Thermal Processing

Our cutting services include waterjets, lasers and bar saws.

Heat treating

Our thermal processing alloys are used for bar frame baskets, corrugated shrouds, and other fixtures that carry the parts to be heat treated into and out of the furnace. Inside the furnaces, our alloys are used for radiant tubes, fans, muffles, inner covers, belts, etc. RA330® is a workhorse alloy due to its good strength, its resistance to carburization, and its resistance to thermal fatigue after repeated temperature cycling. RA330® is also immune to sigma phase formation so it maintains its ductility allowing for restraightening and/or repair welding to extend the useful life of a fixture. Our alloys are commonly used in a variety of heat treating operations including annealing, vacuum treating, neutral hardening, carburizing, molten salts, and various other applications.

Steel and Aluminium mills

Our materials are used for equipment such as radiant tubes, inner covers, argon oxygen decarburization (AOD) hoods and chutes, furnace rollers, heat shields, coal injection lances, burners, and recuperators. Often these applications use alloys such as 309/309S, 310S, or 601 but when superior strength is required, 253 MA® or 602 CA®.

Powder metals

Thermal processing alloys are used in both the production of iron powders and finished sintered parts. 253 MA® and RA330® are used for sheet belts and muffles for the annealing of iron powders. Most sintering muffles are commonly constructed from alloys RA330® or 601. RA333®, 602 CA® and 601 are also commonly used for furnace muffles and boats for the reduction of molybdenum and tungsten powders.

Power plants

Coal fired power plants require alloys that not only have good strength and oxidation resistance at temperature, but also ones that can tolerate hot corrosion in the form of sulfidation and possibly abrasion. For most applications lower nickel alloys are used because of their ability to tolerate sulfur better than nickel based alloys. Alloys such as 309/309S, 310S, and 253 MA® are commonly utilised for components such as coal nozzles, burners, tube shields, tube supports, cyclone dip tubes, and soot blowers.

Chemical and refining

Refineries use thermal processing alloys in the heating of the crude oil prior to distillation. Materials such as 310S stainless are commonly used in the crude heaters for burners while heavy plate in 310S, 253 MA®, and RA330® are commonly used for tube supports and hangers. Thermal processing alloys are also used to fabricate flare tips which oxidise and destroy any off-gases from the refinery.

Alloys such as 800H/AT, are used in methane reformer furnaces for tubes, pigtails, outlet headers, bypass ducts, etc. Where temperatures and the carburizing conditions are such that metal dusting is a concern alloys such as 602 CA® and RA333® are commonly considered. In the manufacture of nitric acid, thermal processing alloys are used for catalyst support grids and baskets.

We specialise in alloys for the following thermal processing applications: