Heat treatment is a common, yet essential process used by manufacturers to alter the physical or chemical properties of metals. Producers can enhance strength, durability, and overall performance by carefully controlling heating and cooling to precise temperatures, ensuring high-quality results in metallurgy and manufacturing.
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Annealing: To prepare metals for further shaping or to boost their strength, they are heated to certain temperatures and later cooled at a known rate.
Normalizing: Metal is heated above its upper critical temperature limit and then allowed to cool back down to room temperature. This process generates a more even composition, producing a softer material with higher ductility.
Stress Relieving: Used to lessen the stresses in metal that typically arise from cold forming or non-uniform cooling. The metal is heated below its lower critical temperature and so cools uniformly.
Aging: Heating solution heat-treated metals to make metal precipitates, which elevates the metal’s strength while lowering its ductility. Aging can occur naturally or be produced artificially.
Quenching: Used for both durability and strength, quenching involves fast cooling of a metal after heating. Water, air, or oil can be used in the cooling process.
All of these processes require precision in temperature control. Even the slightest fluctuation from the optimal temperature range may lead to low-quality material.
Furnace Temperature Sensors
Furnace temperatures need to be controlled to ensure high quality, and temperatures can extend up to 1,200 °C, to ensure quality. Typically, the required reading accuracy lies between 5 °C and 10 °C, with an accuracy of ± 0.5 to ± 1.0 %. Operators are reliant on high-quality temperature sensors to obtain these readings.
Even the highest-quality temperature sensors degrade over time. Given the critical role of temperature control in manufacturing, ensuring sensor accuracy is essential. To achieve this, most operators use temperature calibrators that are four to five times more precise than the sensors themselves, helping to maintain reliable performance and consistent product quality.
Uninstalling sensors and transporting them to a calibration lab is often disruptive and inefficient. That’s why many operators would prefer portable temperature calibrators, which could allow for accurate, on-site calibration.
AMETEK’s Solution
AMETEK STC has a solution with its JOFRA CTC-1205 temperature calibrator.
Weighing in at just 7.1 kg (15.7 lbs), AMETEK built its CTC-1205 (Compact Temperature Calibrator) just for that purpose. Its compact size and light weight make moving it from the lab to the furnace for calibration readings straightforward.
On top of its portability, the CTC-1205 has the accuracy (± 2 °C), range (100 to 1,205 °C), and stability (± 0.1 °C) to calibrate the high-temperature sensors used in heat treatment processes. It also has a silent operation mode, which enables an enhanced working climate complete with fast cooling in just 45 minutes, saving time and improving workflows.
For comprehensive specifications, please refer to the full datasheet on ametekcalibration.com.
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This information has been sourced, reviewed, and adapted from materials provided by AMETEK - JOFRA Calibration.
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