What Aerospace Parts Benefit from Heat Treatment?

For an aircraft to remain airworthy and safe to operate, it must meet stringent quality guidelines and regulations that focus on part conditions, maintenance, and approval. To prevent damage to various parts and systems and their subsequent failure, aircraft engineers take advantage of a process known as heat treatment. Generally, this process will cover a wide variety of parts ranging from landing gear components to the individual bearings and joints of assemblies, ensuring that they all perform with high reliability and integrity. In this blog, we will discuss the heat treatment of aircraft components, allowing you to better understand how such processes are carried out for a number of items.

The landing gear of an aircraft is paramount for its ability to take-off and land safely, and such assemblies consist of wheels, brakes, tires, rims, and other such parts. With the intensive forces and stress that such assemblies undertake when landing, regular maintenance for failure prevention is a requirement. Generally, heat treatment is carried out on landing gear to bolster its strength capabilities.

Crankshafts are another important element of various systems, allowing for the linear motion of pistons to be transformed into rotary movement that may be used for spinning propeller blades and other assemblies. As crankshafts undertake large amounts of compressive and tensile forces, they are often heat treated to improve their performance and strength. Camshafts are similar, taking on various loads as they manage intake and exhaust valves for the aircraft engine. With heat treatment, camshafts can have their wear resistance, toughness, and general strength improved. Despite this, such aircraft components must be treated carefully as they face potential distortion.

Pumps are charged with transporting fluids throughout an aircraft, and they support the aircraft engine and other various systems. During standard operations, pumps are subjected to high forces and wear, necessitating the need for heat treatment. Generally, much of the heat treatment processes that are used for pumps may also be used for valves, gear wheels, and other related items.

Many parts within the aircraft engine itself are also subject to countless stressors, making heat treatment very important. As engine blades compress air and draw energy from combustion gases, heavy loads and high temperatures will cause wear over time. By following proper heat treatment practices, engine blades may have their strength and wear-resistance enhanced and maintained. The shafts of aircraft turbines also face wear as they transmit movement and torque, and heat treatment will bolster the service lives of such elements for reliability.

Whether you need to conduct heat treatment for joints, bearings, turbine assemblies, cylinder parts, or other various aircraft components, Aviation Sourcing Solutions has you covered with our unrivaled inventory of products. At Aviation Sourcing Solutions, we are fully dedicated to the quality of our offerings, and we conduct business with AS9120B, ISO 9001:2015, and FAA AC 00-56B certification and accreditation. Take the time to explore our part offerings as you see fit, and our online RFQ service will allow you to rapidly request quotes for your comparisons with ease. Submit a completed form at your earliest convenience, and a dedicated account representative will be in touch within 15 minutes of receiving a submission!