A Midwest manufacturer of brass components is upgrading their heat treat capabilities with a new furnace. The 24″ wide, 3 zone mesh belt annealing furnace will provide improved energy efficiency, reduced atmosphere consumption, and consistent and reliable part quality, as compared to an older design.
The brass annealing furnace from Gasbarre Thermal Processing Systems is designed with a maximum operating temperature of 1650℉ with a capacity of 800 lbs/hr, and utilizes a blend of nitrogen and hydrogen atmospheres. The system incorporates an Allen-Bradley PLC and HMI with automated atmosphere and water temperature control and datalogging.
Karla Sarabia Plant Manager Watlow Electric Manufacturing Company
Watlow Electric Manufacturing Company, a North American manufacturer of industrial heaters, sensors, and controllers, will receive a high-vacuum furnace and auxiliaries for annealing thermocouple wires between every drawing stage.
SECO/VACUUM will design and deliver the Vector®HPGQ 6-bar furnace with a customized 40"x40"x48" working zone and a 1.5 ton load capacity. The furnace package includes a 20,000 l/s diffusion pump for high-vacuum operation and a closed loop water system, loading cart, and nitrogen reservoir.
"We wanted a furnace that aligned perfectly with the exceptional capabilities and operation at our Illinois facility to ensure uniform product quality among plants," Karla Sarabia, manager of Watlow Electric Manufacturing Company's Mexico project said. "It’s also a big advantage that SECO/VACUUM has local maintenance support to serve our needs in Mexico."
Piotr Zawistowski Managing Director SECO/VACUUM TECHNOLOGIES, USA Source: secowarwick.com
An international manufacturer of cutting tools purchased a vacuum tempering furnace. This North American-made, horizontal, front-loading furnace is purpose-built to accommodate the client's needs with an all-metal hot zone for clean vacuum processing. As with the earlier furnaces from the same supplier, one of which was installed at a different facility, the new furnace includes a convection fan and a pressurized gas quench for quick cooling.
This is the fourth Vector furnace solution provided to the client. "There is no stronger statement," states Piotr Zawistowski, president of SECO/VACUUM, "[. . . ] than the customer who continues to order more of the same technology from us year after year as they expand. We are privileged to be a part of their growth."
Maciej Korecki Vice President of the Vacuum Furnace Segment SECO/WARWICK (source: SECO/WARWICK)
"This customer demands – and has come to expect from us – a complete range of benefits, including precision heat treat uniformity, consistency from one workload to the next, and fast processing speeds along with low energy consumption," noted Maciej Korecki, vice president of the Vacuum Furnace Segment at SECO/WARWICK Group.
This single-chamber vacuum heat treating furnace is a good solution for machine tool manufacturers and is available with curved graphite elements or an all-metal hot zone. Additionally, it can be used for most standard hardening, tempering, annealing, solution heat treating, brazing and sintering applications.
Medium-Sized Floor-Standing Box Furnace Source: L&L Special Furnace Company
A leading Midwest manufacturer of custom firearms and rifles will use a medium-sized floor-standing box furnace for annealing gun barrels for rifles.
This is the second furnace from L&L Special Furnace Company that the manufacturer has acquired. This model is the L&L Model XLE 3636, which has a work zone of 34” wide by 30” high by 32” deep. It is designed for use with inert blanketing gas for atmosphere control to minimize surface de-carb.
Other features include a programmable flow panel with regulator and two flow meters for high and nominal flow rates along with a visual flow indicator light are included. There is a high-temperature air-cooled fan with packing gland to maintain the case seal integrity. A cast alloy hearth provides a good flat work platform for the fixturing of parts.
Honeywell controls and a Yokogawa recorder enable temperature control and chart representation of the furnace cycle. The power control is a series of solid-state relays and the furnace is constructed in accordance with NFPA86 compliance for safety.
(photo source: Vidar Nordli Mathisen at unsplash.com)
A roller hearth tube annealing furnace was recently installed and commissioned at an aerospace and defense products manufacturer. This manufacturer fabricates the most critical precision tubular products, and the high temperature roller hearth furnace quench anneals superalloy tubing for their drawing operation.
