Parts Heat Setting

Parts Heat Straightening

When engineers or designers require their metal parts such as precision shims, selective thrust washer or precision spacers to be heat treated, there is a tendency for the hard heat treatments to warp the parts. In many cases, parts going into the heat treatment furnaces can go into them looking like flat pancakes and come out curled like potato chips. This non-flat condition can be very detrimental to applications like automotive transmissions, rear differentials, and power take off units.

In cases where the out of flat condition is too great, suppliers like Northern Industrial Manufacturing can turn to a process called heat setting or heat straightening. Heat setting is the simple process where these out of flat parts are squeezed into a furnace and paired with dissimilar metal on either end. As the furnace temperature increases, the dissimilar metal on the edges of the parts will start to grow at a faster rate than the parts they are squeezing. As the temperature gets higher the force from the dissimilar material becomes greater towards the parts in question. The force paired with the slight raise in temperature ultimately results in the parts mechanically being flattened or straightened.