• Steel Plant Specialities LLP

Scale-Free Heat Treatment

Heat treatment is an important operation in the manufacturing process of engineering components, machine parts and tools. When steel is heated in an electric furnace or oil fired furnace, in the presence of air or products of combustion, oxidation and decarburisation of steel take place. Protection against them is achieved by heating in molten salts, fluidised bed furnaces, protective gaseous media or vacuum. These measures demand heavy capital investment, highly skilled personnel and special safety precautions. Many small heat treatment shops cannot afford them, and yet they are under mounting pressure to prevent oxidation and decarburisation. Steel Plant Specialities has come out with a unique coating, which enables any kind of steel to be heated up to 1200 Degree Celsius without the basic problems of oxidation and decarburisation. The coating process can be adopted by both small and large scale units. Some of the benefits claimed are: ability to use existing furnace, box type or bogie hearth; electric, oil or gas fired; prevention of oxidation and decarburisation; elimination of need of salt bath or expensive controlled atmosphere furnace in many cases; considerable savings in capital investment and operating costs; elimination or minimization of post heat treatment operations like grinding, shot blasting or acid pickling; and ability to heat treat machined components with zero scaling. The coating process has simplified and accelerated many metallurgical heat treatment operations, reducing costs and improving quality. This contribution to the industry has been recognised and rewarded by ASM International.