Solution Treatment and Precipitation Hardening

Solution heat treatment involves the heating of an alloy to a suitable temperature, holding at that temperature for sufficient time to induce one or more of the constituents to enter into solid solution and then cooling rapidly enough to hold these constituents in solution.

Precipitation hardening or artificial aging is the process which one or more constituents precipitate from the solid solution to induce an appreciable increase in hardness. Materials which respond to this process include:

• Aluminium alloys
• Titanium alloys
• Beryllium copper alloys
• Inconel and associated heat resisting alloys
• Nickel base alloys
• Maraging steels

Metaltech's vast range of heating and associated quenching facilities enables a comprehensive service to be offered for most of the commercially available and also exotic precipitation hardening alloys.