Hot Forging Industry

Heat-treatment furnaces perform two core functions throughout the complete hot-forging production chain: pre-forging heating of raw billets and post-forging thermal conditioning of forged blanks, addressing multiple typical pain points in forging production.

Before forging, solid metal billets are loaded into the heat-treatment furnace and heated up to the target plastic-deformation temperature. Without sufficient and uniform heating inside the furnace, billets remain hard and brittle. Direct forging of under-heated material will lead to surface cracking, internal tearing, uneven forming and excessive die wear. By supplying stable and consistent thermal energy, the furnace lowers metal deformation resistance. It enables billets to be stamped, pressed or hammered into complex target geometries smoothly, reduces forging-defect rates, and extends the service life of forging dies.
After forging, intense plastic deformation distorts metal grains and builds up highly uneven residual internal stress within forged workpieces. If left untreated, such stress will cause part warping, dimensional drift during subsequent machining, or spontaneous cracking even under static storage conditions. The heat-treatment furnace runs controlled annealing, normalizing or tempering cycles: forged blanks are held at precise set temperatures for sufficient soaking time inside the furnace, followed by gradual, regulated cooling. This furnace-driven thermal cycle releases dangerous forging-induced residual stress, recrystallizes severely distorted grain structures, homogenizes metallurgical microstructure, and balances strength, hardness and impact toughness. It prevents post-processing deformation and unexpected fracture, and stabilizes final mechanical performance of forged parts.
Applicable materials include carbon steel, high-temperature alloy steel, stainless steel and tool steel. Typical process sequence supported by heat-treatment furnaces: pre-forging heating → annealing → normalizing → tempering.