Hardened and Tempered Strip Steel Prowess in Multiple Industrial Realms
Hardened and tempered strip steel is an essential material used in various industrial applications. Its robustness and strength contribute to longer operational life and less maintenance efforts, reducing costs for businesses.
The hardening and tempering process transforms cold-rolled strip into high-strength spring steel by a series of heat-treating operations. These processes are conducted in state-of-the-art continuous hardening and tempering furnaces produced by voestalpine Precision Strip WI.
Strength
Having the ability to withstand pressure over an extended period of time makes hardened and tempered strip steel an excellent choice for components that will undergo regular stress or wear. The material can also be used to manufacture tools that need to maintain their sharpness and strength for as long as possible, including cutting and saw blades.
The key to these benefits is the hardening process, which produces a steel that is brick-hard but also surprisingly elastic. The tempering process is the next step, which involves reheating the hardened steel to a lower temperature and slowly cooling it again. This reduces brittleness while preserving toughness, striking an ideal balance between strength and elasticity.
The hardening and tempering processes are rigorously controlled at Jiaxiao MTC to ensure the high standards of quality that have been set for these critical materials in modern industrial applications. The resulting strip steel is able to deliver on the stringent requirements that are typical for most industrial processes, including reducing downtime due to breakdowns and lowering maintenance costs. These savings can be substantial.
Durability
Hardened and tempered strip steel is incredibly durable, able to resist abrasions and other types of damage. hardened and tempered strip steel This durability is the result of a rigorous processing technique that ensures these steel strips can retain their structural integrity in harsh environments, bolstering productivity and efficiency in many different industries.
To develop this strength, hardened and tempered strip steel goes through a complex heat treatment process. The first step, hardening, involves heating the strip to a high temperature before cooling it rapidly, producing a martensitic condition in which the material is very hard but also brittle.
This brittleness is corrected in the second stage of heat treatment, tempering, which involves reheating the strip to a lower temperature and then slowly cooling it. This re-strengthens the metal by decreasing stresses, reducing brittleness and maintaining toughness. This balanced approach makes it possible to produce a steel strip that is both strong enough and tough enough to perform its intended function, from the spring in a clock to a saw blade. These steel strips are also able to resist damage caused by vibration and other forces, helping them maintain their performance over extended periods of time.
Toughness
While the hardening process makes the strip tougher, it also makes it very brittle. To overcome this problem, tempering is a second heat treatment that reheats the strip to lower temperatures. This softens the steel and reduces brittleness, striking an ideal balance between strength and toughness.
The Company’s metallurgical experts carefully control the tempering process to ensure that the strip is neither too hard nor too fragile. This enables it to stand up to rigorous handling and stress situations without becoming damaged or breaking.
Hardened and tempered strip is often used to manufacture automotive components, clock springs, door and seatbelt buckles, doctor blades, hand tools, and saw blades. In these applications, the ability to withstand stress and strain is vital for the continued functioning of the steel parts. To help meet this requirement, the Tinplate Sheet supplier edges of the steel are rounded or “dressed”. This is done to increase safety with sheared edges and improve handling. It also increases the ability of the steel to absorb stresses caused by weld shrinkage. This can prevent the weld area from tearing or cracking when it expands.
Resistance to Wear
From the stiffness of garden shear blades to the resilience of clock springs, hardened and tempered strip steel proves its worth in multiple industrial realms. In fact, its prowess in these fields is often unmatched!
In the automotive industry, for instance, it is a staple component of seat belts and clutch parts. Then there are tools like pliers and wrenches that need to withstand heavy pressure during use. It is for this reason that they use components made from hardened and tempered steel.
And when it comes to building structures and infrastructure, the same is true. They are all based on these strips, which can endure enormous pressure without deforming or breaking. And that is why they are so valuable. In short, they are the backbone of our modern world!
Resistance to Pressure
The hardness of strip steel, especially when tempered, makes it highly resistant to pressure. It is often used to make parts for machinery that will be subject to high loads. This helps to ensure that those machines will be able to function as they should.
During the hardening process, steel strips are heated to above their critical transformation temperature and then cooled very rapidly. This can cause the steel to become brittle. To overcome this, tempering is introduced. In this process, the steel is reheated to a lower temperature and cooled again. This reduces brittleness and provides some elasticity, striking the perfect balance between strength and ductility.
The hardened and tempered steel products produced by the Company are used to make automobile clutches, clock springs, masonary and agricultural tools, gang saw blades for marble cutting, doctor blades and hand tools among many other industrial applications. They can also be slit to size and provided with a non-oxidized, blue-black or blue-grey finish for cosmetic or other specific purposes. This can be achieved by a precise control of the atmospheres in the heat treatment furnaces.