Bodycote provides world class services and have an international reputation for total reliability and unrivalled expertise in all significant heat treatment processes. Vital capacity and unmatched investment in all industrially important treatments and leading-edge fully computerised heat treatment centres are complemented by sophisticated metal joining facilities.

Bodycote Heat Treatments is a vital link in the manufacturing process for the aerospace, power generation, automotive, railway and general engineering industries. Total quality commitment, international quality accreditations and numerous customer approvals, means that 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, Bodycote guarantees world-class standards.

Bodycote Heat Treatments, combined with the Group's other services, can offer manufacturers comprehensive services with guaranteed capacity from strategically located international facilities.
Reasons to Choose Bodycote Heat Treatment

There are several reasons why you should choose Bodycote Heat Treatment for all your heat treatment requirements. These include:

· Furnaces, Controls and Management Systems are validated by the main engineering OEM's.

· Bodycote Heat Treatment Centres hold all of the industrially important quality accreditations.

· Process and production controls are linked with transport services, to deliver optimum logistics solutions for supply chain customers.

· Bodycote's trained and experienced personnel are eager to ensure that all customers’ components are treated with care throughout.

· We never forget that the customer has invested time, money and resources in all the components we heat treat.
Global Facilities

For the convenience of their clients, Bodycote Heat Treatment has facilities in:

· Austria

· Belgium

· Canada

· Czech Republic

· Denmark

· Finland

· France

· German


· Hungary

· Italy

· Liechtenstein

· Netherlands

· Sweden

· Switzerland

· UK

· USA
Metals Heat Treated

Bodycote Heat Treatment have facilities to be able to heat treat the complete range of metals including:

· Aluminium alloys

· Cast irons

· Cold work tool steels

· Engineered steels

· High speed steels

· Hot work tool steels

· Low alloy steels

· Magnetic alloys


· Nickel alloys

· Nimonic alloys

· Non-ferrous alloys

· Plastic mould steels PN parts

· Sintered metals

· Stainless steels

· Titanium alloys

· Tool steels
Heat Treatment Services Offered by Bodycote Heat Treatment

Bodycote Heat Treatment offer a full range of thermal processing services such as:

· Ageing and Precipitation Hardening

· Annealing

· Austempering

· Boronizing

· Brazing

· Carbonitriding

· Carburizing

· Cryogenic treatment

· Electron Beam Welding

· Ferritic and Austenitic Nitro Carburizing

· Gas Nitriding

· Hardening & Tempering

· Homogenising

· Induction Hardening


· Kolsterising

· Low Pressure Carburising

· Malcomizing

· Marquenching

· Nitriding

· Normalizing

· Plasma Nitriding

· Shot Peening and Shot Blasting

· Straightening

· Stress Relieving

· Vacuum Brazing

· Vacuum Degassing

· Vacuum Heat Treatment

Some of these processes are outlined in the following sections.
Ageing and Precipitation Hardening

Also known as Age-Hardening or Precipitation Hardening.

Some alloys including aluminium alloys, beryllium copper and special stainless steels are capable of being hardened by solution treatment followed by ageing. The hardening results from the time dependant precipitation of a hard compound from the solid solution, during the ageing cycle. The process is carried out in the temperature range 100 to 200°C for aluminium and copper alloys and 400 to 700°C for those steels which are suitable. Generally optimum strength is developed by the use of lower temperature and longer treatment time. In order to carry out manufacturing operations on these alloys it is often necessary to soften them by re-solution treatment or over-ageing at a temperature which is intermediate between the solution and ageing temperatures. The required mechanical properties can then be produced by ageing. In most applications this can be achieved without the need to re-solution treat.
Annealing

