What is Heat treating?
::Heating [[food]] to make it last longer is known as [[pasteurization]] or [[sterilization (microbiology)|sterilization]] [[File:Castings fresh from the heat treatment furnace.jpg|thumb|Pieces of cast metal, after heat treatment]] '''Heat treating''' or '''heat treatment''' is the name for a number of processes in [[metallurgy]]: All processes have in common that the piece being worked on is heated for some time, and then cooled off. This is done to change some of the properties of the workpiece. Heat treating is used for pieces of [[metal]], for certain [[alloy]]s, and for certain types of [[plastic]]. With [[ceramic]]s, a form of heat treating is part of the production process, and is called [[sintering]]. There is also a concept called [[hot working]], but it is different. [[Category:Metalworking]]