Stress Relief : Meta Lax
At Chris Milton Engine Developments we are one of only a handful of companies in the world to provide the Meta Lax Stress Relief Technology.
What is Meta-Lax?
Meta-Lax is a sub-harmonic stress relieving process for neutralizing thermal stresses from metal structures. This is accomplished by using a precise, non-destructive, low frequency vibration applied to a processed work-piece.
Meta-Lax can be compared to the ‘natural aging’ stress relief concept. This aging concept however, has been generally discounted for industrial use due to the lengthy amount of time required to obtain the desired relief. Where the natural aging process can take up to 6 months to achieve, Meta-Lax can do the equivalent in 30 minutes - 2 hours.
How does Meta-Lax compare to Furnace Stress Relief?
Meta-Lax is a ‘non-thermal’ stress relieving treatment. Without ‘heat’ the adverse side-effects commonly associated with furnace stress relieving are eliminated:
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No distortion
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No scaling
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No waiting
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No discoloration
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No trucking
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No size limitation
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No softening
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No weight limitation
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No hardening
How Does Meta-Lax Work?
‘Thermal stress’ is an internal pressure build-up within the metal which is caused by a rapid temperature drop during processing. This pressure is a destructive pressure and will always be a potential problem until it has been relieved.
All metal components have a resonant curve. Yet in metal, these resonant curves will NOT be in their true or natural locations if the metal contains thermal stress. By including vibrational energy into the part at a precise location (which must be below the resonant curve - ‘sub-harmonic’) Meta-Lax vibrations will actually cause the metal to absorb the energy it needs to redistribute the pressure, thus relieving the thermal stress. In doing so, the resonant curves will gradually relocate and settle into their true and natural locations. Only when the resonant curves are in a settled position can ‘stress relief’ benefits be expected.