With the popularity of dry pumps in furnace operations, vacuum furnace operators need to "have a handle" on how to operate them.
In this best of the web feature, the author explains the principles of operation, screw pump design, and various other screw pump characteristics. Learn about the 5 phases of dry pump operation and more in this succinct article.
An excerpt:
"Dry pumps represent a technology that is of interest to many heat treaters as they strive to increase performance and minimize cost and downtime. The advantages of these pumps are comparable to their oil sealed rotary vane cousins, and in certain applications, offer distinct advantages."
Sometimes our editors find items that are not exactly “heat treat” but do deal with interesting developments in one of our key markets: aerospace, automotive, medical, energy, or general manufacturing. To celebrate getting to the “fringe” of the weekend, Heat TreatToday presents a Heat TreatFringe Friday with this press release which describes the energy and sustainability benefits of a recent partnership between a supplier of refractory elements and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Allied Mineral Products is providing refractory expertise on a new project that will collect and store unused renewable energy. They’ve teamed up with NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) on the ENDURING project, which focuses on long-duration energy storage using heated particles. Funding was awarded from ARPA-E, a government agency advancing high-impact energy technologies in the early stages of development with the idea that some could be transformative and powerful for the future.
The process in development can collect excess electrical energy and convert it into thermal energy. With the help of refractories in a holding vessel, this thermal energy can be efficiently stored for days. When it is needed, the stored thermal energy will go through a heat exchange process and be converted back into electricity for use by commercial or residential customers.
Reducing heat loss is critical as the proposed facility would provide electricity for several days with low-cost particle thermal energy storage. Allied is also selecting innovative products for use in other areas of the proposed plant that would experience high temperatures and wear. Specimens and testing of different refractory materials are being provided by Allied in support of these goals.
Heat TreatToday publisher Doug Glenn finishes his conversation with Mark Hemsath about metal hardness basics. Mark, the vice president of Sales - Americas for Nitrex Heat Treating Services, was formerly the vice president of Super IQ and Nitriding at SECO/WARWICK. Learn all about the what, why, and how of hardening. This episode builds upon previous episodes in Part 1and Part 2.
Below, you can either listen to the podcast by clicking on the audio play button, or you can read an edited transcript.
The following transcript has been edited for your reading enjoyment.
Doug Glenn (DG): This is our third episode with you, Mark, and the first episode basically we were just dealing with very general, kind of like “Hardness 101” – what is it, why is it important, what materials can be hardened, etc. The second episode we delved a little bit further into specifics processes like carburizing, nitriding, etc. If any of the listeners are listening now, they haven't listened to episode one and two, I would recommend that they go back and take a listen to those at their leisure. What we wanted to do today really was just deal with some of the newer advances, why we're seeing some of those newer advances, why some of the processes are having a bit of a resurgence and talk through some of those things.
What we want to do today is to just deal with some of the newer advances, why we're seeing some of those newer advances, why some of the processes are having a bit of a resurgence and talk through some of those things.
Before we start, I'll just ask you straight up, is there anything from the last episodes that you think we need to reiterate or review, or do you think we did okay on those last ones?
Mark Hemsath (MH): I think we did well, and I just wanted to say thank you, again, for letting me talk about this. I think these are some great subjects and I really enjoy doing this.
". . . nitriding, and really its cousin FNC (ferritic nitrocarburizing), are actually fairly inexpensive treatments and they can be performed on final dimension parts. There is no post machining and there is minimal distortion. That's kind of my opinion of why it has done well."
DG: Let's talk about this: From my perspective, from what I hear around the industry, nitriding seems to be getting a lot of play time, to throw in a radio term. You hear it a lot. Why is that? Why is it that nitriding seems to be growing in popularity?
MH: Well, Doug, if you were to ask me, which you did, I think it's mainly due to the discovery that nitriding, and really its cousin FNC (ferritic nitrocarburizing), are actually fairly inexpensive treatments and they can be performed on final dimension parts. There is no post machining and there is minimal distortion. That's kind of my opinion of why it has done well. Like I said, nitriding, not quite as much as FNC; they get lumped together but they are distinctly different.
DG: So, FNC is really the most cost saving?
MH: Yes, you're going to get a fairly hard surface on the part at fairly short cycle times and low temperature. So, again, you can use that final dimension part. You can control that white layer or compound zone, not only in terms of thickness, but also in terms of composition, in other words, how much epsilon versus gamma prime, and its porosity. This allows for repeatable results and repeatable performance today. This was not as easy 20 years ago, but it is today.
