Heat treatment can be defined as the heating cycle at different temperatures carried out in predetermined conditions (controlled or not controlled atmosphere) to which they must follow more or less slow and / or isothermal cooling, to give a metal or a metal alloy (alloys ferrous or non-ferrous) those crystalline structures that give it certain mechanical and / or technological characteristics.

The effect of heat treatments on the structure of a metal alloy, is an important field in the science of materials and its compression and determinant to obtain the desired characteristics with greater accuracy. The binary or ternary state diagrams of an alloy are not sufficient to predict what the phases obtained after the treatment cycle will be as long as they provide the phases in equilibrium conditions as a result of long periods at certain temperatures. What happens in the practice of heat treatments and that at certain cooling rates are obtained different metastable structures that give the material the required characteristics.

The addition of a controlled atmosphere in the furnace chamber changes the chemical composition of the surface layer of the alloy, this process is referred to as thermochemical treatment.

In each unit a dedicated production process takes place:

Unit 1: cycle of steels
Unit 2: carpentry and cast iron cycle
Unit 3: non-ferrous alloys cycle