1) Car bottom forge
furnace with hot ingots
Carbon, alloy, stainless,
copper-based and other ferrous and non-ferrous high
quality starting material is heated to forging temperature
in car bottom furnaces. Overall heating capacity
exceeds 3,000,000 pounds.
2) Press
forging
Hydraulic
open die presses (2,000 & 1,250 ton) forge
the heated material to both consolidate the center
for soundness and size the material in preparation
for bar mill processing.
3) Rolling to finish on the bar mill
Finish rolling (or planishing)
begins as the forged bar goes through one of the
four hyperbolic grooves of the custom-engineered
GFM bar mill. The desired final dimension is reached
after a series of bar rotations and reversing passes
through the grooves, taking less than 3 minutes
to complete.
4) Hot abrasive
cut-off saw
While still hot, bars are cut to size by a Braun
abrasive saw. A 16" round can be cut in less than half
a minute.
5) Automated end stamping
Bars are end stamped
for traceability by an automated programmable marking
system.
6) Slow cooling bed
Bars are slowly rotated down an automatic uniform
cooling bed to maintain straightness.
7) Thermal treatment
(optional)
A 50,000 gallon quench tank and 9 tip-up furnaces
have been custom designed to efficiently handle any
bar requirement. Process options include normalize,
anneal, solution anneal, quench and temper, and stress
relieve.
8) Bar peeler
(optional)
A custom-built Hetran bar peeler provides fast centerless
machining to extremely smooth surfaces. This peeling
process takes less than one-fourth the time of conventional
turning operations.
9 ) Automated Ultrasonic Testing (optional)
Ultrasonic inspection can be performed on TARTAN BARSŪ to assure a sound, quality
product.
Tartan
Bars® Process