DG: And that's because?
MH: The enhancements of the equipment and controls technology. We've come a long way with process control, and that sort of thing; it's substantially different. I always make a joke when we do proposals for equipment, the thing that changes all the time is controls. Electronics are constantly changing and improving.
DG: One other question about nitriding before we move off of that: Are we seeing that growth in popularity in any particular industries or any particular types of products, or would you classify it as across the board? You and I have spoken before about brake rotors and things of that sort.
Find out more on nitrocarburizing by clicking the image above.
MH: It has, you're correct. They've found new uses for it, and brake rotors are one excellent example. Whole new companies have emerged just to do that sort of process because of the volumes that are out there. I think a lot of things are being done. The nice thing about FNC white layer generation on a part is it also has corrosion control, and for automotive that makes a lot of sense. They're discovering new uses for FNC. And then nitriding, in general, has the ability in a lot of instances, as well as FNC, to replace carburizing, depending upon how you engineer the part. There are a lot of reasons to be using nitriding.
DG: You mentioned carburizing, so let's talk about the next process that I'm hearing a lot about, and that's low pressure carburizing. Is it actually growing in popularity? Are we hearing more about it? And if so, why?
MH: This is when I think it's a bit different, in my opinion. I think the surge came many years ago when automakers discovered LPC and it had a lot of good benefits at the same time. Now, aerospace has discovered it but the volumes aren't as high as they were with automotive. LPC is a great process, however, I have been scratching my head as to why it has not become more prevalent, and I think I might have some answers for that.
DG: What are they? Why not more prevalent?
MH: First, many applications of LPC, being vacuum in nature, were performed with high pressure gas quenching. Quenching with high pressure gas limits both load size and materials that you can use that can be quenched in gas, as well as some part geometries, thicker cross sections, etc. They're very hard to quench when you're dealing with certain steels or alloys with high pressure gas quenching. Carburizing, which LPC is trying to replace or compliment, it's really a high volume championing of surface hardening. Hence, per pound, prices are low. Loads are large and dense and you bring in a better quality methodology but you have a lot of limitations on productivity. It's going to get more expensive.
DG: So, you're saying the reason LPC (low pressure carburizing) hasn't taken off is because of the high pressure gas quenching essentially, because you have to do smaller loads?
MH: Yes. To get good quenching with gases because of the nature of how the gases flow around the parts and quench them, even at 20 bar nitrogen or helium, it's just extremely difficult to get the quench rates for certain steels that are required. It is very easy with liquids.
DG: Right. So, you've got to either lighten the density of the load so you get more of the gas flow, or more loads or whatever.
MH: Yes. In vacuum processing typically they spread the parts out further. You have to do that for gas quenching because, depending upon where the gases come from, you don't want to be having one part in the path of another part because you're not going to get the same quench rate. That's still somewhat possible with liquids like oil or water polymer, but certainly not as predominant.
DG: So that begs the question: Can we do LPC with an oil quench or some sort of quench? It's not high pressure gas?
MH: Yes. And it's been done for quite a long time. They call it low pressure carburizing or vacuum oil quenching. You can do both through hardening and carburizing in a vacuum chamber and then you can transfer to oil quenching. Typically, the way that's been done, over all the years, is you transfer it in-vacuum from the vacuum heating chamber to the vacuum that's over the oil and then you put it into the oil. That's what you call classical vacuum oil quenching.
DG: We're talking about high pressure gas quenching and density of loads and things of that sort. One of the things I have been hearing about is companies trying to do more either small lot semi-continuous processes or, in fact, single piece flow so that they can get around the issue of having to oil quench, they can, in fact, do single parts, high pressure gas quenching and things of that sort. Comment on that for a little bit. Are you seeing a growth there?
MH: As you know, we do offer that product line for single piece flow, so yes, we've been working at it for many years. One of the driving forces behind single piece flow is that people are already doing it with so-called press quenching. In those instances, they're taking it out of, typically, a reheat furnace, taking the part out one by one and putting it into a fixture and then quenching it with oil in the fixture to stop distortion as that product cools.
That's a very slow process, very expensive, and very labor intensive unless you can automate that with robots etc. It typically, like I mentioned, involves, if you're surface hardening, you're probably going to do that in a separate unit, carburize that, slow cool it and then you're going to put it back into a reheat furnace. So, it really adds to the cost of those parts, but you get some tremendous distortion control on the parts.
