Heat Treatment for Metal-Based MSME (IDEA)

The existence of home industries or small industries that are well established and grows healthy is believed to be one of the pillars of the country’s economy. In West Java, one type of the small industries which existed from a few decades ago is a small industry in the metal sector, which produce various engineering products made of metals . For small industries in the metal sector, one of the important achievements which is also a sign of the success of this industry is if it can be a supplier of components for major manufacturing companies, such as companies in the automotive sector.

However, to be a supplier of metal components for major companies, there are quite stringent product quality requirements, and generally these cannot be met by this small industry. One of the causes of the lack of product quality from this small industry is the manufacturing process steps which are bypassed and not generally carried out by these small industries, namely the heat treatment process. The heat treatment process is one of the stages in the manufacturing process of metal components, where this process determines the mechanical properties of products made of metal, such as strength, ductility, hardness of metal components.

The implication if the mechanical properties of these metal components are not achieved will result in a short component life span, the component cannot work according to requirements and on certain components and conditions can result in unwanted work accidents. In addition to the possibility of considering the addition of production costs when the heat treatment process is carried out, a lack of understanding of the importance of the heat treatment process is predicted to be a greater factor, why this process is not done in the small metal industry. For this reason, it is important to provide education about the process of heat treatment to small metal industry players, assisting in researching their products with additional heat treatment processes, and facilitating cooperation with large companies in the related manufacturing sector for the distribution of their products in the program to improve the quality of metal products.

With the improvement in the quality of metal components from this small industry and then being able to become a supplier of major manufacturing companies, it is hoped that the economic level of the small metal industry and surrounding communities can increase and simultaneously increase the local content number of manufactured products in Indonesia.