide range of industries, including, but not limited to, the following:

Whether they require metal for aircraft engines, clean rooms, consumables, discs, forgings, pipe, pumps, rings, or tubing, we can provide them with a material solution that suits their needs.

Industry Standards Met

Many of the industries we serve are subject to strict standards that necessitate a high level of quality in parts and products. We can process our materials to meet a variety of industry standards, including:

• AMS
• ASME
• ASTM
• MIL-spec

Heat Treating Services at AAA Metals

Looking for high-quality heat-treated metal materials? Partner with the experts at AAA Metals. Equipped with over 40 years of metal distribution experience, we have the expertise to deliver material solutions for some of the most demanding applications. For more information on our heat treating services, contact us today. To discuss your material requirements with one of our team members, request for a quote.