"What we're seeing with [press quenching] is the distortion is very, very low, we're not using any oils, we're not using a press quench, we have very low labor inputs and we can put it in line with the manufacturing cell. The only issue with that technology, and one of the reasons it's been a little bit slow to grow, is that you need relatively uniform part sizes and shapes and pretty large volumes. But this would usually be part of the process plan."
DG: That's in press quenching you're talking?
MH: Yes, that's in press quenching. Now, what we've come up with is something that we call a UniCase Master when you're doing case hardening with it, we also utilize what we call our 4D Quench. The 4D Quench is a high pressure gas quench that actually takes many, many nozzles of high pressure gas and puts it right on the part. The fourth dimension is that we actually spin that part. If you have an irregular gear, you're getting that gas distribution that's coming out of many, many nozzles, distributed very uniformly all over the part.
What we're seeing with that process is the distortion is very, very low, we're not using any oils, we're not using a press quench, we have very low labor inputs and we can put it in line with the manufacturing cell. The only issue with that technology, and one of the reasons it's been a little bit slow to grow, is that you need relatively uniform part sizes and shapes and pretty large volumes. But this would usually be part of the process plan. We've come up, now, with some varieties of that where we can actually change that 4D press quench to cover a range of sizes and you can program that into the software.
DG: And on the 4D Quench or the UniCase Master in the quenching process, are you able to treat most of the grades of steel, even oil quench graded, most of those, or is it fairly limited?
MH: No, it's actually very good. What we've found is, because we're concentrating that cooling of the high pressure gas is very close to the surface. I've mentioned before- you're in a batch load, let's say you're in a 24 x 24 x 36 inch load geometry with high pressure gas quench, well those gas nozzles are coming from very far away. If you go to more standard large size, like a 36 x 36 x 48 inch, the nozzles are even further away from the source. So, yes, you're getting mass flow across the products, but you're not getting much impingement. In convective cooling you need jet impingement. I spent my whole life on this. As you may recall, I was involved with my father and he had patents on jet impingement. We come from a long history of working with convection and jet impingement. Our 4D Quench perfectly optimizes those gas jets coming out and at 4, 6 or 8 bar, we can do the same cooling rate on a gear that you can get with oil. That's phenomenal.
DG: How about some of the other advances that we've seen? I've got a couple of others thrown down here that I'd like you to comment on. Again, for the listeners, I want the listeners to know that Mark's a very gracious guy. Even though he works with Seco Vacuum, I've asked him to comment on some other products that are not his, but he'll give you a good perspective on these things, at least an introductory perspective.
Let's talk about hybrid systems, if we can. We're talking about an integral quench-type system which is where a lot of this hardening process goes on that we've been talking about. Talk about the hybrid system.
MH: As we talked before, the vacuum oil quenching has been done for a long time as has integral quench furnaces. Gas carburizing or gas integral quench furnace has remained pretty much the same for 50 years. You utilize an oil quench, you try to get as quickly as you can into that oil quench, you have agitation in the oil, which gives you pretty decent quenching. When you do that in a vacuum oil quench, because you're putting a vacuum over the oil, you'll get too much out-gassing with standard oil so they've had to develop special oils for vacuum oil quenching.
A couple things with vacuum oils: Number one is they're not as fast, they're slower quenching because of the nature of how they make them and the other thing is they're kind of hard to wash off. They tend to varnish on and give you more problems with that. People that have to do vacuum oil quenching have learned to like it and do it, but people that are used to doing standard interval quench furnaces, if they like oil at all, which a lot of them don't, a standard oil integral quench furnace has fairly fast oil. That allows you to put some pretty good sized loads, a lot of productivity, through a standard interval quench furnace.
What we decided to do was, we said, we want to keep that standard interval quench, and if we do that and marry it to a vacuum chamber that can do low pressure carburizing, how would we go about employing that? We were able to create a furnace that did that. We're using a standard quench standard oils and instead of having endogas as a blanket atmosphere, we use only nitrogen, dry pure nitrogen.
Then, in the heating chamber, number one is that if you're doing through hardening, you don't have any atmosphere; you're under vacuum. The good news with being under vacuum is that you don't have any problem with decarb or picking up carbon of your part. Under vacuum, the nature is that the carbon does not move around, it does not leave the part, and it does not go into the part. It becomes very easy. Regular integral quench furnace, you have to condition it and try to get it at the same carbon potential that you have in your part. It gets a little tricky. With this furnace, it's very, very simple.
