INDUSTRIES
Press Hardening
For press hardening, a sheet metal blank is heated to more than 900 degrees celsius. It is quickly transferred to a press tool that forms the blank to a part and hardens the part by rapidly cooling it inside the tool. Currently the heating is done in large ovens and logistics automation for meeting cycle time requirements.
Scalability
With HARDGRID technology the large ovens can be replaced with a streamlined single piece flow induction heating process. This would allow smaller size and lower volume parts to be press hardened. It would also create a smaller footprint and a scalability that current technology can’t allow. With scalability and incremental investments possibilities, parts that are used globally in assembly could be produced locally to avoid transportations.
Partial heating of the blank means partial hardening. With soft material in chosen places, the part can be trimmed or processed after hardening using for instance punching while hardened material often needs to be trimmed or processed with laser cutting which is expensive in both operation and investment.
Metal forming
For forming of sheet metal, blanks can be heated to avoid for example cracks when bending or pressing. Either the entire blank or chosen sections of the blank, for instance a bend line.
Thermal treatment
With the controlled heating of sheet metal that the HARDGRID Technology allows, advanced thermal treatments can be done. This allows certain material characteristics to be altered in order to obtain better performance for the intended purpose. For example annealing of electrical steel.