MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT NEWS

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 »

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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An Iron Giant’s Big Plans

BOTW-50w  Source:  Global Casting Magazine

With annual sales approaching $2 billion, Waupaca Foundry is one of the largest metalcasting groups in the world. Focused on the automotive, commercial vehicle, off-highway and other industrial markets, the Wisconsin-based company produces millions of components that keep cars and trucks of all sizes on the road.

Read More:  An Iron Giant’s Big Plans

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Industry 4.0 + IIoT = Smart Industrial Ovens & Furnaces

BOTW-50w  Source:  Eurotherm by Schneider Electric

“Effective process control and automation technologies link thermal processing equipment such as ovens and furnaces with the operator and the supply-and-delivery chain — in a seamless network of information exchange.”

Read More:  Industry 4.0 + IIoT=Smart Industrial Ovens & Furnaces by Perter Sherwin

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StrikoWestofen Opens Heat-Treatment Business Unit

As of immediately, StrikoWestofen covers another step in the production chain of the light metal casting industry. From now on, heat treatment units for cast aluminium parts are another core competence of StrikoWestofen.

This is made possible by the recent takeover of the employees of BPR-Engineering GmbH from Rheda-Wiedenbrück. The 20 years of expertise of Frank Herkenräder, the founder of the company, and his team form the basis of the new StrikoWestofen business unit Heat Treatment.

The goal of this extension of our product portfolio is to meet the customers’ needs even better. The new Heat Treatment business unit pursues a holistic approach: heat treatment furnaces, quenching units and product carriers are not seen as individual components of a system but as part of a whole. This allows enormous cost savings due to the better coordination of processes, in some cases bringing distorsions down to 0% and reducing energy consumption by up to 30%.

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Heat Treatment and Wicked Problems

BOTW-50w  Source:  Linked In – Peter Sherwin

“I am wide awake on a late night flight from Kolkata to Delhi (India) so I pick up my phone to continue reading “Design to Grow – How Coca Cola learned to combine scale and agility.” I happened on the chapter discussing wicked problems – with sustainability of water use being one of Coke’s wicked problem (basically a wicked problem is one that is ill-defined, has many uncontrollable variables and has no so-called right or optimal solutions).

Having spent the week traveling around India and visiting customers with typical heat treat problems and seeing and hearing about and presenting the latest technology solutions in Heat Treat – I have come to the conclusion Heat Treatment is itself a wicked problem.”

Read More:  Peter Sherwin – Eurotherm – Linked IN

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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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