The purpose of the heat-treatment is to give the link and particularly the weld zone such a microstructure that the desired criteria for mechanical properties are satisfied and the chain load-tests are passed. The treatment is performed in continuous automatically controlled furnaces and consists of austenitization and tempering, both operations followed by water cooling.

The furnace settings are given in RChain and the furnace operator reports in the RChain system.

The following data are continuously recorded by the furnace instruments:
- Furnace temperature, in each zone
- Water temperature
- Chain speed

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