1. Heat treatment range

1.1 Pretreatments

When a tool presents processing difficulties (complex shapes leading to significant material removal: press dies, die-casting molds), or when a high-temperature coating is to be applied before the final heat treatment (by gaseous means or immersion in a molten salt bath), it is strongly recommended to carry out one or more pre-treatments. The aim is to ensure that the parts are in the best possible condition for the final quenching and tempering process. In fact, it is desirable that residual stress levels in the tools to be treated should be as low as possible, to avoid incidents during subsequent heat treatment (deformations, cracking during heating which could lead to the risk of tapping during subsequent quenching). Deformations are particularly critical when...