Annealing is the term given to a class of heat treatments used to soften metals, to allow metalworking operations to be carried out economically and without damage to the work-piece or tooling. Annealing improves hot and cold working characteristics, increases machinability, reduces internal stresses arising from machining, forging, pressing and welding, and also conditions material for subsequent hardening operations. Full annealing consists of heating the work-piece to above the upper critical temperature and slow cooling, usually in the furnace. It is generally only needed for the higher alloy steels, cast irons and complex alloys. Long treatment times are necessary to produce optimum softening in the case of the higher alloy steels. Where it is considered desirable to fully austenitise a steel during a softening process, (e.g. in order to refine forged structures), but where economy is paramount, a normalising treatment is often applied instead of a full anneal. This consists of the same initial heating stage as full annealing but followed by removal of the work from the furnace for air-cooling. Normalising is only applicable to the lower alloy and plain carbon steels.

Sub-critical annealing is, as the name implies, carried out at temperatures below the lower critical temperature. It is mainly carried out in the temperature range 630 to 700°C. It reduces hardness by allowing recrystallisation of the microstructure to occur. Alternatively, if a temperature just below the lower critical temperature is used (690 to 710°C), it is possible to produce spheroidisation of the cementite phase instead of forming the normal lammellar pearlite and ferrite structure. Spheroidising is a useful technique for softening high carbon steels to improve machinability. Lower temperature sub-critical anneals in the temperature range 550 to 680°C. are used to stress relieve welded fabrications and to stabilise rough machined components which are to be ultimately hardened and tempered, case hardened or nitrided and whose dimensional stability is critical
Austempering

Austempering uses molten salt or a fluidised bed as a quenching medium. Austempering consists of a two step process, austenitizing and isothermal transformation in an austempering bath whereas convention heat treatment consists of three steps; austenitizing, quenching, and tempering.

Molten salts used in Austempering transfer heat rapidly. The salts are completely soluble in water which facilitates subsequent cleaning operations. Austempering increases ductility and reduces product distortion.

Austempering is a great alternative to conventional heat treating, especially for springs and stampings that require precise dimensional control. The reduced distortion from the austempering process can lessen subsequent machining time, stock removal and cost. The clean "blueish" non-oily surface allows for ease of product handling and is very receptive to subsequent operations such as painting, plating, etc.
Boronizing

Boronizing is a thermochemical surface treatment in which boron atoms are diffused into the surface of a workpiece to form borides with the base material. When applied to the appropriate materials, boronizing provides wear and abrasion resistance comparable to sintered carbides.
Brazing

Bodycote’s extensive brazing and joining experience provides all the benefits of clean, pressure tight joints, with the added ability to handle mass production volumes.

Fabricating components from pressed and turned steel parts will frequently show a considerable saving in costs due to reduced material content, reduced machine time and less expensive capital plant.

Because of the special properties of the process, secure, leakproof joints can be achieved on assemblies which are complex, irregularly shaped and intricate (as well as the more straight forward), at costs which are often markedly lower than those which can be achieved by other conventional methods.
Carbonitriding

A thermochemical treatment involving the incorporation of both carbon and nitrogen into the surface of the component simultaneously. This process is carried out at a lower temperature than carburising and therefore components are less prone to distortion. The use of nitrogen as well as carbon allows carbonitriding to be used on lower alloy steels and plain carbon steels.
Electron Beam Welding

A reliable, efficient and cost effective metal joining technique.

Bodycote has the largest Electron Beam Welding facility in Europe at their disposal, project management teams are on hand to discuss your individual requirements, assist in solving your specific problems and to suggest methods of improving your individual engineering projects. Advantages

· Vacuum process, yields clean reproducible, high integrity joints

· Low heat input with minimal distortion and a narrow heat-affected zone

· Weld penetration of up to 30mm+ Metals of dissimilar melting points and thermal conductivities can be welded

· Quantities from one-off development to large production batches can be accommodated.

· 14 machines, range from 9” cube to 9’x5’x6’
Ferritic and Austenitic Nitro Carburizing

Bodycote Thermal Processing provide a comprehensive range of nitrocarburizing treatments, encompassing the ferritic and austenitic processes. Whilst Ferritic Nitrocarburizing is the more generally specified process, the greater load bearing capability of the austenitic treatment has resulted in its adoption as an attractive alternative to the high temperature surface hardening techniques.

