Vacuum Hardening

Heat Treatment Australia has Vacuum furnace processing facilities at its Brisbane branch. We currently have three furnaces on site which have a large load carrying capacity and operating temperatures of up to 1220 C . Our largest furnace has the capacity for positive quenching in the pressure range up to 5 bar which allows for the successful treatment of high speed steels .The vacuum process allows for the treatment of tool steels with out surface oxidisation. This leaves the surface of the tool free from flaking or discolouration and therefore reduces the finishing time of the tool maker after heat treatment. Most steels which can be Vacuum treated have lower distortion levels than conventional oil hardened tool steels which makes finish machining easier.

Many steels can be processed using Vacuum technologies which are available at Heat Treatment Australia. These include:

• Plastic mould steels K600
• Cold work steels k100 K340
• Hot work steels W302 W321
• High speed steels S600 S500
• Stainless Steels N320 and 400 series steels
• Stainless steels 300 series annealing

This is not an exhaustive list so please call our heat treatment professionals for more advice on process specification.

Heat Treatment Australia has an extensive library of technical literature from tool steel manufactures to enable the correct processing and the maximum obtainable properties from each type of steel.

[Vacuum Hardening Info Sheet]