6. Heat treatment practice

6.1 Effect of main parameters

As with other alloys, various factors influence the heat treatment conditions, most often the duration of the treatment stage:

• the nature of the alloy ;

• grain size;

• thickness and size of parts to be processed;

• load capacity in relation to furnace capacity ;

• the arrangement of the load in the oven.

There are no general rules for determining treatment times according to part thickness. However, for castings with large cross-sections, the rule of thumb is to double the bearing time.