Consumer products

Thermal processing often does not come to mind when considering household items. However, to meet the operational requirements of many consumer goods, heat treatments and specialist thermal processing technologies play a key role.

Watches

Stainless steel is a versatile and functional material choice for quality watches, providing corrosion resistance, durability, and desirable non-magnetic characteristics. As consumers increasingly demand improvement of the watch’s appearance over a lifetime, Bodycote’s proprietary S³P surface hardening processes offer a solution that significantly improves the scratch and wear resistance, delivering a high-quality watch for a lifetime.

Household

From refrigerator components to screwdrivers to air conditioner parts; all rely on heat treatments for optimum performance.

Ice-maker blades for instance, must be hard wearing, impact resistant, strong and have a good finish. All of these requirements can be met by utilising a vacuum furnace for the hardening process. Other consumer household goods are processed by, for example, neutral hardening, carbonitriding, belt brazing and vacuum brazing. Typical treated parts include:

• Icemaker blades
• Screwdrivers
• Aircon compressor plates
• Crankshafts
• Hand tool parts

Sport and leisure

Sport and leisure includes an extensive range of activities, with heat treatment processes utilised in the manufacture of a surprising number of associated items ranging from golf clubs to ATV (All Terrain Vehicle) parts.

A typical bicycle sprocket for example may be treated by induction hardening in order to reduce distortion. Unlike other hardening processes, induction just heats the area requiring modification. In this manner, the peripheral teeth can be hardened and the body of the sprocket remains unchanged.

ATV transmission clutch discs are heat treated using ferritic nitrocarburising for enhanced wear resistance, increased fatigue life and low distortion.

• ATV crankshafts and transmission clutch discs
• Gears
• Fasteners
• Bicycle parts

Lawn and garden

Lawn and garden equipment is subject to strict manufacturing cost controls, while maintaining safety and reliability.

Heat treatment processes can often aid the manufacturer by maintaining design properties when a change to a less expensive material or manufacturing process is made. For example, machined parts may be replaced by formed or drawn components and heat treatment used to ensure the design requirements are maintained.

For the components listed, processes such as carburising, quench and temper, induction hardening and carbonitriding are typical.

• Clutch components
• Mower blades
• Roller shafts