The homogenisation heat treatment process
After casting, aluminium logs/billets undergo a homogenising heat treatment process to ensure uniform distribution of the alloying elements, such as Zn, Cu, or Mg2Si and Fe, within the structure of the log. This involves heating the log at a controlled rate, soaking at temperature (typically 480 °C to 540 °C / 896 °F to 1004 °F ) for a specific period of time, and cooling at a specific rate to allow the precipitating elements to become more evenly distributed throughout the material. Each phase of the heat treatment process is temperature critical. An accurate means of monitoring the log internal temperature throughout the whole furnace cycle is, therefore, important to the success of the homogenisation process, material properties, and efficiency of the furnace heat treat operation.
Log Temperature Measurement Challenge
When setting furnace conditions for new production batches, monitoring the actual product temperature of the logs throughout the furnace is vital to maximise production throughput, while ensuring the correct metallurgical structure of the product...