Normalizing

High quality plates made of hot working or low temperature steel grades for pressure vessels or high strength grades in larger plate thicknesses are subjected to additional heat treatment by normalizing or quenching and tempering. These processes are run in a heating furnace with a subsequented quenching unit.

Normalizing comprises heating of a plate to around 900 degrees Celsius followed by cooling in still air.

The double transition results in a generally more homogeneous and finer grain structure with improved mechanical-technological properties.