Heat treatment
High-temperature corrosion
In flow-through tube furnaces, we simulate realistic high-temperature corrosion processes – to develop new materials for high-performance power plants, for example. We test the long-term resistance of materials in synthetic gas mixtures as well as under salt or ash deposits at up to 750 °C. Using gas mixtures comprising SO2, O2, CO2 and N2 as well as steam, we can create various combustion atmospheres such as the ones generated by the combustion of lignite or black coal. We conduct long-term tests for up to 10,000 hours. We use metallographic and micro-analytic methods to evaluate the test results.
Our work also focuses on:
- Simulation of oxidation processes in rotary hearth furnaces – to adjust acceptable scale losses
- Determination of corrosion rates in high-alloy steels and nickel alloys in molten salts – for use in solar thermal power plants
Thermo-chemical heat treatment
Refinement and enhancement through high temperatures
In our heat laboratory, we carry out various thermo-chemical heat treatments in tubular, chamber and shaft furnaces for temperatures up to 1,150 °C (for small specimens even up to 1,350 °C):
- Case hardening
- Nitro-carburizing
- Gas nitriding
- Decarburizing
- Bright annealing
- Surface hardening
- Martensite hardening
- Quenching and tempering
Annealing under gas atmosphere
Refinement under shielding gas
In our furnace units, we carry out annealing in oxidizing, reducing or neutral gas atmosphere with programmed process workflows and continuous gas monitoring. We can also create gas atmospheres with multiple components. For this purpose furnaces appropriate to specimens as large as 400 mm x 600 mm are at our disposal.