Heat Treating is very important, it allows you to curve different shapes to the extreme limits of the metal and then harden the material into a strong and stable condition.

   At Rimac we have a large capacity oven, more than 30 feet long and 8 feet wide and 7 feet high, it is electronically controlled and has time temperature charting to ensure exact operation and even although its large size it is very efficient and can reach a temperature of 750 F. fully loaded in under 30 minutes, allowing us to temper or anneal quickly and cost effectively. 

   If you were to curved a small profile and just leave it soft it would be easily damaged and may not hold its shape very well, on the other hand if you are doing a large profile it might be impractical to do it hard because it would take grater force to curve causing more distortion than if it were curved soft, after curving it can then be tempered  to a  strong and stable  condition.

  At Rimac we have curved & tempered parts that weigh a few ounces to parts weighing more than 300 pounds each (for our metric friends that's more  than 150 kg.).