As far as carburizing, when you do it in a low pressure mode – what we call LPC (low pressure carburizing) use only acetylene – you're doing it at fairly low pressure levels, typically in the 5-10 bar range and you're using just acetylene. You're using what they call a boost diffuse. Now the key to doing low pressure carburizing, and one of the reasons I think that it has had some issues is in the past, is you need good simulation software. We happen to offer one called SIM-Vac* and it has years and years, if not decades, of experience behind it so that it's now a very handy tool for the heat treater to know what his cycles and recipes are going to look like in an LPC type furnace.
DG: Basically, you're doing a vacuum heat cycle, pulling it out of vacuum into a nitrogen chamber and dunking it into a standard oil quench.
MH: Yes. We will back-fill with nitrogen at the end of the cycle. You typically want to drop a little in temperature anyway before you quench, so there's no problem putting cold nitrogen in there. You get to your transfer temperature and you transfer into the oil.
DG: Cost comparison between a full vacuum oil quench and this hybrid type system?
MH: We've done quite a few. We have two things going against us. We have electric heating and we're using nitrogen. However, the gas guys have quite a bit of gas usage because they're using endo generators and there is quite a bit of energy consumed in those endo generators. When you do the comparison, in a same temperature processing scenario, it's about equal.
However, because our equipment can go to higher temperatures without any challenge at all to our heating furnace, we can go with much faster carburizing cycles. So, when you start those shorter carburizing cycles, you're using less energy and you're using less gases. We actually will end up being a little more competitive. It's kind of counter intuitive, but this is how it really is helping us. Only going 100 degrees Fahrenheit higher, which is not very uncommon going from 1700 to 1800 degrees Fahrenheit, results in almost 50% faster carburizing times.
DG: You're actually being more efficient with your equipment.
MH: Very efficient. And you'll actually get more productivity out of our units if you take advantage of the higher temperature. By going 100, 150, 200 degrees higher in Fahrenheit, you're not going to hurt the furnace, unlike a gas fired radiant tube where you're going to tear it up.
DG: Comment a little about the true vacuum oil quench systems.
MH: They are wonderful systems. We make a great one called Case Master Evolution and we've had that for over 10 years. It's a great product line. A lot of other furnace companies have it. I just read that one vacuum furnace company is going to be offering it in the next year or so. I saw another vacuum furnace came out with a new line kind of touting the ecological aspects of it. But we've been doing it for a long time, so we know how good it is.
The only issue with the vacuum oil quench is the equipment is a little more expensive. For aerospace, that's not a problem. The equipment is typically not quite as productive and it costs maybe 50% more than standard, basic integral quench furnaces. That's why we came up with, what we call, our super IQ- try to get the costs down and have the benefits.
Then, based on that, can we also increase the productivity? We found that we could and it turns out to be much more advantageous money-wise. However, there are still specifications, there are still people that want to have that vacuum to vacuum transfer. There are people that want to have that type of aerospace grade type processing. Our equipment has done very well and I'm sure some of the other guys are selling theirs as well.
DG: So, there is still a place, obviously, for a full vacuum oil quench system. Back on the hybrid then, are there other companies that you know of?
MH: No, I'm not aware of any.
DG: So, the hybrid system, basically at this point, you guys are the only ones doing it.
MH: There are two barriers to entry, obviously, into that market. One obviously is having the vacuum oil quench technology and then converting that technology to what we have which is nitrogen gas, etc. The other thing is, as I mentioned before, if you don't have the simulation programs, it's going to be hard for you to place it into very high production shops. In an aerospace shop, you've got a lot of high end people around that can do that for you, that can set up the recipes, etc. If you're in a basic commercial heat treat shop, you're not going to have that kind of personnel who can be doing that on cycles that change fairly rapidly, without a good tool, and we have that tool.
DG: I want to ask you one last question. It's kind of unrelated, kind of related, a little bit different. We had a podcast we did recently, a four part series we did with Joe Powell with Integrated Heat Treat Solutions. I'm curious your opinion on this. He talked about this process of basic quenching, getting the whole surface of the part down to the martensite start temp which basically forms a case around the part and then you can, basically, slow conductive cool from the core inside out. It has to do with hardening, so I wanted to just throw it out to you. Did you get a chance to listen to those podcasts or parts of them, and what do you think of that whole process?
