Metal Fabrication Industries  [ Return towards  Applications ]

During carburizing (carbonitriding) operations, carbon (and nitrogen) is brought to the surface of steel components and diffuses to produce a hard martensitic surface layer after quenching. Traditionally, the carbon comes from a hydrocarbon (natural gas or propane), partly oxidized in an endogas generator to produce a CO/H2 atmosphere. For nitriding, the N agent comes from ammonia cracking at the surface.
Nitrogen accelerates the diffusion of carbon into the treated parts.
The ALNAT C solution offers you an active and reproducible heat treatment under nitrogen and methanol. Either in a batch or in a continuous furnace, the methanol is cracked and represents the carbon agent, which is sprayed with nitrogen in the hot zone of the furnace around 900°C for carburizing and 880°C for carbonitriding.

The hardening operation involves heating components above their phase transformation temperature and then quenching them in oil or salt baths, or in a specific gas quenching cell. This treatment results in a hard and tough martensitic or bainitic structure inside the components. Such operations can be carried out in a wide range of continuous or batch furnaces.

Your application involves hardfacing pieces as moulds. And you use manual powder guns with oxy-acetylene flame process.

The Plasma welding process is a further development of the TIG welding process.
This process features high and deep penetration (arc constriction and high energy density) and is widely used in automatic installations for the construction of vessels or containers in stainless steel, and in the pipe welding industry for high-quality pressure piping and vessels. Thicknesses of up to 10 mm can be welded in a butt weld configuration with a combined plasma-Tig installation.
The process requires two gas flows: a central gas and a shielding gas like ARCAL.

Tungsten inert gas welding or GTAW-gas tungsten arc welding. This process is used when an very high welding quality is required (pressure vessels, piping, food containers, etc).
An additional filler metal may be used either manually (wire rod) or in an automatic process through a separate wire feeder.
Researchers in the Air Liquide Group have studied this process to learn more about it and to propose the most suitable shielding gases like ARCAL.

This process consists in heating very quickly punctually or over a narrow area a sheet or a welded set of pieces with a flame. This operation allows to rectify the distortions on the thermally affected zone during the welding cycle. This shrinking process, particularly used in the shipyards, can be performed with carbon steels and stainless steels. Gases used for the heating flame are oxygen and acetylene.

Flame welding is a process widely used in working sites or repair shops. It is performed with a welding torch and exclusively with an oxy-acetylene or oxy-crylene (available in some countries) flame.

Easy to settle, this process is versatile for numerous materials.
It shows a highly flexible use :

- Access to pieces to be welded
- Usability
- Mobile tool
- Autonomy (installation is free from any external energy source)

Recommended products: FLAMAL gas range, acetylene, oxygen, ROLLERFLAM welding kit.

Stainless steels, carbon steels and non-ferrous materials are annealed to trigger the relaxation of internal stresses and give a softer product. Annealing can be achieved in many types of batch or continuous furnaces at temperatures below their phase transformation temperature.

Sintered mechanical components are commonly produced in continuous furnaces, where the sintering operations are carried out in several, but strongly interconnected steps.

This process requiring an electrical arc is widely used on any metal to obtain good cut properties and high productivity.