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Furnaces
and
heat
treatments
47
www.read-wca.comWire & Cable ASIA – May/June 2016
Of all the processes that benefit from the skill and
experience of the wire maker, heat treatment stands out.
Heating rates in actual practice routinely exceed those
in controlled laboratory experiments, with changes in
the material occurring at temperatures a few degrees
above “ideal” transformation temperatures. In the plant,
transformation changes during cooling generally occur
at temperatures a few degrees below those plotted in the
textbook graphs.
Because the temperatures at which transformation takes
place are critical to heat treatment, understanding these
graduations is key to the hardness and strength of the
wire that comes out of the furnace. When this knowledge
is second nature to the wire maker, it is key to the quality
of the finished product that comes out of the plant.
Image courtesy of QED