MH: I did. As you requested, I looked at the podcast on intensive quenching by Joe Powell. I'll tell you that, I actually can't remember which show it was, one of the last or two heat treat shows, I actually ended up sitting next to him out in the hall somewhere and he handed me a piece of paper and said, “Here! This is what we're doing.” I was exposed to it before, but I got into it more now that you showed it to me. It certainly is science based and he understands the issue of quenching very well. I point out that our 4D Quench solves many of these issues, but he's coming from his angle on it, and I certainly agree with him.
As you may recall, I probably mentioned it before, my father was in the industry and had 65 patents, mostly heat treat related inventions. Rarely did we make money off of these ideas. So, I'm used to a lot of great ideas, but you can't make money. I think it's challenging in this world of mass production heat treating, where we have carburizing being performed at 50 cents a pound to get engineers, like Joe is wanting to do, to focus on the whole part life cycle and combining that final quench phase with the part design. I think it's a great idea but I just think it's hard to do.
We kind of know this from experience, and I won't get into it too much, but I think you may know that we have a process called PreNite where we prenitride our parts. That is a similar type thing where we're trying to take advantage of things that we know are possible in heat treating and prenitriding it allows the grains to not grow when you go to higher temperature to try to get more productivity out of a piece of equipment.
The one thing you've got to do, though, is convince the engineer to use a different alloy so that you don't get grain growth in the core. Convincing those guys is tough. We just don't see engineers engaged enough to do this complex reengineering. That's my opinion only. I think that's where Joe is going to get some resistance. I think his ideas are great, and of course, I totally agree with his approach to it. I could go through some other ideas that I came up with just reading his is almost like should you misquench first before you dunk it in the oil so you get that outer case, as he talked about. I think it's a lot of great of ideas.
What we need to do is find some really good engineers to break the barrier of those low risk takers that we have in engineering, and I think that's possible. You may know everybody's out there talking to people like Tesla and SpaceX and some aerospace companies. These guys are starting to break some of these barriers. They're starting to saying we don't want to do the status quo, we want to do something different. If we can do that, a lot more of these technologies will take off.
DG: We need some early adopters to step up.
MH: Early adopters. And people who want to not just be yes-men but really think it through – the whole life cycle of a part, how it's designed and everything else.
DG: So, dear listener, if you are one of those people, please call us. We're interested. We've got a couple of different technologies. Mark, thanks a lot for your Hardness 101 and helping us out on these three. I think we covered some good ground.
Doug Glenn Publisher Heat TreatToday
To find other Heat TreatRadio episodes, go to www.heattreattoday.com/radio and look in the list of Heat TreatRadio episodes listed.
Eurometal S.A., member of the Eko-Świat Group and manufacturer of highly processed aluminum products, purchased an aluminum coil annealing atmosphere furnace. This solution will be used by the only rolling mill currently in operation in Poland, with Polish-owned equity.
The new equipment is the third for this client from the parent company of North American furnace manufacturer, SECO/VACUUM. The SECO/WARWICK solution will consist of a Vortex® furnace for aluminum coil annealing and will be equipped with an external cooling system. The by-pass cooler will be for cooling under a nitrogen atmosphere, and SeCoil® — the control and simulation software — enables aluminum coil manufacturers to significantly shorten the production cycle.
The SECO/WARWICK solution will be used by the only rolling mill currently in operation in Poland, with Polish-owned equity.
As a result, Eurometal S.A. will benefit from the system in energy saving, increased productivity, and improved the surface quality of the processed coils. The key feature of the system is the increased heat-transfer coefficient, due to directing the atmosphere at a high speed simultaneously on both sides of the coil.
Sławomir Woźniak CEO SECO/WARWICK Source: secowarwick.com
Aluminum is an extremely plastic and light material, resistant to corrosion and many chemicals. Precise parameters of aluminum sheet enable its use for manufacturing various types of products and semi-finished mill products. Aluminum is used in the aerospace, automotive and machinery industries. Also, the construction sector uses aluminum sheet made with alloys characterized by high corrosion resistance and good forming ability. The ship building industry has also many applications for this alloy. Aluminum is certainly a crucial material for the development of many sectors.
"Aluminum replaces other conventional metals, in particular in modern state-of-the art products," commented Jarosław Śliwakowski, Eurometal S.A. "The automotive industry, with the dynamically growing share of aluminum, is at the forefront of replacing conventional metals[. . .] We have chosen Vortex due to the shortening of the total process time, even heating of the batch and reduced natural gas, protective atmosphere and electricity consumption in comparison with the products proposed by the competition."
