How much does it cost · heat treatment
Outsourced heat treatment is priced by the weight of the furnace load, with a minimum per lot of €80 to €200 depending on process and shop (QuoteBuddy, 2026). A hardening shop in Saarbrücken lists €4.25 to €4.56 per kg, excluding VAT, to quench and temper 42CrMo4, tempering up to 2 hours included, with a €50 minimum order (MP Härtetechnik, 2026). For steel, RFQdecoder counts 1 hour of soak per inch of section thickness and at least 2 hours of tempering (UTEC), divided by the number of parts in the load; for an aluminium T5/T6, 6 to 24 hours in total per batch (Youyuan Die Casting). Below €80 the price is raised to the minimum, and the quote says so.
Heat treatment is priced neither by spindle time, like machining, nor by area, like a coating: it is priced by mass and furnace load. The heat treater runs the furnace at temperature for a fixed cycle, and that cycle uses the same energy whether the basket holds 5 kg or 50 kg of parts. So the treater charges by weight, with a minimum per lot and surcharges for the more demanding processes and atmospheres (source: QuoteBuddy, July 2026).
The method described by QuoteBuddy takes a few steps: estimate the weight of one part, multiply by the quantity, apply the per-kilo rate for the process, add any surcharges (atmosphere, certification, test coupons), compare the total with the lot minimum and keep the higher of the two. Post-treatment machining hours are counted separately (source: QuoteBuddy, July 2026).
Two consequences often surprise estimators. A heavy, simple part costs more to treat than a light, intricate one, because the furnace charges for the kilogram, not the complexity. A single prototype can cost as much to treat as twenty parts, because the lot minimum covers the furnace cycle however full the basket is (source: QuoteBuddy, July 2026).
RFQdecoder prices quench and temper for steel parts loaded together in the furnace. The furnace time of one part is the load time divided by the number of parts in the load; that number is a required input.
Since 4 October 2026 the tool also applies the lot minimum published by QuoteBuddy, €80 to €200 depending on process and shop (source: QuoteBuddy, July 2026). Below that amount, the price is raised to the bottom of the range, €80, and the quote shows it on a line “subcontractor’s minimum order”.
The heat-up time is not counted, because no duration is published for it: the price is a floor, and the quote says so.
MP Härtetechnik, a heat-treatment shop in Saarbrücken, publishes a price list valid from 1 January 2026. For hardening and tempering (“Härten, Vergüten”) in a salt bath or chamber furnace of 42CrMo4, C45 and 100Cr6 steels, it lists €4.25 per kg in the “Max. Härte” column (maximum hardness) and €4.56 per kg in the “bis 58HRC” column (up to 58 HRC), tempering up to 2 hours included, with a €50 minimum order. Tool steels 1.2436 and 1.2080 are €5.35 and €5.77 per kg. All prices exclude VAT (source: MP Härtetechnik, January 2026).
Under its other conditions, the same list adds a heating surcharge per furnace load of €100 to €600, and €35 for 30 minutes of loading per 100 parts, charged on top from a lot of 100 parts (source: MP Härtetechnik, January 2026).
Benchmarks published for forged parts are much lower. Boothroyd Dewhurst (DFMA) costs heat treatment as part weight × rate per pound: $0.20 to $0.40/lb for quench and temper, about $0.44 to $0.88/kg, and $0.15 to $0.35/lb for age hardening, about $0.33 to $0.77/kg; its example uses $0.30/lb in a continuous furnace at high volume (source: Boothroyd Dewhurst (DFMA), March 2026). Xinyu Forging, a Chinese forging company, states that normalizing, annealing or quench and temper can add $0.20 to $1.00 per kg depending on cycle time and furnace (source: Xinyu Forging, February 2026).
These figures do not cover the same scope: the price list of a German hardening shop on one side, forged parts on the other, with a continuous furnace at high volume in the DFMA example. DFMA notes that batch furnaces and continuous furnaces differ in cost (source: Boothroyd Dewhurst (DFMA), March 2026).
Assumptions (chosen for illustration, not taken from a source): 42CrMo4 steel shaft, section thickness 25.4 mm (1 inch), weight 2 kg; 20 parts per load; orders of 1, 5, 10 and 50 parts.
Part A: furnace time counted by RFQdecoder
Part B: price per kg and lot minimum. To give an order of magnitude in euros, this part applies the rate published by MP Härtetechnik, €4.56 per kg excluding VAT (“bis 58HRC” column) (source: MP Härtetechnik, January 2026). This is not RFQdecoder’s calculation, which starts from the furnace time in part A. The minimum rule is the tool’s: below €80, the amount is raised to €80 (source: QuoteBuddy, July 2026).
The minimum stops applying from 9 parts: 8 × €9.12 = €72.96, still below €80; 9 × €9.12 = €82.08. With MP Härtetechnik’s own €50 minimum (source: MP Härtetechnik, January 2026), the single part would cost €50.00; with the top of the QuoteBuddy range, €200 (source: QuoteBuddy, July 2026), it would cost €200.00. The heating surcharge per load in the MP Härtetechnik list is not added here.
Heat-up time. RFQdecoder does not count the time needed to bring the load to temperature, because no duration is published for it. UTEC specifies that the 2 hours of tempering start once the part has reached temperature throughout and that, for heavy sections, the time to reach temperature must be added (source: UTEC Industrial, April 2026). The price is therefore a floor, and the quote says so.
Minimums above €80. The tool uses the bottom of the published range. A shop with a higher minimum, up to €200 according to QuoteBuddy, will charge more for a small order (source: QuoteBuddy, July 2026).
Published benchmarks vary widely with scope. A hardening shop in Saarbrücken lists €4.25 to €4.56 per kg, excluding VAT, to quench and temper 42CrMo4, C45 or 100Cr6, with a €50 minimum order (MP Härtetechnik, 2026). For forged parts, DFMA gives $0.20 to $0.40 per pound and Xinyu Forging $0.20 to $1.00 per kg.
Because the treater charges a minimum per lot, €80 to €200 depending on process and shop (QuoteBuddy, 2026). With a €120 minimum, QuoteBuddy shows €120.00 for one part, €24.00 per part for 5, €4.80 for 25 and €1.20 for 100, or the per-kilo rate if higher.
The austenitizing soak follows the standard rule of one hour per inch of section thickness, then tempering lasts at least two hours once the part is at temperature throughout (UTEC). Solution treatment and T5/T6 aging of aluminium take 6 to 24 hours per batch (Youyuan Die Casting). When outsourced, allow typically two to five working days plus transit (QuoteBuddy).
For steel, the tool counts the load time (austenitizing soak and tempering) and divides it by the number of parts in the load, which you enter; for an aluminium T5/T6, it counts 6 to 24 hours in total per batch. Below the published lot minimum, the price is raised to €80 on a line “subcontractor’s minimum order”. Heat-up time is not counted: the price is a floor, and the quote says so.
Upload your PDF, DXF or STEP drawing: routing, time and cost of each step, with every assumption shown.