Here we have another application in the 'hot and heavy' fraternity. Annealing, surface hardening and tempering are all subject to similar conditions.

These generally involve dirty, unpleasant manual tasks in a fairly hostile environment, which prepares the justification for the robot. Normal RSI, HSE and compensation culture rules apply. Difficult to staff, high levels of absenteeism etc.

There are no special requirements other than perhaps some shielding insulation around the hand tooling.

A typical heat treatment cell may include input/output conveyor, induction furnace, quench tank and maybe a press.

Generally, heating cycles are quite lengthy and a furnace with a rotary hearth may be used to enable the robot to place a new part down and pick up a heated part during the same transfer.

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