Technical Articles

Global Ferrous Rod & Wire Symposium,  Atlanta, May 2017

BRIGHT HEAT TREATMENT OF FLAT AND PROFILED WIRE MADE OF AUSTENITIC AND FERRITIC STAINLESS STEELS

Spring 2017

The presentation of PlasmaANNEALER HPA30 outlines the latest high output plasma heat treatment line for ferritic and austenitic stainless steel profiled and flat wires with typical dimensions up to 30 mm x 3 mm (1.18’’ x 0.12’’).

The presentation relates to applications in automotive, watch making, household, decorative, and structural stainless steel markets. Continue Reading →

Tube Symposium India 2016, October 7th 2016, Mumbai

PLASMA ANNEALING OF SMALL DIAMETER TUBES

Autumn 2016

Efficient and High-Speed Alternative to Traditional Radiance Annealing.
Strand annealing furnace has played the dominant role in annealing of stainless
steel and nickel alloys tubes for decades. In recent years plasma annealing
became increasing deployed amongst stainless steel tube manufacturers
especially for the small OD and high-quality applications. Today plasma became
a preferred choice for annealing of a wide range of mainstream stainless and
nickel alloy and copper tubes up to the ODs of 20mm…. Continue Reading Article →    Continue Reading Presentation →

SCRATCH-FREE & PILE-FREE PLASMA ANNEALING OF STAINLESS STEEL AND NICKEL ALLOY WIRE, ROPE &TUBE

A fast, efficient and cost effective alternative to bright strand annealing process

Autumn 2013

The strand annealing furnace has for decades played the dominant role in annealing of wires, ropes and tubes made of stainless steel and nickel alloys. It is difficult to imagine a viable alternative to the king of continuous annealing. Yet, with increasing cost of energy, purging gases, labour, and ever more demanding environmental and quality standards it is time to consider plasma annealing in a new light.

PlasmaANNEALER has already found its place in many high-end applications such a high quality medical wires, ropes and strands, medical and aerospace tubes, as well as electronics and jewelry applications, where clean, scratch-free and pile-free surface is required. With a new, third-generation design Plasmait brought to the market a set of cheaper and high-output PlasmaANNEALERs that are aimed at mainstream stainless steel and nickel alloy applications that challenge the dominance of the traditional strand annealing furnace. The new PlasmaANNEALER surpasses the traditional furnace in operational efficiency and finished product quality, whilst offering lower total cost of ownershipContinue reading →            Continue reading (Deutsch) →

Plasma Annealing of Thin-Wall and Small Diameter Tubes:

An Efficient, High-Speed Alternative to Traditional Radiance Annealing

Autumn 2012

The paper outlines plasma annealing of thin-wall and small diameter tubing. The principles of plasma heat and surface treatment are explained as ion bombardment on material surface. The workings and functionality of the plasma annealer and its components are outlined. The focus is given to small diameter and thin wall tubing with demanding surface and mechanical requirements in the medical, aerospace, automotive and instrumentation tubing sectors.… Continue reading →

PlasmaPREPLATE: An Environmentally-Friendly Surface and Heat Treatment for Wire, Tube and Strip Plating

Spring 2008

PlasmaPREPLATE process is a continuous heat and surface treatment used for annealing and surface preparation prior to plating or surface coating. The process is commonly used prior to hot-dip or electro-plating on a range of ferrous and non-ferrous materials. Applications such as tinning of capillary tube, extrusion and PV ribbon production are examined… Continue reading →

Graphite (De)Lubrication Made Easy – Thanks to Plasma

Winter 2006

Graphite is used as a lubricant for hot drawing processes. Once applied, Graphite is hard to remove effectively from the wire surface. Up until now, Graphite could only be removed completely with an aggressive electro-polishing process that results in considerable waste of base material. PlasmaGRAPH process was developed to anneal and remove Graphite from Molybdenum wire…  Continue reading →