There is now a convenient, quick and cost-effective solution for Hunter and Central Coast manufacturers needing to stress relieve their steel fabricated products with Brain Industries newly installed stress relieving oven.
The oven has been installed at Brain’s engineering and manufacturing facility based in Carrington, Newcastle.
Brain’s Managing Director, Gillian Summers, said the oven is 2.9m long, 2.2m wide and 2.05m high and can hold up to 4.5 tonnes of equipment.
Gillian said the natural-gas powered oven is particularly useful for stress relieving prior to machining.
She said manufacturers who could benefit from using the oven included general steel fabricators, steel screen makers, and pulley manufacturers.
“Our oven can save Hunter and Central Coast steel fabricators from having to go to Sydney to stress relieve their steel,” Gillian said.
“Brain’s new stress relieving oven is part of our significant investment in the latest equipment at our Newcastle facility.
“The oven is digitally controlled and the service includes full documentation with heat graphs.”
Gillian said that the oven is available for hire, and offers local manufacturers benefits that they would otherwise have to travel far distances to get.
“We are using the oven to stress relieve our products, but it is good to also be able to hire out the oven to support other local manufacturers.”
Stress relieving is a heat treating process. It heats steel to a temperature below the critical range to relieve the residual stresses resulting from hot rolling, welding, shearing, or gas cutting.
Stress relieving does not change the material’s structure and does not significantly affect its hardness.
“When you weld metal, the uber temperatures change metal structures,” Gillian said.
“Stress relieving takes the metal structure back to what it was originally, so it gives you back the performance and reliability of the metal piece.
“It is a bit like us a having sauna when we get super stressed to get back regular state.”
IMAGE | Brain Industries Stress Relieving Oven