MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT

IHEA’s Fundamentals of Industrial Process Heating Online Learning Course

IHEA’s Fundamentals of Industrial Process Heating Online Learning Course is scheduled to begin on Oct. 17, 2016.   This course is ideal for students who wish to take the course at home or work in a flexible web-based distance-learning format. It’s an affordable alternative to campus-based classes and allows students to go at their own pace.  The course offers an indispensable tool to industrial process heating operators and users of all types of industrial heating equipment.  In the instructor-led, interactive online course, students learn safe, efficient operation of industrial heating equipment, how to reduce energy consumption and ways to improve your bottom-line.

This class provides an overview of the fundamentals of heat transfer, fuels and combustion, energy use, furnace design, refractories, automatic control, and atmospheres as applied to industrial process heating.  Students will gain a basic understanding of heat transfer principles, fuels and combustion equipment, electric heating, and instrumentation and control for efficient operation of furnaces and ovens in process heating.  For complete course description, visit www.ihea.org and click the Events tab to find the class.  Students will also earn PDH’s for passing the course.

This course is led by industry expert, Max Hoetzl, retired Vice President of Surface Combustion.  Max brings more than 40 years’ experience in the combustion industry to IHEA’s online course.

This is a 6-week online course beginning on Oct. 17th.  Registration fee includes course instruction, live interaction with the trainer, class forums to interact with other students, plus an electronic copy of IHEA’s Fundamentals of Process Heating Course Handbook.  Registration is open now through Oct. 14th, 2016 at www.ihea.org.  Click the Fundamentals of Industrial Heating Online Course button on the right side of the homepage.  Cost for IHEA members is $700 and non-members is $875.

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Schafer Gear Works Transfers its Fort Wayne, Ind., Commercial Aviation Shafts and Small Gear Capabilities to South Bend, Ind.

Shafer Gear Works, Aerospace Heat Treat, Automotive Heat Treat, Medical Heat Treat, Manufacturing Heat TreatTo meet Schafer Gear Works’ growing demand for high-precision commercial aviation shafts and gears, the company recently moved its Fort Wayne, Ind., operations to its larger production facility in South Bend, Ind. “Acquisition of new, state-of-the-art equipment at our South Bend plant and the ability to better leverage our gear manufacturing expertise led to the transfer,” said Paresh Shah, operations manager for the South Bend facility. The transition was seamless and the plant now produces precision-critical shafts and small-diameter gears with tolerances to 0.0004” and microfinishes to 16 RMS.

Shah said moving the small-diameter gear production 90 miles west to Schafer Gear Works South Bend will improve design and manufacturing efficiencies as well as customer support. By centralizing the facility’s small- and medium-diameter gear engineering, production and quality control expertise, the company is expanding its presence in the aerospace and automotive industries as well as with medical instruments, light and heavy industrial products, recreation vehicles, and material handling companies. Its efforts to reduce tool costs and downtime keep pricing competitive and delivery among the fastest in the gear-making industry. Because of the South Bend facility’s continuous equipment improvements and stringent quality standards, it has earned ISO 9001-2008 and AS9100 certification.

Schafer Gear Works manufactures one of the widest ranges of custom-engineered, precision-cut gears for off-highway markets. In addition to the small-diameter gears and precision components, the South Bend plant produces 1.5- to 10-inch diameter spur, internal and helical gears as well as shafts.

Schafer Gear Works Transfers its Fort Wayne, Ind., Commercial Aviation Shafts and Small Gear Capabilities to South Bend, Ind. Read More »

Distortion Engineering of Gears

BOTW-50w  Source:  Gearsolutions.com

THE CAUSES FOR DISTORTION OF GEARS are complex and the heat treatment process has been named as a main contributing factor. However, the truth is, all the manufacturing steps prior to and after heat treating also make a contribution to distortion. Nevertheless, any thermal operations carried out on gears may trigger and reveal the hidden distortion potential induced by manufacturing. An interesting approach of “distortion engineering” was established by the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) at Bremen University.

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BILSTEIN CEE a.s. Orders EBNER HICON/H2® Bell Annealer Facility

BILSTEIN CEE a.s, based in the Czech Republic, is part of the globally active BILSTEIN GROUP. The BILSTEIN GROUP produces various grades of high-quality cold rolled strip for a wide variety of applications.

