Achieving and maintaining the correct temperature through the furnace is crucial in ensuring materials like steel slabs and billets have been uniformly heated during the reheat process at hot rolling mills. If product temperatures are too low, wear on the furnace rollers can accelerate; if temperatures are too high, meanwhile, energy is wasted and there may be reductions in yield.

To help optimize your process, Fluke Process Instruments has developed a through-process temperature profiling solution designed to measure the entirety of your product while it is being reheated and to ensure your entire process is working in an optimal range 24/7.

Raw material, such as steel billets and blooms, are manufactured in a steel mill and converted into bars and rod wires in a rod wire mill. The typical process temperatures are 550°C-900°C (1022°F-1652°F). The final product - rod wire, is in a coil form.

Hot forming is becoming increasingly important in the forming of structural panels for the production of automobiles.The process consists of rapid heating of flat panels to 950°C/1742°F prior to pressing them into complex shapes.

After the electroplating of metal fasteners, which are used extensively in the automotive or construction industry, it is essential that the metal product is taken through a thermal heat treatment process to prevent hydrogen embrittlement. Hydrogen embrittlement is the process in which hydrogen molecules in voids within the metal, create a pressure build-up, which can lead to internal cracks and failures in the field. If the metal has not started to crack, the condition can be reversed by baking out the entrapped hydrogen, as long as this is done within one hour after acid-treating the parts. The fasteners must be heated to a target metal temperature of 200°C (392°F) and held at that temperature for 4 hours within the product basket to remove (diffuse) the harmful hydrogen.