Heat Treat Purchase Orders DOs & DON'Ts

posted On Tuesday, January 14, 2025 in Blog

The most efficient way for Advanced Heat Treat Corp. (AHT) to provide quality products with quick turnaround time is to ensure clear communication through purchase orders. Offering a wide range of processes from conventional heat treatment to nitriding at AHT, the clarity of your purchase order is especially important. Below, we share some DOs and DON'Ts to minimize/eliminate unnecessary delays. 

DO… State the Correct Heat Treatment

AHT is an ISO and Nadcap certified company, this means we are required to have written permission as to what work we are going to perform. This is oftentimes why if an outdated print states competitive processes like “melonite”, “salt bath”, or “QPQ”, AHT will reach out to confirm that our UltraOx process is approved as an alternative process. LEARN MORE ABOUT ULTRAOX HERE.

DO… Clarify If Rust Preventative is Needed

While not as common of an issue, sometimes customers may misunderstand when rust preventative is needed after nitriding. For the most part, rust preventatives are typically NOT applied for standard gas and ion nitriding processes. Nitriding is known to improve corrosion resistance on most ferrous alloys, and most nitrided components are ready for service without the need for post-processing.

However, here are a few reasons you may want an additional rust preventative:

• Parts that are only partially masked
• Parts that are going to sit in inventory for an extended amount of time
• Applications where additional corrosion protection is required

If any of the above situations apply to you, please specify on the purchase order that rust preventative is needed. (Please note that the UltraOx process includes a proprietary sealant unless otherwise specified.)

DON’T… Over-Specify Heat Treat Requirements

One of the leading causes in delayed processing is over-specifying a print, for example, including an Aerospace Material Specification (AMS) on non-aerospace products. Many people believe that declaring an AMS specification on a print, requires less information to be included on the print/purchase order because they expect that information to be presented in the specification. While it’s great to have a thorough specification, it can lead to unnecessary inspections, preparations, and delayed processing, all at a higher cost to our customer. AMS specifications require multiple requirements such as compound zone, case depth, surface hardness, and more. While these are all typical requirements for a nitriding process, when only one or the other is required, you may lead to additional unnecessary processing time to meet another requirement that is buried in a spec.

Another example is that for many AMS specifications, it’s required to cut three production parts to verify nitriding (destructive testing). While this is the best way to ensure proper conformity/uniformity on your parts, it’s often unnecessary for simple geometries and common materials. On top of that, you’re losing usable parts!

To Reduce Unnecessary Delays, DO Make Sure to Include This Critical Heat Treat Info:

• Heat treat process being performed (ex: Through Hardening, Gas Nitriding, Ion Nitriding, etc.)
• If samples or scrap parts (to be used for sampling) are included, and how they are identified (physically and on the incoming paperwork)
• Sampling instructions (quantity to inspect or features of part/sample to inspect)
• If any post machining/polishing is going to be performed after AHT processing
• If any masking is required. Identifying optional surfaces is helpful too, especially for ion nitriding.

If you’re concerned about a critical turnaround time and want to make sure all the information is clearly conveyed, AHT has helpful forms you can complete prior to processing.

To Download our General Nitriding Request Form, Please Fill Out the Info Below.

1. ion nitriding
2. nitriding
3. nitrocarburizing
4. plasma nitriding