"Eurometal has been our partner for many years," said Sławomir Woźniak, CEO of SECO/WARWICK Group. "[. . . ] From the very beginning, our cooperation has been based on trust. We always focus on approaching each order individually. We create a flexible system design, custom-made for the needs of a particular rolling mill."
"SLM"? You may have heard of AM -- additive manufacturing -- but how about selective laser melting, SLM? Stay on top of your acronyms with this overview on how vacuum furnaces and SLM, an AM technology, can increase fatigue performance of parts.
In this Technical Tuesday, the author not only shares what this technology can do, but also the results of SLM in laboratory studies and research at the University of Parma.
"When SLM processes are conducted within a vacuum heat process, it is possible to make more detailed components which have more intricate forms. Crucially, this means that they will often perform better than would otherwise be the case when they are in use."
A US manufacturer of radio frequency (RF) and microwave components recently received a small box furnace reaching 2300°F. This furnace will be used for precision heating to anneal their parts before milling.
The small load custom box furnace was delivered by Lucifer Furnaces. It is their furnace model HL7-A12 with a 6” x 6” x 12” chamber and is insulated with a combined 5” hot face insulating firebrick and cold face mineral wool backup. This box furnace is complete with a cast hearth plate to protect the floor insulation and heats with easy-to-replace coiled heating elements in cast assemblies for easy replacement, while still being built at the same quality as larger models.
Controls include a Honeywell digital time proportioning temperature controller and a TP1 Soak Timer which starts when the furnace reaches setpoint temperature and shuts off the elements at the end of the heating cycle. A door safety switch automatically disengages power to the elements when the door is opened. This furnace is part of Lucifer’s standard, general purpose, series 7000 box furnace line, a line which helps bring clients’ heat treating in-house and gain control over work flow and product quality.
A U.S. independent chemical distributor and manufacturer of surface treatment chemistry announced that it has acquired the assets of Arbortech, an Illinois-based manufacturer of patented membrane equipment. With the acquisition, the manufacturer becomes the first chemical company to offer specialty cleaning formulations designed specifically for the patented membrane separation technology.
This refers to Hubbard-Hall's Aquaease Infinity® platform, a complete cleaning and reclaim system, designed to save manufacturers up to 35% on chemistry while also reducing process defects.
The acquisition solidifies a longstanding relationship between the two companies. Aquaease Infinity® was the first line of degreasers and cleaners co-developed for use with Arbortech’s unique membrane technology. Unlike standard industrial cleaners/degreasers, the Aquaease Infinity® cleaning compounds fully pass-through Arbortech’s membranes, leaving soils and oils trapped. This guarantees the reclaimed cleaner is "as new" and remains a full-strength product. Customers report retaining 98% of their cleaning baths and reducing waste and total cleaning costs by 35% or more.
This development in cleaning technology gives customers more control over their cleaning processes, extends the life of the cleaning bath and reduces downtime and waste. The system is offered as a lease to reduce upfront capital costs.
"Hubbard-Hall is on a mission to help customers get better results with less chemistry, process complexity and, ultimately, lower costs,” noted Molly Kellogg, CEO of Hubbard-Hall. "By adding the Arbortech team and technology to the Hubbard-Hall product offering, we plan to aggressively expand the Infinity platform to industrial manufacturers seeking to improve quality while reducing cost and environmental impact."
Ray Graffia, Jr. Founder and President Arbortech
"It’s nice to be part of the Hubbard-Hall family," added Ray Graffia, Jr., founder and president of Arbortech. "This is a like-minded company that shares our value for sustainability and can expand the use of membrane technology into new areas. It just makes tremendous sense."
Bill Egerstaffer will join the Hubbard-Hall staff as equipment engineer. With 25 years of experience at Arbortech, Egerstaffer is responsible for the fabrication, installation, maintenance and design of the membrane units as well as programming the controllers. He will report to Mike Frechette, Business Development Manager.
The acquisition brings together more than 200 years of combined experience and a shared vision to create sustainable business.
An optical laboratory in northeastern USA will receive a second floor-standing box furnace for heat-treating ceramics and optics used in the medical field.
