Because the majority of TLC stamping production involves parts made from a variety of electrical steel alloys which are used in high performance rotating components, fractional HP motors, servos, synchros, resolvers, and gyros, the Company has placed a major emphasis on providing the most sophisticated and modern annealing facilities available in the industry. This ability to meet critical annealing temperature tolerances ensures optimum magnetic properties of the parts and, therefore, maximum performance of the end products in which they are used.

All annealing furnaces operate on a "batch" or enclosed basis which permits accurate control of the internal hydrogen and nitrogen atmospheres. As pictured, gasses are stored outside in liquid form with a capacity of 150,000 cubic feet of nitrogen and 165,000 cubic feet of hydrogen. All furnaces are computer controlled and are capable of providing any annealing cycle up to 2.200 degrees F. Furnace capacities range up to 6.000 pounds. This provides ample flexibility to schedule numerous temperature cycles at the same time.

Because of the versatility and accuracy of the TLC annealing facilities, subcontract annealing of customer parts has become a standard service including the annealing of sophisticated alloys such as Hiperco and P6.

Utilizing the instrumentation connected to all furnaces, TLC maintains a chart recording of all annealing cycles.; This data is available to customers on request. In addition, the hysteresisgraph test equipment can provide a hard copy of a computer generated report showing the magnetic properties of the parts after having been annealed.

Prior to high temperature annealing, all parts are powder packed in aluminum so that they will remain separated during exposure to temperature. This process prevents distortion, which can result from exposure to high temperature, thus producing rounder and flatter parts. Aluminum oxide powder packing also creates a much cleaner, non-contaminated surface for stronger bonding when the laminations are assembled into a stack.

TLC stresses "uniformity" when referring to annealing cycles. Uniformity requires the ability to control both time and temperature in the cycle as well as the ability to maintain a constant, even temperature throughout the retort. This capability has been designed into all TLC furnaces including the type, number and location of the internal thermocouples.