Vacuum heat treat remains a staple of heat treatment – hardening parts under high temperature paired with a rapid quench (or slow anneal). This process remains an ideal solution for processing to eliminate both oxidation and contamination without sacrificing desirable metallurgical traits.

 Ferritic-nitrocarburizing (FNC) is becoming a more popular process to improve a part’s mechanical properties and corrosion resistance for plain carbon and low alloy constructional steels.