Oil Tempering Lines

The oil tempering process is somewhat of a misnomer in the wire industry. The process actually involves heating the wire to austinitizing temperature in a muffle or direct fired furnace followed by a rapid quench in oil or water based quenchant. The third stage, tempering, is the reheating of the wire to an intermediate temperature in order to form tempered martensite. Although typically done in lead, the fluidbed offers a more environmentally friendly tempering furnace option. The final result is a wire with superior ductility and toughness and with excellent fatigue, heat and deformation resistance.

Oil Tempered Products:

• Valve Springs
• Upholstery Springs
• Suspension Springs
• Clutch Springs
• Garage Door Springs
• Steel Brush Wire

QED’s oil tempering lines feature equipment designed for key process considerations. Our austenitizing muffle tube furnace provides special atmosphere management to prevent decarburization and control the scale to a specific formation. Oil quenching is done with adjustable and targeted flow patterns to rapidly quench the wires for a complete transformation to martensite. Our FastHeat fluidbed furnace offers an environmentally friendly tempering medium with precise temperature control capable of producing valve spring quality wire.

Our Process

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Muffle and Tube Furnaces

The QED Muffle Furnace austenitizes or anneals multiple wire strands in a protective environment thereby eliminating most scale formation on the wire. The furnaces are heated by high velocity burners mounted along both sides in a staggered pattern, and firing both above and below the muffle or tube field. Providing excellent heat transfer and good temperature uniformity, the burners are controlled by QED’s patented Pressure Control System.

Muffle and Tube Furnaces

Oil Quenching Systems

The QED Oil Quench System is built to rapidly quench continuous in-line steel wire strands exiting the austinitizing furnace. The Quench Tank is designed on the turbulent overflow principle where the tank is constructed in two pieces, the tray section where the wires will be quenched and a reservoir tank below to catch the overflowing fluid.

Learn more about our Oil Quenching Systems

FastHeat^™ Fluid Bed Furnaces

QED continues to lead the industry in design and dependability with our FastHeat^™ Fluidbed Furnace. Built to last with a rugged structural frame and heavy gage retort walls, these furnaces offer rapid heat-transfer to the wires in a low maintenance package. They incorporate the latest in fluidization and combustion technologies and benefit from a 20 year continuous improvement program.

Learn more about our FastHeat^™ Fluid Bed Furnaces

Wax & Protective Coatings

The QED Protective Coating systems apply a light coating of water soluble wax, mineral oil or similar protective coating to the wire surface. The coating on steel, galvanized, aluminized or galfan wire surface is to prevent corrosion and to act as a lubricant in subsequent wire forming processes. The coating is applied to the wires as they pass through the system’s process tray.

Learn more about our Wax & Protective Coatings