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Reheating and Forming
Equipment
The Advanced Materials Development Centre includes facilities and equipment for reheating, thermal treatment and quenching of samples, and forming operations including pilot scale rolling and press forging.
Equipment
- Bogie Hearth Furnace
- Industrial reheating furnace used primarily for heat treatment processes including tempering, annealing, and hardening of materials. Capability for multiple samples up to 50kg each.
- Quench Bath
- Quench bath used to rapidly cool hot metals as part of a heat treatment process to achieve the required mechanical properties in the material.
- Rolling Mill
- Rolling mill used to control the shape and dimensions of metal products using compressive forces.
- For steel, aluminium, and other metals
- Width up to 150mm
- Rolling mill used to control the shape and dimensions of metal products using compressive forces.
- Press Forge
- Hydraulically driven pilot scale press forge used to shape metal with a high degree of precision.
Applications and Capability
- Trials for product development and characterisation related to reheating, thermal treatment and product forming.
- Heat treatments including:
- Hardening - Controlled heating of metals to a critical temperature followed by controlled cooling to improve their mechanical properties.
- Annealing - Heating and controlled cooling of materials to relieve stresses and alter mechanical properties, usually reducing hardness and increasing ductility making it more malleable.
- Normalising – Heating steel to an elevated temperature, followed by slow cooling to room temperature. This heating and cooling process alters the microstructure of the steel which reduces its hardness and increases its ductility.
- Precipitation hardening - Heat treatment used to increase the yield strength of alloys.
- Intermediate scale between laboratory and tonnage scale processing
- Processing of materials covering a wide range of specifications.
Key Features
- Versatility and flexibility in operating regimes.
- Capability for both standard and bespoke processing requirements.
These facilities are supported by the full range of analytical and metallographic characterisation services and equipment available at the Institute.
Contact the Materials Processing Institute
Enquire about services, facilities, and expertise.