Austenitic nitrocarburizing produces a transformation zone of martensite and austenite in addition to the compound layer. Components manufactured from plain carbon steels and processed by Austenitic Nitrocarburizing can have a surface hardness of up to 750 Hv5, whilst retaining most of the property improvements of the ferritic process.
Hardening and Tempering

The optimum combination of hardness, strength and toughness is developed throughout the cross section of an engineering product made from steel, by means of hardening and tempering. This treatment consists of heating the work-piece to an appropriate hardening temperature, which is dependant upon the particular steel analysis involved, holding for sufficient time to ensure the whole work-piece is at temperature and then rapidly cooling it in a suitable medium (quenching). This medium can be air, oil, water, molten salt, a fluidised bed or a pressurised inert gas, such as nitrogen. Selection of the quench medium is dependant upon steel analysis, component geometry, the heat treatment furnace used and the manufacturing stage at which hardening and tempering is carried out. The resultant temperature changes induce physical transformation of the steel, resulting in mechanical property changes.
Induction Hardening

Exposing a steel work-piece to an electro-magnetic field produces a heating effect in the surface of the work-piece, by the phenomenon known as induction. This surface heating produced by the induced electro-magnetic current in the work-piece, can be used for softening, hardening or metal joining operations, depending upon the steel, the work-piece environment and particular temperature changes employed. The most common application of induction treatment is in the hardening of steel components with carbon contents of between 0.4 and 0.5%. A copper induction coil is made to surround the work-piece and the surface temperature is raised to above the upper critical temperature in a few seconds. For most applications high current frequencies of 200kHz or above are used or alternatively medium frequencies of up to 10kHz. A quenching spray of a suitable solution follows the inductor as it traverses the work-piece, providing rapid cooling to produce the full hardening transformation of the heated zone.
Kolsterising

Kolsterising is surface hardening process primarily for austenitic stainless steels. Wear resistance and resistance to galling is improved, while corrosion resistance remains unchanged.

The process involves diffusion of carbon into the work piece surface without the formation of chromium carbides. Post treatment surface hardness is equivalent to between 70 and 74 HRc. Standard case depths offered are 22 or 33 microns.
Malcomizing

Malcomizing is a nitriding process for stainless steels. High hardness and excellent corrosion resistance properties can be achieved with this low temperature process.
Marquenching

Marquenching® or martempering of steel consists of quenching the steel in hot oil at 150-175°C, and holding it in the quenching medium until the temperature of the workpiece is essentially uniform and equal to the temperature of the oil. This minimizes or eliminates distortion of the workpiece which occurs from unequal transformation rates normally found in conventional quenching.
Nitriding

Specified wherever freedom from distortion is of paramount importance to a wear resistant or fatigue prone component, nitriding has become an established process within many fields of engineering. Recognising the need for improved process control to offset the disadvantage of lengthy processing times, Bodycote pioneered the use of infra-red analysis and computerisation to monitor and control the ammonia dissociation. This, coupled with a wide range of regularly operated cycles, enables Bodycote to provide a systematic turn-round of customers’ work, irrespective of the case depth required.
Shot Peening and Shot Blasting

A specialist fatigue improvement service, utilising automated shot peening for heat treated transmission components.
Straightening

A specialist computer controlled, fully automated shaft straightening service for previously case hardened transmission components.
Stress Relieving

Facilities are provided for the stress relieving of castings and fabrications, ranging in size from small items up to large complex assemblies weighing 80 tonnes.
Vacuum Heat Treatment

Bodycote’s range of furnace types and sizes, coupled with our treatment and inspection expertise, makes the vacuum facilities of interest to a wide range of engineering customers in the Aerospace, Toolmaking, Nuclear and Oil Industries, wherever a high standard of reliability of heat treated product is paramount.The TwinX from Oxford Instruments