Problem Solver

Engineering Solutions to Everyday Industrial Problems

Heat Treating the Kitchen Sink

Situation:
A manufacturer of stainless steel kitchen sinks is design
constrained by the strain (work) hardening of the stainless
material during drawing. Some sinks are relatively shallow, and
these can be formed without risk of fracturing. However, deeper
bowls will fracture if too much strain is induced.
As kids, many of us played with a lot of ordinary things, and one
of them might have been a steel coat hanger. If you bent it back
and forth numerous times, you would notice the material became
harder and harder to bend until it actually broke, or fractured,
at the point of the bending. The same basic thing is true for the
material sinks are made from. This is where Solar Atmospheres
plays a pivotal role in the manufacture of the stainless steel sink.
Objectives:
Eliminate work hardening through annealing
Cost-effectively anneal a bulky but lightweight sink
Prevent handling damage of a softened, bulky sink
Optimize thermal cycle to prevent metallurgical
problems (scrap)
Solution:
Most of us have used a stainless steel sink at some point in our
lives, but not many have actually thought about how one is made.
If you look carefully at one of these sinks, you will quickly see
it is monolithic formed into a shape from one piece of steel.
The steel in this case is called austenitic stainless steel a singlephase, corrosion-resistant steel that cannot be hardened by heat
treatment.
The sink manufacturer forms the sink bowls from at sheet

20 July 2011 - IndustrialHeating.com

product into the basic shape of the sink to a point prior to becoming
so hard they fracture. Sinks are then sent to Solar Atmospheres
for annealing, which is a process that effectively eliminates the
strain-induced work and makes the material ductile, or soft, so it
can be further formed.
Although simple in concept, this can be logistically
challenging. There are several reasons for this. First, when the
sink bowls are annealed, they are relatively soft and can be dented
fairly easily. Careful handling and attention to detail is required.
Secondly, large sinks take up a lot of furnace area without a lot
of weight. If you have ever bought a stainless steel sink you know
they are reasonably priced, so a large quantity of sinks must go
into a furnace batch to afford the customer economy of scale.
Of course, Solar Atmospheres has large furnaces that provide for
this economy.
Annealing time and temperature parameters are critical as
well because excessive soak time at elevated temperature can
cause metallurgical problems that could render the material
scrap. Conversely, under-annealing the product means the bowls
could still have residual strain-induced hardness and could
fracture when further forming is performed. Developing the
parameters is like walking a fence. If you lean too far to either
side, you will fall off.
We interact with many materials and products every day, and
many metal products have had to undergo some sort of heat
treatment at some point in the manufacturing process. Solar
performs many of these heat-treat processes, and we can truly say
we process everything even the kitchen sink. IH
For more information: Contact Mike Moyer, director of sales, Solar
Atmospheres, Souderton, Pa. at 215-721-1502 or MikeM@solaratm.com.
Find them on the web at www.solaratm.com