The L&L Special Furnace Company model XLE 3636 has an effective work zone of 34” wide by 30” high by 32” deep. It features a double pivot horizontal door. The ceramic hearth is supported on lightweight castable piers. A series of heat shields are included to ensure a safe case temperature while at operating temperatures. The furnace is designed for use with inert blanketing gas for atmosphere control to minimize oxidization. A manual flow panel with regulator and flow meter is included.
A Eurotherm program control and high limit safety are standard. The furnace has a stack light mounted to the top of the control panel for an audible and visual indication of current furnace status. Solid-state relays drive the furnace, which is NFPA86 compliant. Startup and training packages are also included to help the customer set up the furnace and process.
Neota Product Solutions, a custom metal injection molding (MIM) manufacturer located in Loveland, Colorado, has recently partnered with a North American heat treat supplier to develop an exclusive sintering partnership.
Jason Osborne President Neota Product Solutions Source: LinkedIn
Neota provides comprehensive MIM solutions from early-stage prototyping to full scale manufacturing. The manufacturer and Solar Atmospheres of Western PA (SAWPA) developed a sintering thermal profile that densifies complex geometric shapes and also controls shrinkage. This results in a solid and strong metallic part, with near 100% density, while maintaining the tight tolerances that are required in their precision components.
Collaborating with Solar Manufacturing, the vacuum furnace production arm of the Solar family, SAWPA recently acquired a vacuum furnace which is engineered to handle MIM processing. The furnace has a work zone of 36” x 36” x 48” and a load capacity of 3,000 pounds.
Robert (Bob) Hill, FASM President Solar Atmospheres of Western PA
"Solar has been a class-act organization and has been instrumental in the aggressive growth of our company," stated Jason Osborne, president of Neota.
"We have sincerely enjoyed our relationship with the Neota team," added Bob Hill, president of Solar Atmospheres of Western PA stated. "As MIM industry experts, they know what they ultimately want in a finished part. As vacuum thermal processing specialists, we know how to achieve their high temperature processing parameters while not damaging our state-of-the-art vacuum equipment. Investing in our customer’s needs, ultimately results in lasting mutual relationships which become a successful endeavor for both parties."
Alternatives to internal combustion engines have long dominated conversations in the automotive world. Discover why induction heating is playing a vital role in the production of the electric vehicle in this Technical Tuesday original content article written by Michael Zaharof, regional sales and marketing manager at Inductoheat.
This article first appeared inHeat TreatToday's May 2021 Induction print edition. Find the digital upload and other past editions here.
Michael Zaharof Regional Sales and Marketing Manager Inductoheat
The electric vehicle (EV) sector of the automotive market is gaining momentum. Government mandates, fuel economy standards, and increasing consumer interest are all driving the push to EV. Some platforms are further along in the process, while others are just starting to enter the space. Many new ideas and vehicle configurations are being developed to deliver the best alternative to the internal combustion engine (ICE).
This industry is learning about the best way to configure drive mechanisms and control acceleration, be it a centralized power source operating a driveline or multiple motors powering different areas of the vehicle. Heat treating the necessary components properly to impart enough strength for the much higher torque delivery is more critical than ever compared to the traditional performance characteristics of those equipped on a standard ICE platform. Induction heating plays a critical role in the EV market as it permits several unique benefits over other thermal processing methods. Whether it is heat treating, shrink fitting, curing, or surface hardening, induction heating is one technology that has already proven itself to be beneficial for the manufacturing of electric vehicles.
Deeper Case Depth
Because of the almost instant torque delivery and fast acceleration characteristics of electric motors, EV driveline components must be more robust to handle the added torsional stresses. Combined with the need for wear resistance and fatigue life, these components must be heat treated to deliver these critical properties.
Induction heat treating of an automotive pinion
The powertrain components generally made with carbon steels (such as bearings, raceways, constant velocity joints, pinions, shafts, hubs, and gears), must be sufficiently hardened to provide enough strength, while remaining ductile enough to prevent premature failure. Induction hardening is ideal in many cases since it can deliver deeper hardened case depths, if desired, compared to other methods like conventional gas carburizing and nitriding. These alternative heat treatment methods must rely on diffusion mechanisms associated with a sustained and prolonged environment.
Alternatively, induction utilizes subsurface heating through electromagnetic current applied to a specified and customizable area achieving the desired casehardened depths. Because heat can be applied quickly to the specific area, electromagnetic induction produces much less metallurgical distortion compared to thermochemical methods that rely on through-heating and diffusion processes at high temperatures, which in some instances eliminates or diminishes the need for post heat treatment grinding or machining.
