Aspects Of Heat Treating With Our Value-Added Services And Metal Stamping In Minneapolis, MN

November 24th, 2015 · 1 Comment

In the metal working industry, some of the biggest struggles technicians have to overcome are combating metal fatigue, brittleness, and weak or soft metal. The key to yielding a durable yet flexible stamped part is  finding the right balance between the part’s different physical properties. At Thomas Engineering Company, we use heat treating as one of our value-added services to yield high quality parts with our precision metal stamping in Minneapolis, MN.

One of the most common heat treatment techniques applied to metal stamped parts is tempering. Tempering (or metallurgy) is a treatment used on iron-based alloys like stainless steel. This treatment is done after the hardening process to increase the toughness of a part while decreasing excess hardness.

The terms “toughness” and “hardness” fall into the category of specific parts of metallurgy physics. Toughness and hardness make up some of an optimal balance of parts taken into account for each metal stamped product. Here is a breakdown of the different terms used to describe a metal’s properties:

  • Toughness is a metal’s resistance to fracture. It is almost directly linked to strength, and will decrease when the strength of a metal increases.
  • Strength breaks down into tensile strength, yield strength, and shear strength. The basic metallurgy definition of strength is a metal’s resistance to breaking or other permanent damage.
  • Hardness is used in metallurgy to describe a metal’s resistance to surface scratching.
  • Brittleness of a metal is the measure of how far it can bend before breaking. The ability to bend is measured with plasticity and elasticity.
  • Plasticity describes the malleability of a metal that allows it to bend without breaking and without returning to its original shape.
  • Elasticity is related to the malleability of a metal as well, but measures the material’s ability to bend and return to its original shape.

These terms are physical parts of a metal alloy that equal its measure of quality and measure of use. Our heat treating value-added services adjust these factors to yield the most balanced materials for our customers’ needs. Contact us at Thomas Engineering Company for more information on our value-added services and metal stamping in Minneapolis, MN.

Tags: Metal Stamping ·


 

One response to “Aspects Of Heat Treating With Our Value-Added Services And Metal Stamping In Minneapolis, MN”

  1. I knew tempering had benefits, but I had no idea they were so far reaching! I figured it would help the toughness and the strength of the metal, but I never would have thought about improving the plasticity. I guess in the future I’ll have to see if tempering could be used to help on some of projects! Thanks for sharing.

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