When it comes to heat treatment, precision and stability are key. Heat treating controllers ensure that you’re able to precisely control the temperature of your oven or furnace throughout each stage of the heat treat process.
Why is this important? Whether you’re making knives, swords, or industrial components, correct temperature and soak time determine whether your metalwork has the properties it needs.
In this article, we’ll be helping you understand different options for heat treating controllers to help you find the controller that’s right for you!
Definition of Heat Treatment
Before getting into the ins-and-outs of heat treating controllers, let’s define heat treatment and explore common types of heat treatments.
Heat treatment is a process of heating and cooling metals and alloys in a controlled manner to alter their physical and mechanical properties. These properties include hardness, ductility, malleability, temperature resistance, and material strength.
Heat treatment has a wide range of applications – everything from smithing blades to creating aerospace components!
Stages of Heat Treat
At an extremely high level, every type of heat treatment involves 3 main stages:
- Heating: Heating the metal or alloy to a specific temperature, ensuring that it heats evenly.
- Soaking (or Holding): Keeping the metal at temp for a specific period of time.
- Cooling: Bringing the metal or alloy back to room temperature.
Depending on the application, these stages may be repeated multiple times or have specific requirements regarding Ramp Rate (how quickly the metal is brought to temp) or Cooling Rate (how quickly the metal is cooled to room temperature). Really, it all comes down to what properties you want your metal to have!
Common Methods of Heat Treatment
Below are common heat treating methods, as well as the effects they have on metal:
- Normalizing: The metal is heated to an extremely high temperature for a defined period of time and then air-cooled. Normalizing relieves internal stress and ensures uniformity, resulting in harder, stronger metals.
- Annealing: The metal is heated beyond the upper critical temperature and then slowly cooled to soften it and increase its workability. Annealing increases ductility and toughness, while relieving stress, making the metal more resistant to fractures.
- Hardening: The metal is heated until it forms an even solution and then allowed to cool to increase its hardness.
- Case Hardening: Only the outside of the metal is hardened, creating a durable outer layer while ensuring the metal retains flexibility and doesn’t become brittle.
- Quench Hardening: After heating, the metal is cooled rapidly by dipping it into an oil, polymer, or water, resulting in very hard, very brittle metal.
- Tempering: After hardening, the metal is heated to a lower temperature to reduce excessive hardness and relieve internal stress. Tempering makes metals less brittle.
Often, a single piece of metal will undergo several different types of heat treatment to give it the right combination of properties.
What to Look for in a Heat Treating Controller
Regardless of the application, when choosing a heat treating controller for your kiln or oven it’s important to look for 3 main features:
- Precision: Since temperature dictates the properties of the metal, it’s important to select a heat treating controller that precisely controls the temperature of your kiln or oven. PID (Proportional Integral-Derivative) controllers, such as the TAP Digital Controllers from SDS Industries, will result in the highest degree of precision, making them ideal for heat treatment.
- Reliability: Consistency and stability are important considerations when buying a heat treating controller. High quality components, onboard diagnostics to verify input/output, energy-efficient design, and preventative maintenance alerts ensure reliability and consistent results.
- Ease-of-Use: Today, heat treating controllers should make life easy for metalworkers, whether you do your heat treatments at home or in an industrial setting. The best digital controllers include touchscreen controls, mobile app integration, alerts, alarms, and the ability to create, name, and save unlimited schedules.
Single Setpoint vs Multi-Setpoint
Another consideration is whether you should purchase a single setpoint or a multi-setpoint controller. A single setpoint controller allows you to set your oven to a single temperature for an indefinite amount of time. For heat treatments that don’t require specific ramp rates, single setpoint controllers are often a more affordable option.
Plus, they let you get to work more quickly!
However, some heat treatments require specific ramp rates and multiple setpoints, in which case you should choose a multi-setpoint controller. The TAP II Controller and TAP II Pro are the most advanced heat treating controllers on the market, allowing metalworkers to create an unlimited number of setpoints and ramp rates and save an unlimited number of schedules, making it ideal for complex heat treatments.
