Through Hardening
Rapid quenching can produce stronger steel, throughout your critical parts.
Increased strength, inside and out.
Through hardening, also known as neutral hardening, is the process of strengthening a steel alloy using a rapid quench for increased hardness throughout the material. This process matches the carbon throughout the entire section of steel, as opposed to case hardening, which creates a hard outer layer while preserving a softer, more ductile core.
Through hardening applications
Through hardening is useful for applications where strength, hardness and wear-resistance are critical. It’s a process that’s used in a wide range of engineering applications, including:
- Seat frames and seat belt buckles
- Hand tools
- Parts that will need to sustain heavy loads during their service life, such nuts and bolts, brackets, chains, nails and hooks
- Springs, axles, bearings, blades, scrapers and other miscellaneous components used in industry
Through hardening vs tempered steel
Through hardened steel is sometimes referred to as “tempered steel,” but there’s a difference. Tempering is simply the process of reheating a material following the initial heating and quenching to combat brittleness. While it’s conducted in many heat treating processes, it does not necessarily mean that an alloy has been through hardened.
Through hardening typically consists of three steps:
- Heating an alloy to alter its physical properties.
- Rapid quench in a medium, such as oil, salt or caustic.
- Reheating, or tempering, to eliminate excess brittleness from the treated alloy.
High tech solutions for heavy duty jobs.
All through hardening jobs are monitored, from order placement to delivery, by our state-of-the-art Production Information and Customer Service system (PICS to guarantee technical and engineering precision for all of our through hardening projects, from quality control to on-time delivery, and everything in-between.
We have oil quench furnaces capable of handling cycles up to 3,500 pounds. We can handle parts measuring up to 48 inches by 36 inches by 36 inches in batch processing and continuous processing of up to 4,000 pounds per hour.
Paulo delivers:
- Collaborative scheduling solutions to ensure on-time delivery
- Large variety of furnace and process options
- Superior process control for in-range hardness results every time
- Custom-designed washing equipment to clean parts before and after processing
Start a conversation.
Get stronger parts with our through hardening services. Request a quote or contact us today to learn about the Paulo difference.
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