Annealing Furnaces: Introduction Annealing is a heat treatment process that is used to alter the physical or chemical properties of a metal to reduce its hardness and make it more ductile. Annealing furnace is an equipment used to heat metals for casting and strong melting. Annealing furnaces change the physical shape of the metal through forging and rolling and converts or changes the properties of the metal through heat treatment. Annealing furnaces are mainly used in industries such as construction and automotive to heat-treat metals. An annealing furnace has three stages: recovery, recrystallization, and grain growth. Recovery is the first stage and occurs at lower temperatures in which the metal is softened by the removal of linear defects called dislocations. In the recrystallization stage, new strain-free grains nucleate and grow to replace those that were removed in the recovery state; grain growth is the last stage where further heat treatment is given to the materia...