The Normalizing Process

Key Advantages of Normalizing

Normalizing steels and ferrous metals after casting, forging or cold rolling offers a number of key advantages. Just consider some of the most important reasons to conduct normalizing:

1. 
   This process occurs comparatively cost-effectively. Unlike some other softening processes, such as full annealing, a production facility can re-cool metals fairly easily during normalizing. They do not need to maintain a specialized bath or keep the furnace operating for a protracted period of time during the cooling phase. This aspect contributes to the low-cost of normalizing compared with some technologies.
   
2. 
   Normalizing enables manufacturers to soften steels and ferrous alloys effectively, creating more ductile, easily manipulated work pieces. The softening process allows the metal to meet specifications for some tools and industrial components better as a result.
   
3. 
   Normalization softens metals without sacrificing the benefits of previous hardening processes. Case hardening with carburization or nitriding may contribute to the creation of harder surfaces which display scratch and abrasion-resistance, but also suffer from increased brittleness. By normalizing steel parts, a manufacturer can reduce the effects of brittleness (which sometimes cause premature fracturing).
   

Normalizing enables manufacturers to refine the grain structure of steels and ferrous metals after casting. It may help disperse pockets of gases which form unwanted inclusions near the surface of cast parts, for instance. While normalizing won’t achieve uniform internal refinement, it does offer a fairly cost-effective means for accomplishing the removal of air pockets and the refinement of steel grain structures. Currently, normalizing has gained wide popularity.