HEAT TREATMENT STUDIES
The following list provides an overview of Touchstone’s capabilities in heat treatment:
- Autoclave
- Continuous Annealing Furnace
- Controlled Atmosphere Furnaces
- Cryogenic Thermal Treatment
- Differential Scanning Calorimeter
- Foundry (Ingot / Re-Melt Furnace)
- Hot Microhardness Tester
- Mechanical Testing at Elevated and Cryogenic Temperatures
- Ovens
- Quartz Lamp Furnaces
- Resistance Furnaces
- SEM with Hot Stage
- Tube Furnaces
- Vacuum Evaporator
Hot Microhardness Tester
Touchstone Research Laboratory has in-house, a Nikon Model QM high temperature microhardness tester capable of performing microhardness a variety of materials at anywhere from room temperature to 1450 degrees F. It is capable of testing metals, ceramics, coatings, and plastics in various inert gas environments, or in a vacuum, and has many other fascinating features.
The built in light microscope with magnifications of 100x, 200x, and 400x is used to measure the indentation size. A camera is mounted on the microscope, which allows photographs to be taken at any temperature. A load can be applied in 50, 100, 200, 300, 500, and 1000g levels. The time interval of the indenter loading can be set to any length by use of a built-in digital timer.
Phase change temperatures can also be determined using a melting crucible.
To study phase changes, the sample temperature can be reduced from any elevated temperature at a rate of 8000 C per second thereby almost instantly freezing the microstructure.