(It’s also worth noting that multi-setpoint controllers are capable of single setpoint applications).
The TAP&Go Heat Treating Controller
We recently reduced the TAP&Go Kiln Controller. Our most simplified control option yet, the TAP&Go is a single setpoint controller, making it ideal for heat treat, knifemaking, or for users who don’t need to execute complex firings.
TAP&Go includes a simplified 2.4″ touchscreen and is controlled almost entirely through the TAP Kiln Control Mobile app, making it a convenient and affordable heat treating controller.
Choose the Heat Treating Controller That’s Right For You
If you’re in the market for a new controller for your heat treat oven, the TAP II and TAP II Pro Controllers by SDS Industries are the most advanced, precise, and easy-to-use controllers on the market today. We invite you to explore our selection of digital controllers, standalones, and conversion kits on our online store.
You can also purchase TAP Digital Controllers or TAP-Controlled Heat Treat ovens through one of the following distributors:
- Evenheat
- Hot Shot Oven & Kiln
- Paragon Kilns
- Mobile Glassblowing Studios, LLC
- Jen-Ken Kilns
- Kiln Frog
- Sheffield Pottery
- Delphi Glass
Heat Treating Controllers FAQ
What options do I have for upgrading my heat treating controller?
Whether you’re a confident DIYer or you’re looking for plug-and-play upgrade options, the TAP Ecosystem’s got you covered! Below are several options for upgrading your heat treating controller:
- Conversion Kit: If you already have a digital heat treating controller, then a conversion kit lets you seamlessly upgrade your heat treat controller. Conversion kits provide a harness adapter and faceplate adapter – so all you have to do is unscrew and unplug your existing controller and then use the conversion kit for a 1:1 install in minutes.
- Standalone Kiln Controller: If you’re using a manual heat treat oven, then a standalone kiln controller lets you bypass your existing controller to upgrade your oven to precise automatic control. With a control box, a power adapter, and a thermocouple, all you have to do is run the thermocouple to the chamber of your oven and plug in your controller.
- DIY Install: In our experience, heat treat artists often have more of a DIY background. If you fit this category, you may just want to purchase a digital controller and take care of the install yourself! In fact, the TAP&Go Single Setpoint Controller was specifically designed for new oven builds or DIY installation. You can find wiring diagrams for all of our products here to help you with installation.
If you’re thinking about upgrading your heat treat controller, we strongly recommend checking out TAP for intuitive touchscreen control, remote oven monitoring, and PID-driven precision. There’s a reason that one of our partners found that 80% of heat treat artists choose TAP over the competition!
How can I add remote start and remote temperature monitoring to my heat treat oven?
One of TAP’s most innovative features is how all of our controllers integrate with TAP Kiln Control Mobile for features like:
- Remote temperature monitoring.
- Remote start.
- Real-time push notifications for alerts and alarms.
- Firing cost tracking.
- Preventative maintenance alerts for oven relays, thermocouples, and elements.
- Remote schedule creation and management.
- Real-time adjustments.
- And more!
These features give heat treat artists more peace of mind, flexibility, precision, and the ability to multitask more effectively.
Where can I find more resources to learn about heat treatment?
At SDS Industries, we’re committed to providing heat treat artists with the most accurate, comprehensive resources to help them master their craft.
We recommend checking out these blogs and articles:
- Heat Treat 101: Guide to Heat Treating
- Complete Guide to Heat Treatment
- Understanding Kiln Firing Schedules for Glass, Ceramics, Pottery, and Heat Treat
- Features to Look for in Your Next Heat Treat Oven
- Heat Treating Knives: A Complete Guide to Knifemaking
- Perfecting Your Bladesmithing Process
- Understanding Electric Heat Treat Furnace Controls
And that’s just scratching the surface! You can find other articles on our blog. Please contact us if there are any additional topics you’d like us to cover!