Two years ago an order was placed with EBNER to supply a HICON/H2® bell annealer facility to heat treat steel strip coils, comprising four workbases.

Although this facility was commissioned successfully less than one year ago, BILSTEIN CEE a.s. awarded EBNER the contract for the expansion of this facility by a further three workbases.

The new workbases will be commissioned in 2017, increasing production by about 60%.

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Aftermarket Partnerships Help Extend Equipment Life and Efficiency

BOTW-50w  Source:  AZO Materials

Total lifecycle cost of running a piece of equipment can be significantly reduced if the right end-user/OEM cooperation can be established. This article helps captive heat- treaters think through the process of establishing a profitable partnership with their equipment’s original manufacturer.

Read More: Directing Thermal Processing Efficiency Alongside OEM Parts Replacement Strategies

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How to Keep Process Cooling Systems Running

BOTW-50w  Source:  Dry Coolers

“Just like your plant electrical system, telecommunications equipment, or data network infrastructure, a process cooling water failure can shut down a facility and may even involve safety issues. Let’s outline some of the steps you can take to minimize downtime.”

Read More:  How to Keep Process Cooling Systems Running by Brian Russell

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Vacuum Heat Treatment’s Role in Additive Manufacturing (AM) 3D Printing

BOTW-50w  Source:  Global Heat Treatment Network

“Vacuum heat treatment tasks for AM manufactured parts is the same process as  traditional subtractive manufacturing and its purpose is to assure AM parts has the correct physical and metallurgical properties for specific applications.  In some cases, when a bidder is involved, the purpose of the heat treatment process is to deciding and sinter parts. Most vacuum furnaces use up to 800°C degrees to relieve stress and a higher temperature of up to 1800°C for other processes.

Vacuum furnaces with high vacuum levels are preferred to heat treatment equipment to process AM parts. AM parts made from Titanium, Cobalt, Aluminum require vacuum levels of up to 10-6 mbar with 99.9995 Argon purity.  Argon is the preferred gas because of its neutrality and that it has no adverse reaction with the above alloy components.  Creating an Alfa surface layer on titanium parts is not desirable and should be avoided.

The small parts and small production volume influences vacuum furnaces of small to medium size. The next challenge for the heat treatment industry is to integrate heat treatment process into the AM equipment in one continuous process.”

Read More:  Amazing Vacuum Furnaces:  Vacuum Heat Treatment’s Role in Additive Manufacturing 3D Printing by Janusz Kowalewski

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Quality Counts: Gas Nitriding

BOTW-50w  Source:  Thermal Processing for Gear Solutions

In general, nitriding of parts involves a thermal process that provides a tough, corrosion-resistant, and wear-resistant surface with less distortion compared to other case hardening processes due to processing temperature and no need for quenching. There are different methods of nitriding, including gas nitriding, plasma/ion nitriding, and salt-bath nitriding. This article focuses on gas nitriding.

Read More:  Quality Counts:  Gas Nitriding by Jim Oakes

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Coupling CFD and Oil Quench Hardening Analysis of a Gear Component

BOTW-50w  Source:  Thermal Processing for Gear Solutions

“The coupling of CFD and heat treatment analyses provides a more robust application of computer modeling to predict the latent heat release, distortion, and residual stresses during the quench hardening process.”

Read More:  Coupling CFD and Oil Quench Hardening Analysis of a Gear Component by B. Lynn Ferguson, Zhichao (Charlie) Li, David Greif, Zlatko Kovacic, Simon Urbas, Rok Kopun

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Heat Treating Involved in Production of Speakers

BOTW-50w  Source:  ETMM The Website

“One look at the back of the part told me it was filled with one sub-gate (see Figure 2). In the US at the time, we were trying to pack out this type of speaker grill with 12-drop systems, which resulted in poor fill and a lot of stress in the piece. In Japan, mouldmakers were using a mould material developed to enhance venting. This was a steel manufactured with interconnecting pores so the gas could pass through the seemingly solid piece of metal. To make this steel, powder metal was combined with metal fibers for added strength, cold-pressed into master blocks measuring 215 by 300 by 650 mm, sintered and heat-treated to 35 HRC. It was available with average pore diameter of either 7 or 20 microns; porosity averaged 25 percent of the mass of the block. Other materials available at the time ranged from porous ceramics to sintered porous vent buttons.”

Read More: The Potential of Enhanced Venting Materials by Tom Schade

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