Artificial Aging

Our artificial aging of metal castings and forgings accelerates chemical and structural settling, stabilizing aluminum castings dimensionally and preventing distortion.

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Aged to Precision

We use large convection ovens with measuring systems for the equipment and your parts to precisely monitor the heating and cooling. We reduce aging to a fraction of the natural process.

Benefits of Artificial Aging

Ready for machining sooner
Increases strength and hardness
Increases coercivity and thermal stability
Reduces ductility

What is Artificial Aging with Heat?

Artificial aging of casts and forgings involves the treatment of a metal alloy at elevated temperatures to accelerate the changes in the alloy’s properties as a result of the casting and forging process.

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FAQs

Aging is performed on castings and forgings made of aluminum alloys.

Arrow Cryogenics uses large T5 and T6 ovens to artificially age die cast and forged metal parts.

It can take around 6 months of shelf time for die casts and forged parts to settle into their permanent composition before it can be machined. With Arrow’s artificial aging this time is decreased drastically.

The artificial aging process is performed at one or more elevated temperatures, which are usually in the range of 200°F – 400°F. The alloy is heated for times between several minutes and many hours, depending on the part size and the desired amount of hardening.

Air is heated up and allowed to move freely and evenly over the parts, ensuring a uniform temperature across all surfaces. The temperatures of both the oven and the individual parts are closely monitored throughout the artificial aging process, which guarantees that the temperature is always stable and appropriate for the alloy to be aged.