The TMT bar it leaves the rolling mill is guided through specially designed proprietary Thermex Pipes wherein the surface temperature of 850-1000 C is brought down drastically in a relatively short period of time on account of the intense and uniform water cooling. The temperature of the core is largely unaffected.The entire Thermex manufacturing process is operated through Computerised Programmed Logic Control (PLC) to ensure consistency in quality. The tmt bars are quenched (rapidly cooled) in water from a final rolling temperature of about 950 C. The quenching is partial - only until a surface layer has been transformed from austenite to martensite. This controlled quenching is achieved in one or more specially designed on-line water cooling devices through which the tmt steel bar passes at a very high speed before reaching the cooling bed. Because the quenching is only partial, a significant part of the original heat remains in the core of the bar and, on the cooling bed, this heat migrates towards the surface. This results in an automatic self-tempering process where the surface layer of martensite is tempered. This "tempering temperature" (or equalisation temperature) refers to the maximum temperature attained by the surface of the tmt bar after quenching. Tempering enables a partial diffusion of carbon out of the extremely brittle but strong martensite, thus relieving the inherent stresses locked in during the sudden quenching of the red-hot steel in cold water. The resulting tempered-martensite shows improved ductility and toughness compared to the as-quenched martensite. Due to inherent characteristic of the quenching and self-tempering (QST) process, the product retains its properties to temperatures lower than this self-tempering temperature. The core of the heat-treated rebars consists of ferrite and pearlite - which is not cold worked and is therefore quite tough. In general, when the TMT process is carried out properly the resulting product has a much higher level of both strength and ductility with a much lower carbon equivalent than is normally attained by the cold working processes like CTD. The fine martensitic microstructure at the surface also ensures improved resistance to corrosion, which has been measured to be about 30% higher than the cold twisted material. While the cold twisted material looses it tensile strength rapidly on heating about 350 C because the annealing action sets in, the TMT bars are stable up to a temperature of at least 550 C, a temperature at which is tempered. This accounts for a much better fire resistance to the structures made with TMT bars.