Electroplating - Plant Tour pt.4

Heat treat

One of our several heat treating ovens

We provide heat treating for beryllium copper substrates. Beryllium is a very popular choice for small parts fabrication because of its very high elasticity. It's a very springy material in small dimensions. If the part specification demands a large lateral displacement relative to the overall size of the part, such as a spring or a switch contact, BeCu is the leading choice. Stamping or turning BeCu work hardens the metal, which reduces the as-annealed elasticity. Heat-treating will restore that original spring property. Once properly heat-treated, no other metal compares in terms of elasticity in small parts. Heat treating BeCu involves elevating the product temperature to a preset value for a prescribed length of time. The heat treating time is critical: It's a peak-shaped curve. Too little or too much time and less than maximum elasticity is restored. In addition, if the part is over exposed and elasticity has moved past the peak, you can not restore the metal to its optimum elasticity.

We continuously chart all of our heat treating operations for time and temperature. These charts are part of our records keeping and product certification process. We also conduct scheduled calibrations of all of our equipment. This includes all operating units such as power supplies and temperature chambers and all measuring systems such as calipers, gage pins, x-ray fluorescence spectrophotometers (XRF's) and temperature measuring transducers.