The services Bodycote provides can deliver cost and efficiency benefits over those provided by in-house facilities. Customers can then concentrate their resources into core activities, with confidence in their ability to continue to satisfy international market requirements. The world's most respected and innovative engineering companies are realizing the benefits of long term relationships with Bodycote – giving them access to the wealth of knowledge and expertise of the Group's interactive metallurgical services, spanning over 180 facilities in 27 countries.

Thermal processing is vital part of any manufacturing process and includes a variety of techniques and specialist engineering processes which improve the properties of metals and alloys and extend the life of components.

Bodycote's thermal processing services cover three key areas:

Heat treatment is used to improve the properties of metals and alloys, for example, by increasing hardness, wear resistance and fatigue strength. Bodycote offers an extensive range of heat treatment services and specialist metal joining techniques, including all standard heat treatment services plus advanced specialist processes such as Kolsterising®, honeycomb brazing, low pressure carburizing (LPC), electron beam welding (EBW), vacuum brazing, plasma processing, cryogenic treatments, boronizing, Corr-I-Dur, nitrocarburizing, hydrogen annealing and hardening of stainless steels.

Hot Isostatic Pressing is an advanced technology which uses very high pressure inert gas at elevated temperatures in order to improve the properties of metals and other materials. HIP is used to eliminate porosity in castings and consolidate encapsulated powders to give fully dense ‘wrought’ materials. Incompatible materials can be bonded together to manufacture unique, cost-effective components. Operating the largest HIP capacity in the western world, Bodycote has also developed the Densal® process to cost-effectively densify aluminum. The flexibility of HIP technology allows engineers to optimize conventionally formed parts and also to design components unobtainable by other means.

Coatings are used extensively to prolong the working life of components and protect them from environmental factors such as corrosion and abrasion. Bodycote provides indispensible coatings systems for durability, anti-corrosion, wear resistance, improved hardness and electrical conductivity. The combination of modern computerized control systems and unrivalled expertise in surface technology means that Bodycote can offer specialist ceramic and thermal spray coatings, thermal diffusion, duplex coatings and organic coatings. Bodycote is a specialist provider of K-Tech coatings – a unique range of thermo-chemically formed ceramic coatings for the prevention of wear and corrosion in a wide variety of severe industrial applications including complex geometric shapes and internal bores. 

For more information on the family of products Bodycote has to offer, please see our corporate website