Heat Treating

MicroGroup, part of TE Connectivity, offers a variety of heat-treating methods to harden, anneal, stress relieve and assist with cleaning.

Annealing

Annealing is a heat-treating process, which changes the materials mechanical properties. Annealing is used to soften material, induce ductility, relieve internal stresses and improve cold working properties. The result of annealing will be more ductility with lower yield strength and lower tensile strength. By annealing material it will soften it for improved machining and forming operations and to eliminate residual stresses that are built up from cold working the material. MicroGroup offers the in-house capability of annealing various materials using an automated hydrogen-reducing furnace.

Stress relieving

Stress relieving is a heat treating process used to reduce or eliminate built-up internal stresses inherent in all metals material subject to cold working processes such as drawing, forming, bending, etc. MicroGroup has the capability of stress relieving various materials and parts using a vacuum oven, in which a controlled atmosphere removes oxygen and nitrogen gases.

Hardening

“Precipitation hardening” is a heat-treating process used to harden material, usually after it has been machined. MicroGroup can precipitation harden (age harden) materials such as 17-4 PH and 17-7 PH using a vacuum oven, in which a controlled atmosphere removes oxygen and nitrogen gases.