Tempering - the heat treatment of metals for the desired microstructure formation in our wear parts - has been one of FRANK ORIGINAL's core competencies since 1836 and forms the basis for the product properties demanded by the market for our wear parts and components. All our product groups are optimally balanced in terms of toughness and flexural strength (hardness) for the requirements of field use.

The processes of hardening, quenching in water or in a polymer bath and subsequent tempering for stress relief in the metal are perfectly mastered and constantly monitored by our experts in production.

The materials used are also decisive for product quality. Quenched and tempered steels are ordered in accordance with our own specifications; boron steels B22, B27, B30, B33 and B38 are generally used for our products.

Our tempering processes are subject to continuous optimization. Nowadays, the aspect of energy consumption for heat treatment plays a particularly important role. Due to the high energy consumption of thermal processes, the use of efficient heating, for example with infrared technology, is essential.

Our HardLine product line offers the highest wear resistance of all products in the portfolio, based on boron steels and carbide cladding of wear-intensive, flat component surfaces. The brazed joints used are characterized by high thermal and mechanical stability. The carbide composition uses an optimum carbide grain size for maximum wear resistance and toughness.

HardLine products are therefore suitable for turning and non-turning soil cultivation and offer a longer service life, especially in stony and sandy, abrasion-intensive soils.

Coulter points, coulter knives, interchangeable point coulters, narrow coulters, coulter rear and front parts, attachments, but also goose foot coulters, beet harrow coulters and fertilizer insertion coulters are predestined wear parts for coating with carbide plates.

With the laser cladding coating process, a contour-true, welded, abrasion- and impact-resistant protective layer can be applied as wear protection even on non-planar surfaces of tools. Compared to conventional processes such as PTA, significant energy and material savings can be achieved.

Laser cladding is part of cladding, in which a non-porous surface is applied to a workpiece by melting and simultaneously applying almost any material. This can be in powder form, e.g. as a metal powder.

Laser cladding uses a high-power laser (primarily diode laser or fibre laser) as the heat source.

The process is suitable for creating layers in the lower millimetre range. It is important for the product quality that the material quality of the component is not affected by the low heat input into the component. A complete metallurgical bond with the workpiece is also achieved. During laser cladding, camera-supported AI image recognition is used in our production as part of the bin picking process.

The conventional PTA process (Plasma-Transferred-Arc = plasma powder cladding) is a well-known high-performance thermal coating process for flat and rotationally symmetrical components.

It enables the coating of a base material with high-alloy materials, e.g. with tungsten carbide-reinforced nickel-based alloys or cobalt-based alloys. The workpiece surface of the component to be coated is melted using a plasma arc as the heat source and a metal powder is used as the coating material. The powder is heated in the plasma jet, applied to the workpiece surface and melts completely in the molten bath on the substrate.

PTA coatings are used at FRANK ORIGINAL, for example, in the production of knives for agricultural technology. Partial build-up welding in the area of the cutting edges, for example on feed mixer wagon knives and knives for maize harvesting technology, creates a self-sharpening effect that significantly extends the service life of the knives.

PTA coating takes place in rice cells with program-controlled parameters (current, shielding gas, welding filler material, welding speed) and a shuttle table system with robot-guided torch or in robot systems in which the components for complex 3D contours are moved by robot arms.

The FRANK Group is aware of its pioneering role in the agricultural industry. We strive to ensure the economical and efficient use of raw materials based on state-of-the-art production technologies and product innovations. In this way, we make an important contribution to environmental and climate protection.

From this motivation, we have developed FRANK NeutraSoil, a coating for our wear parts that uses a metal base instead of a plastic base in order to reduce the entry of microplastics into the soil through the coating of our components.

Cured paints from previously common dip or powder coatings for wear parts can be regarded as plastic (= "plastic"). If these are rubbed off in the ground during use, microplastic particles are created.

Microplastic particles can, for example, be further broken down by soil organisms into so-called nanoplastics

Comminuted. This can be absorbed by plants and thus end up in human food either directly or via a detour through animal feed. Initial studies in animal experiments indicate that nanoplastics can trigger inflammatory reactions in the body

Healthy soils are an indispensable prerequisite for a functioning agriculture with valuable agricultural products.