Stress Relief Annealing

When you stress-relieve a weld, you want to remove the stresses that formed during cooling. The material is heated in a controlled way and slowly cooled down again so the structure relaxes and no new stresses build up. If you heat too hot or leave it in too long, you can ruin the material, so stick to the specs. It's important that the parts heat evenly and then cool slowly, otherwise it's all for nothing and you'll end up with distortion or cracks.