Bright steel in perfection.
With our experience and know-how, we produce and perfect moulds that meet the highest demands.
Uniquely efficient - with bright steel at its best.
Bright steel is a product with high dimensional accuracy and improved surface quality. Many of our customers' operating conditions are therefore met without further processing. High strength can be achieved through our cold drawing processes - our bright steel helps to design components with lower weight. Our bright steel products can also be adapted to special physical requirements by applying heat treatment. Stress relief annealing, soft annealing, normalizing or quenching and tempering help the user to produce optimal products for his market. Our technical advice will help you to select the right material for your application: make use of this service.
Processes
Immediately ready to go and efficient
Our internal processes are scheduled in such a way that we can always guarantee punctual delivery. Our experience and transparent work processes guarantee punctual and routine completion of all custom-made products. We rely on short communication channels and trust that we place in every employee.
Controlling.
The first quality control takes place at the raw material delivery. The delivery documents are checked according to the order specifications. If these correspond to the specifications, the material is temporarily stored in the raw material warehouse.
Descaling.
Since environmental protection is an important issue at Andernach & Bleck, descaling with a mixture of small steel balls of different sizes removes the scale layer and the existing rust from the raw material.
Pull.
Pulling is the main process. The previously descaled raw material is cold formed in the longitudinal direction by forming matrices (pulling tool).
Depending on its structure, the raw material is either sharpened in order to insert the rod into the mould or pushed into the mould by means of hydraulic-mechanical push-in devices. The material is then taken from the pulling carriage with a tong and pulled through the pulling tool with the addition of lubricants.
The product produced here, bright steel from Andernach & Bleck, is characterized by high dimensional accuracy and an even surface.
Straightening.
During cold forming, straightness deviations occur due to dimensional fluctuations in the raw material. Andernach & Bleck has roller straightening machines and straightening presses with different pressure forces in order to be able to produce the straightness deviation described by the customer or in standards.
Cut to length.
The last mechanical step to complete the cold formed product is cutting to length for production or storage between 3 - 4 m and 6 - 7 m. Of course, it is also possible to meet deviating customer requirements if a different length than the storage length is required. Depending on the thickness of the material and the accuracy required, cutting to length is carried out using shears, band saws or circular saws. A length tolerance of up to ± 1 mm can be realized.
Chamfering, centering or planing.
We offer various end designs for the automated further processing of our round, hexagonal or square bar steels:
- chamfered with standard angles of 30° / 45° / 60° and a described chamfer length (also deviating customer requests can be realized)
- planned and centrically drilled
Annealing.
Since the mechanical properties are changed considerably during cold forming (yield strength and tensile strength are increased while elongation is reduced), it is necessary to modify these properties for different applications. For this purpose, Andernach & Bleck uses a state-of-the-art bar reversing oven for bar material, with which it is possible to carry out various heat treatments. In order to counteract the phenomena of decarburization or surface scaling which occur in the annealing process, the rod reversing oven is equipped with continuous monitoring of the inert gas atmosphere as well as electronically supported temperature control.
The various heat treatments include stress reducing annealing, in which the stresses applied in the cold forming process are largely reduced, which e.g. minimizes distortion during mechanical processing. Soft annealing promotes the forming behaviour of the steel by reducing the deformation resistances. Furthermore, in the case of steels with carbon contents greater than 0.4 % C, this annealing hardness serves to improve machinability by increasing the service life of the tools (tool cuts in a soft ferrite matrix). Normalizing, on the other hand, restores the mechanical properties to their original state, which increases the notched bar impact strength and has a positive effect on the elongation limit ratio.
The combination of "cold forming and normalizing" results in a finer grain microstructure. A special feature of Andernach & Bleck is the so-called GFS annealing. This is an annealing process with which it is possible to produce defined soft magnetic properties.
Inspect.
In addition to visual and dimensional inspections during the entire manufacturing process as part of continuous worker self-testing, extensive control tests are carried out in the quality department:
- Metallographic inspections such as purity, microstructure and edge decarburization tests
- Determination and documentation of mechanical-technological values in tensile tests up to 600 kN, notched bar impact bending tests with 300 J working capacity, as well as Brinell and Vickers hardness tests
- Non-destructive testing methods, such as eddy current testing using rotating probes or differential coil methods, as well as ultrasonic, magnetic particle, dye penetrant and roughness testing
- Checking the magnetic characteristic values
- Testing and comparison of the chemical composition with the specifications of the supplying plant using an emission spectrometer
