Treatments and Processes
In addition to sourcing your material from the best mills, we can also provided added value treatments and processes by coordinating with our partners to meet your needs. Treatments, processes, cuts, and other requests are all capabilities that we can achieve for you.
Hot Rolled (HR):
Hot Rolled, sometimes called “As Rolled,” is the least complex form of getting steel bar produced. It is the form that the steel bar takes as the raw form is warmed to high temperatures and rolled through several rollers to produce the size and shape that is desired for the end application. The resulting material is most commonly round bar, but small diameters can be produced into coils as well. There is an external crust or “scale” that will build up on some Hot Rolled bars.
Cold Drawn (CD):
This cold finish process starts with hot rolled material that is drawn through a die to straighten the material, provide higher machinability, a better-quality surface, and tighter dimensional tolerances. The overall mechanical properties of the material will be improved as well. This process will typically result in a reduction in the diameter of the material by about 1/16”.
Turned & Polished (T&P)
This cold finishing process does not increase the mechanical properties of the steel, only its physical appearance. Hot Rolled material is fed through tooling that will remove imperfections in the material and produces material that has increased straightness and has a smooth surface. This process is more desirable for applications that require precision in the input materials.
Turned, Ground, & Polished (TG&P)
When material requires the tightest tolerances, this additional processing is utilized. Material is fed through an abrasive grinding wheel to remove the smallest imperfections on the surface area. The finish is so smooth that it can be used as an end finish for the final product in most cases. The required precision and time-consuming process requires high quality initial material and costs more.
Annealed (ANN)
This heat treatment process happens by heating below the critical temperature for an extended time, providing a holding period, and cooling the material very slowly and at specific cooling rates. This will cause an alerting or softening of the grain structure; provide enhanced mechanical properties (as well as formability and machinability); or relieve material stresses. Specific results can be achieved through different cooling rates (Spheroidized, Lamellar Pearlite (LP), and Stress Relief are a few types of annealing).
Quench & Tempered (Q&T)
This heat treamnet process is frequently used on many high stress parts like axels, shafts, and hole equipment that require ultimate strength on their materialfor their applications. Heating the steel past its critical temperature, immediately quenching that material with oil or water, followed by heating that material again to temper the final material conditions.
Other
Special cut lengths and other processes are available upon request. Please reach out at 440-686-1555 to see when we can supply you with the materials you need.
Normalized (N)
Heat treating the bar and air cooling it to produce a more consistent and even material structure produces Normalized materials. Heating the material past the critical temperature and then air cooling helps to eliminate structural casting effects as well as any directional preferences from rolling.