A heat treating system that provides the end user a reduced footprint and simplified product flow has been introduced by a manufacturer of low pressure carburizing vacuum furnaces. The one module system minimizes space with three stacked heat cells and gas-quenching cells and develops carburizing recipes at higher temperatures without affecting material properties.
UK-based heat treatment provider, Bodycote, announced it has entered into a long-term outsourcing agreement with Doncasters Group, a castings and precision parts maker for aerospace as well as other industries, to provide its hot isostatic pressing and heat treatment requirements. The terms of the agreement grant the global provider of subcontract thermal processing services acquisition of Doncasters’ thermal processing assets, including hot isostatic presses and vacuum furnaces, located at its Blaenavon, South Wales, site.
Hot isostatic pressing is a form of heat treatment that uses high pressure to improve material properties.
Doncasters Group manufactures precision metal components and assemblies for the aerospace, industrial gas turbine, specialist automotive, petrochemical, construction, industrial, transportation, and recreation markets. Associated Doncasters employees will be transferred to Bodycote. Financial terms of the agreement were not made available.
A heat-treatable aerospace grade aluminum composite used heavily in applications for national defense, aviation, and space was recently awarded AMS 4368 specification approval from the Society of Automotive Engineers – Aerospace Material specification Nonferrous Alloys Committee (SAE-AMS).
This is Materion Corporation’s second AMS specification for a SupremEX metal matrix composite.
W. Glenn Maxwell, President, Materion Performance Alloys and Composites
SupremEX® 640XA provides improved performance in aero-engine components and aircraft structures because it is 60 percent lighter than steel and 36 percent lighter than titanium, yet offers high strength, stiffness, and fatigue properties that significantly increase a component’s capability and useful life. The high-quality alloy is reinforced with 40 percent silicon carbide particles and is manufactured using a proprietary mechanical alloying process to ensure a homogenous reinforcement distribution. It provides a refined grain structure and enhanced mechanical properties, making it an ideal replacement for aluminum, titanium, steel and other structural alloys and composites.
SupremEX also provides superior damage tolerance and improved wear resistance when compared to conventional alloys. With a low coefficient of thermal expansion, components made of this composite will not deform over the range of temperatures experienced during flight.
“Other Materion aerospace-grade products have earned SAE-AMS specifications, including SupremEX 225XE, so we understand the value of this designation,” said W. Glenn Maxwell, President, Materion Performance Alloys and Composites. “With this specification, it’s much easier and faster for engineers to include the material in their designs and recommend it to new customers. In fact, many engineers will not consider using materials without SAE-AMS specifications.”
SupremEX 640XA is reinforced with 40 percent silicon carbide particles and is manufactured using a proprietary mechanical alloying process to ensure a homogenous reinforcement distribution. It provides a refined grain structure and enhanced mechanical properties, making it an ideal replacement for aluminum, titanium, steel and other structural alloys and composites.
Austrian steel pipe producer voestalpine Tubulars GmbH & Co KG recently commissioned a new heat treatment line and a hot tube straightening machine to meet the growing demand from the oil and gas sectors for seamless tubes that can process steel grades with alloying contents of up to approximately 20 percent.
SMS group will supply the line, designed for seamless tubes with outside diameters between 60.3 and 273.0 millimeters and with a capacity of 25 tons per hour. The heat treatment line consists of a walking beam type austenitizing furnace, a quenching head, a cooling table for normalizing, a tempering furnace, also of walking beam design, a cooling bed, and two sawing stations for sample cutting. This equipment allows voestalpine Tubulars to perform various different heat treatments such as quenching, tempering, and normalizing in one single line.
The heat treatment line currently can handle tubes with wall thicknesses of up to 25 millimeters. The fully automatic line is designed to be expanded by an additional quenching unit at a later stage in order to process tubes with wall thicknesses greater than 30 millimeters.
An Indiana-based chemical products manufacturer recently announced the design and development of a metals cleaner that removes heat-treat scale, including heat tint/weld burn, from aluminum, mild steel, stainless steel, and copper.
Global aluminum rolling producer Novelis Inc. recently announced a $4.5 million manufacturing investment at its facility in Warren, Ohio. The state-of-the-art technological advances will provide greater versatility for pretreatments, improve operational efficiency, and reduce costs over time. Novelis’ Warren facility has 75 employees dedicated to applying coating to rolled aluminum sheet. The sheet is then used for production of lids for the tops of aluminum beverage cans, producing enough for more than one billion beverage can lids each month.
Novelis supplies industry-leading beverage can materials to some of the world’s most recognizable brands, including Coca-Cola, AB InBev, and PepsiCo.
The Warren expansion will include portions of the facility which has been involved in manufacturing for more than 100 years, including military support in World Wars I and II.
Aleris has signed a new multi-year contract with Embraer to supply aluminum flat-rolled products for use in the production of all of Embraer’s aircraft. The renewed contract agreement includes the supply of technically advanced alloys and extends the reach of products for aerospace and systems applications.
“Our continued investment in growing our technical capabilities has enabled us to further expand our relationship with Embraer, and we look forward to working with them to achieve their aircraft manufacturing and design goals,” said Sean Stack, Aleris chairman and CEO. “With a world-class aerospace aluminum plate facility in Asia Pacific, we are also uniquely positioned to help them meet aerospace demand in the region which is projected to experience the most significant growth.”
The contract includes the supply of material from the company’s facilities in Koblenz, Germany, and Zhenjiang, China.
Saint-Gobain High-Performance Refractories, a Massachusetts manufacturer specializing in ceramic and refractory solutions with facilities in 67 countries, recently acquired Spin-Works International Corporation, based in Northeast Pennsylvania (near Erie), an innovative manufacturer of 3D-printed and extruded silicon carbide ceramic components for customers in a wide range of high-temperature, heat treating industrial processes.
Laurent Tellier, Vice President of Saint-Gobain High-Performance Refractories
“This acquisition further expands our capabilities in the ceramic industrial burner and heat recovery markets, helping to make our customers’ processes more sustainable—especially in the steel and automotive businesses,” said Laurent Tellier, Vice President of Saint-Gobain High-Performance Refractories.
Frank Perryman, president and chief executive officer of Perryman Company
Perryman Company, a metal fabricator headquartered in Houston, Pennsylvania, recently announced it will more than double its current titanium melting capacity through the addition of two new furnaces, one electron beam (EB) and one vacuum arc remelt (VAR).
The integrated titanium producer from melting of ingot to finished products has existing melting facilities at its western Pennsylvania location which are utilized for projects in the commercial aircraft and medical sectors. The company expects the new furnaces to alleviate backlog and support demand for titanium products in these as well as other industrial, recreation, and infrastructure industries.
“Our aerospace forecast model indicates there will be a need for additional melting capacity. With the increased capacity we will be in position to pursue segments of the aerospace market where we have not yet been a participant. We believe there’s more opportunity for us to leverage our fully integrated capabilities,” stated Frank Perryman, president and chief executive officer of Perryman Company.
The added capacity will also support planned growth in medical, additive/3D and other emerging markets.
Installation of the new furnaces will begin in late 2018 and are expected to be fully operational by mid-2019. Once complete, the company’s total melt capacity will exceed 26 million pounds, placing Perryman among the world’s largest melters of aerospace quality titanium.
Memory foam mattresses and pillows ease millions of restless sleepers through rough nights; perhaps tires made from shape-memory alloy will provide NASA’s Curiosity robot an easier ride across the rough terrain of Mars.
After years of research, NASA recently created a tire made of heat-treated nickel-titanium alloy that results in a woven-mesh metal which “remembers” and returns to its shape.