Fast & Flexible
The speed of manufacturing is an essential factor in keeping a supply chain moving and having enough product available. Many manufacturers and automotive part suppliers have adopted just in time (JIT) manufacturing workflow methodologies to increase speed to market while controlling production and inventory costs.
Induction heating of an automotive CV inner race
Induction hardening allows for parts to be processed as needed and in a way that does not require hours of processing time in contrast to alternative thermochemical heat treating methods. Because of the constant flow of individual parts and almost instantaneous time to heat, production can be incremental and consistent while still being flexible enough to adjust rates as needed. This flexibility and lean approach to inventory management can be more difficult when batches of parts are being processed together.
Also, because material distortion after induction heat treatment can be much lower, as previously mentioned, post-heat-treatment manufacturing operations can be reduced or eliminated.
Single Part Flow: Repeatability & Traceability
Part process flow is an important consideration when repeatability and traceability become essential, like in automotive manufacturing. When multiple parts are being processed simultaneously, such as in a furnace operation, individual parts cannot be validated while the heat treatment is in process. The part variability in batch operations can be impacted by part spacing, location in the furnace, gas concentration, and temperature from one batch to another.
Many quality standards require tight control of the heating process and data collection during heat treatment to ensure that acceptable parts are being made. Induction heating allows precise monitoring and real-time evaluation of each stage in the heat treat process. The parameters of the process cycle – such as quench temperature, quench concentration percentage, quench pressure, quench flow, energy used, frequency, and part rotation – are just some of the points that can be analyzed by today’s sophisticated sensors and signature monitoring systems.
Signature monitoring system by Inductoheat
Some of the more advanced monitoring systems, like those offered by Inductoheat, allow the user to “teach” the induction machine what a “good part” signature looks like as all the data points of the process are plotted throughout the cycle and compared to established acceptable limits. As the process runs in production, the user can validate that all critical factors being monitored are in specification.
In the event of an issue in which one or more points are out of specification, the part will be rejected by the quality system. The cycle processing data can be instantly associated with each heattreated piece through part marking/reading or the most suitable such as radio frequency identification (RFID),u for example, for storage and later use by the manufacturer.
Environmentally Friendly
Induction heating uses electricity as its means of heat generation. Other methods such as carburizing and different batch heating processes employ gases such as ammonia and other chemicals in conjunction with fossil fuel-powered furnaces. Induction heating is considered a clean and environmentally friendly option for heattreating.
The process uses electrical energy and can quickly cycle through the desired operation and then sit idle until needed again. Most alternative systems require warm-up and cooldown time before and after production runs. In some cases, it is less expensive to keep the furnace running while continuing to burn natural resources and vent exhaust gases into the environment compared to shutting the system down in between uses.
More Efficient
Induction heating is a fast and efficient operation and can be scaled up easily to meet production requirements. Induction heating machines generally take up much less floor space than gas-powered batch furnaces. As mentioned above, they can be operated when needed without lengthy preheat or cooldown sequences.
Induction heating is associated with greater heat intensity, transferring more power directly to the workpiece in a concentrated fashion, compared to most other methods that rely on heating a surrounding environment. Induction coils can be designed to apply the required current density into an exact area of the part to be heat-treated instead of heating the entire piece.
The induction process is also more efficient as energy output can be controlled precisely to apply only the necessary power needed to obtain the desired temperature profiles at the desired production rate.
Induction heating of an automotive input shaft
Conclusion
Induction heating is a proven and environmentally friendly process that has a long history of precision and repeatability. The ability to heat parts quickly and more effectively is why many companies have opted for induction heating over other heat treat methods. Some other popular applications utilizing induction heating employed in EV production include shrink fitting, brazing, bonding, curing, battery production, stamping, forming, and varnishing of motor components.
Induction heating technologies are also dynamic, changing every day to meet new requirements and manufacturing goals. The use of multiple power levels and frequencies from a single induction inverter is one such innovation changing how some parts are being engineered and produced. Induction heating is a solution that will continue to assist the automotive manufacturing industry for years to come.
About the Author: Michael Zaharof is a regional sales and marketing manager at Inductoheat in Madison Heights, Michigan. He has been with the company since 2011 and has worked in the sales application, digital media marketing and outside sales departments. Michael has a bachelor of computer science in Information System Security. Michael currently works with customers in several states with their induction heat treating and induction forging needs.
Source: VAC AERO International Inc.