(photo source: Abbott Furnace Company)
Additionally, the electrically heated furnace is atmosphere tight and is operated with an argon protective atmosphere. The high-speed roll drive quickly transfers the tubing from the furnace to the water-spray quench.
The furnace, provided by Abbott Furnace Company, allows the manufacturer to increase production, processing a greater number of tubes between tubing draws. “On a daily production basis," says Mr. George Ray, chairman of the manufacturing company, "the Abbott Furnace is 300% more efficient than the previous furnace.” He indicates that with the +/- 5 F furnace temperature uniformity and the uniform water spray, the new furnace also provides better uniformity of hardness than the retired furnace.
A Belgian stainless steel producer recently contracted with a plant supplier to the metallurgical industry to provide an annealing and pickling line for stainless steel cold strip.
SMS group will deliver the line to Aperam Stainless at its Genk plant in Belgium. Production start is scheduled for 2020. With this investment in state-of-the-art and future-oriented plant technology, Aperam will enlarge its product range by material grades for the most demanding applications and improve lead time and flexibility to meet the market demand.
The line will be equipped with a horizontal Drever annealing furnace and a multi-stage pickling section in addition to a four-high skin-pass mill stand and a side trimmer. The new annealing and pickling line will be the fourth one SMS group is going to install at Aperam’s Genk site.
The line will process both austenitic and ferritic grades.
A leading manufacturer and supplier of cupronickel (CuNi 90/10 & CuNi 70/30) pipes, fittings, and flanges based in Shanghai, China, recently updated its annealing furnace to improve physical properties of copper nickel pipes, flanges, and fittings.
Through this upgrade, Shanghai Shihang Copper Nickel Pipe Fitting Co., Ltd., aims to improve performance and surface finish of all Shihang seamless copper nickel pipes (less than 419mm OD).
“Our focus is to manufacture seam welded and seamless copper nickel pipes that meet the dynamic needs in all applications,” said Kurt Yang, Shihang Export Manager. “Therefore, as a company, we must upgrade our manufacturing plant, to increase our capacity and capability for the growing demand of CuNi 90/10 and CuNi 70/30 pipe systems.”
With the new annealing furnace, Shihang strictly controls most physical and chemical properties of copper-nickel pipes. The furnace accurately controls the annealing temperature, thereby hardening and removing all internal stresses in Shihang copper nickel pipes. By upgrading the annealing furnace, Shihang will attain a better surface finish of copper-nickel pipes, thereby increasing the aesthetic value; even during the annealing process, the new furnace will not alter the chemical composition of the copper-nickel pipes.
Heat treatment of stainless steels calls for striking the right balance between effective corrosion resistance and maintaining machinability and formability. An analysis of the types of stainless steels and the annealing process was recently published to examine how different alloys respond to various forms of heat treatment.
A supplier of plasma-based heat and surface treatment solutions to the metals industry has delivered a high-speed annealing line for precision stainless steel and nickel alloy tubes for a producer of small size precision tubing.
Global aluminum producer Aleris recently announced the opening of its aluminum automotive body sheet production facility in Lewisport, Kentucky, which includes heat treatment and finishing capabilities, as well as a wide cold mill, and two continuous annealing lines. The company, which is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, launched the project in 2014 in response to the automotive industry’s demand for broader aluminum use in the production of lighter, more fuel-efficient vehicles. The Lewisport facility began shipping automotive products to customers in November.
Lewisport is Aleris’s first site in North America that is equipped with aluminum auto body sheet finishing capabilities and houses an automotive innovation center, which includes a state-of-the-art research and development center in Detroit.
“The opening of our new automotive facility in Kentucky marks the completion of a significant piece of our strategic realignment, which includes expanding our capacity and capabilities to serve the automotive industry and other high-value end uses,” said Aleris Chairman and CEO Sean Stack. “As an experienced supplier to automotive manufacturers in Europe, we look forward to partnering with customers more closely now in North America to bring them the most advanced auto body sheet products in the industry.”
A Midwest manufacturer of brass components is upgrading their heat treat capabilities with a new furnace. The 24″ wide, 3 zone mesh belt annealing furnace will provide improved energy efficiency, reduced atmosphere consumption, and consistent and reliable part quality, as compared to an older design.
