Normalizing Furnaces

Normalizing Furnaces perform a specific heat treatment typically on steel alloys to increase ductile strengths and durability. Normalizing is typically performed in a box type furnace on structures and structural components that will be subject to machining after another process treatment has reduced its ductile ability and increased its harness, making the material subject to stresses and difficult to manipulate.

During the normalizing process metal is heated to a temperature and then held at that temperature for a specified amount of time. It is during this heat recovery phase that the internal stresses are relieved. The parts are heated above the materials recrystallization temperature, but below its melting temperature, creating new grains without stresses.

 After the metal is finished with the heating process, it is air cooled at room temperature. The resulting microstructure has increased strength and hardness but lower ductility. Normalizing is a very similar treatment to annealing, however the key difference is that slow cooling is done at room temperatures and at a faster rate than annealing.

Normalizing rebuilds the microstructure into more ductile structures, making the metal more formable, more machinable, and reduces residual stress within the material that could lead to unexpected failure.

Epcon has been custom engineering and designing normalizing ovens for a variety of application and industries around the world. As a leading supplier of advanced process heating equipment, our team of experts are trained to deliver the highest performance normalizing furnaces.