Annealing involves heating workpieces and semi-finished goods, such as forged pieces, cast parts or cold-worked steel, and soaking and holding them at this temperature, before allowing them to cool down slowly. This allows the desired material properties to be achieved and any quality impairments resulting from previous processing stages (rolling, bending, forging etc.) to be reversed.
Depending on the purpose and required workpiece properties, we offer the following procedures that are differentiated by the applied temperature ranges:
Stress-relief annealing (500 - 650°C)
- Reduction of internal stress resulting from the previous process (welding, casting etc.)
- Avoidance of cracks during the following finishing processe
Soft annealing / GKZ annealing (680- 800°C)
- Reduction of the strength and hardness for the following shaping processes
- Improvement of processing capability of steels (C-content > 0.4%)
Normal annealing (750- 950°C)
- Creation of the most fine-grain and even structure possible with optimum strength and shaping properties
Coarse grain annealing / / high tempering (850 - 1,050°C)
- Improvement of machining capability
Recrystallization annealing (550- 700°C)
- Reduction of strain hardening resulting from the previous process (bending, rolling etc.)
Annealing under protective gas (up to 1,050°C)
- Avoidance of scale and discolouration
(depending on annealing procedure)
