Forgings Heat Treating Services
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Forgings Vacuum Heat Treating Services
Minimal distortion, bright results
Solar Atmospheres forgings vacuum heat treating services, along with furnace sizes from lab size to 48 foot long, make us an ideal partner to heat treat your most demanding forged components. Forgings, known for their superior mechanical properties and unmatched reliability, are utilized in some of world’s most demanding applications. Forgings of all shapes, sizes and materials are hard at work in safety critical industries such as aerospace, nuclear, oil & gas and power generation.
- Capability up to 48 foot long and 150,000 pound load capacity
- Up to 20 bar quench capability
- AMS 2750
- In-house Nadcap testing laboratory
Materials Processed
- Titanium
- Stainless Steels
- PH Stainless Steels
- Nickel Alloys
- Cobalt Alloys
- Monel
- Tool Steels
- Carbon Steels
- Alloy Steels
Services Offered
- Vacuum Annealing
- Vacuum Metal Stress Relieving
- Vacuum Solution Treating & Age (STA)
- Vacuum Hardening & Tempering
- Vacuum Age Hardening
FAQs
The heat treatment required depends on the alloy and the final application. Many precipitation-hardenable (PH) stainless steels and nickel- and cobalt-based superalloys—including 17-4 PH, 15-5 PH, 13-8 Mo, and similar alloys—are typically supplied in the solution heat-treated condition. This condition provides high ductility and good machinability, making it ideal for machining, cold working, and welding prior to the final aging process.
Solar Atmospheres performs both vacuum and air atmosphere precipitation hardening (aging) to develop the required mechanical properties. For certain specifications or forging conditions, a vacuum solution heat treatment may also be required prior to aging.
Some dimensional movement is possible during any heat treatment process, but the amount of distortion depends on the material, geometry, and thermal process used.
Vacuum heat treating generally minimizes distortion because it provides precise temperature control, programmable heating and cooling rates, and controlled gas quenching. Our metallurgists carefully select processing parameters to maintain dimensional stability while achieving the required mechanical properties.
Solar Atmospheres routinely heat treats a broad range of forged materials, including:
- Precipitation-hardening stainless steels (17-4 PH, 15-5 PH, 13-8 Mo, etc.)
- Nickel-based superalloys
- Cobalt-based alloys
- Tool steels (including H11 and H13)
- 400 series stainless steels
- 300 series stainless steels
- Titanium alloys
- Carbon and alloy steels
Available processes include solution heat treating, precipitation hardening, vacuum hardening and tempering, annealing, and stress relieving.
Vacuum heat treating provides several significant advantages over conventional atmosphere processing, including:
- Bright, clean, oxide-free surfaces
- Minimal oxidation and surface contamination
- Elimination of decarburization on susceptible alloys
- Reduced distortion through controlled heating and gas quenching
- Improved dimensional stability
- Reduced post-processing and cleaning requirements
- Consistent, repeatable metallurgical results
These benefits are especially valuable for aerospace, medical, defense, and other critical applications where surface integrity and dimensional accuracy are essential.
Yes. Clean, contamination-free surfaces produced during vacuum heat treating often eliminate or significantly reduce the need for post-process cleaning before operations such as thermal spray (HVOF), plating, coating, welding, or final assembly. This can reduce manufacturing time while improving coating adhesion and overall process consistency.
With more than 40 years of experience, Solar Atmospheres heat treats forged components for some of the world’s most demanding aerospace, defense, medical, power generation, and industrial applications. Our extensive furnace capacity, advanced vacuum technology, rigorous quality systems, and metallurgical expertise enable us to deliver consistent, specification-compliant results for everything from prototype forgings to high-volume production.