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 today’s Heat Treat Fringe Fridaybest of the web article that investigate the success of 3D printing an engine part for John Deere.
In collaboration with GKN Sinter Metals, the project team was able to develop, qualify and introduce the Thermal Diverting Valve 3.0. – a stainless steel component in the fuel system. This is the company’s first 3D printed metal part in production. Using this production method, results are showing significant cost savings and less materials usage. R&D phase worked to develop a part that would outperform, in cold weather, the current valve. Testing in the lab and in the field have gone well; other projects could benefit including printing of replacement parts.
Thermal Diverter Valve 3.0 prototypes Source: John Deere UK IE/YouTube
An excerpt: "The new thermal diverter valve on the latest versions of John Deere 6R and 6M tractors isn’t just an innovative application of increasingly accessible metal 3D printing technology, it’s the culmination of about two years of R&D."
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 today’s Heat Treat Fringe Friday press release: a look at the future of heat treating and 3D printing in aerospace engines and energy turbines.
Find out more about the possibilities of bringing additive manufacturing and heat treating turbine and engine components; and read on to see what's happening at MIT.
A new MIT-developed heat treatment transforms the microscopic structure of 3D-printed metals, making the materials stronger and more resilient in extreme thermal environments. The technique could make it possible to 3D print high-performance blades and vanes for power-generating gas turbines and jet engines, which would enable new designs with improved fuel consumption and energy efficiency.
There is growing interest in manufacturing turbine blades through 3D-printing, but efforts to 3D-print turbine blades have yet to clear a big hurdle: creep. While researchers have explored printing turbine blades, they have found that the printing process produces fine grains on the order of tens to hundreds of microns in size — a microstructure that is especially vulnerable to creep.
Zachary Cordero
Boeing Career Development Professor in Aeronautics and Astronautics
MIT
Zachary Cordero and his colleagues found a way to improve the structure of 3D-printed alloys by adding an additional heat-treating step, which transforms the as-printed material’s fine grains into much larger “columnar” grains. The team’s new method is a form of directional recrystallization — a heat treatment that passes a material through a hot zone at a precisely controlled speed to meld a material’s many microscopic grains into larger, sturdier, and more uniform crystals.
“In the near future, we envision gas turbine manufacturers will print their blades and vanes at large-scale additive manufacturing plants, then post-process them using our heat treatment,” Cordero says. “3D-printing will enable new cooling architectures that can improve the thermal efficiency of a turbine, so that it produces the same amount of power while burning less fuel and ultimately emits less carbon dioxide.”
Materials Science student
Oxford University
MIT
“We’ve completely transformed the structure,” says lead author Dominic Peachey. “We show we can increase the grain size by orders of magnitude, to massive columnar grains, which theoretically should lead to dramatic improvements in creep properties.”
Cordero plans to test the heat treatment on 3D-printed geometries that more closely resemble turbine blades. The team is also exploring ways to speed up the draw rate, as well as test a heat-treated structure’s resistance to creep. Then, they envision that the heat treatment could enable the practical application of 3D-printing to produce industrial-grade turbine blades, with more complex shapes and patterns.
“New blade and vane geometries will enable more energy-efficient land-based gas turbines, as well as, eventually, aeroengines,” Cordero notes. “This could from a baseline perspective lead to lower carbon dioxide emissions, just through improved efficiency of these devices.”
Cordero’s co-authors on the study are lead author Dominic Peachey, Christopher Carter, and Andres Garcia-Jimenez at MIT, Anugrahaprada Mukundan and Marie-Agathe Charpagne of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Donovan Leonard of Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
This research was supported, in part, by the U.S. Office of Naval Research.
Watch this video from Thomas to see a visual of some of the heat treating advances.
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AddUp, a provider in the field of metal additive manufacturing (AM), and a creator of thermal solutions have signed a partnership to develop high value-added solutions for the thermal treatment of 3D printed metal parts.
The AM solution provider's expertise lies in two technologies: first, powder bed fusion (PBF), useful for the manufacture of metal parts with complex geometries and improved performance, and second, directed energy deposition (DED), which is ideal for the repair of parts and adding function. They manufacture 3D printing machines and produce AM industrial metal parts.
The ECM Groupprovides vacuum furnace expertise to the heat treat production needs of sectors such as: medical, aeronautics, e-mobility, and renewable energies. With experience in the control of atmospheres, gases, and thermal applications, the ECM Group is will play a critical role in the partnership to help AddUp meet the requirements of the aforementioned four sectors.
"At ECM, we are convinced of the potential of metal additive manufacturing, some applications of which will lead to mass production," says Yvan Trouillot, sales director for ECM. "Together, our ambition is to develop these technologies to help our customers progress by offering them the best solutions on the market."
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Two atmosphere controlled retort box furnaces will be used for de-bindering ceramic matrix composite parts (CMC) as well as powder metals processing (PM) and hot isostatic pressing (HIP).
The main function of this L&L Special Furnace Co., Inc. furnace is to remove all organics and other materials used in the product prior to placing in a high fire vacuum chamber in a process called de-bindering: Parts are heated to 1220°F in a retort chamber that is pressurized with nitrogen. The by-products of the outgassing part are directed by pressure and flow out the rear of the furnace. The parts are then heated in a vacuum furnace to temperatures in excess of 2300°F. The result is a component that is stronger and lighter than titanium.
Aerospace and military have always been the key areas that CMC and additive technologies are applied. The CMC development is a key part of the subsonic ordnance project along with multitudes of other military applications. This technology allows for lighter and more durable aircraft, munitions, and body armor versus using some alloy and ceramic substitutes. Automotive has also always had a strong presence in the additive manufacturing industry as well.
It is new application areas were CMC technology is starting to shine. CMC technology is beginning to establish a presence in agricultural applications such as water desalinization, power and battery technology in providing lighter fuel cells. This technology will be applied to battery operated transportation vehicles, not only improving transportation capabilities but also lowering greenhouse emissions.
Are you ready for summer? Heat TreatToday’sIndustry Calendar features the key events of the season to make sure you do not miss an important meeting or tradeshow. Check out three June 2022 events in today’s original content piece below!
If you have an event to add — or want to give us a heads up on an event that you and others are going to attend — feel free to reach out to the editors at editor@heattreattoday.com.
Heat TreatToday’sIndustry Calendar is located under “Resources” on www.heattreattoday.com, and if you want to find out how to navigate this feature yourself, check out this article here!
Production Brazing Seminar
June 7 - June 9
"This program, which runs from 8AM to 5PM each day for three days (Tues-Thurs) at The Simsbury Inn (Simsbury, CT) provides detailed information about all aspects of brazing of a wide range of metals and joining of ceramics. All brazing processes and filler metals are covered in this program. This course, taught by Dan Kay, who has over 50-years of hands-on brazing experience in operating and[. . .]"
Additive Manufacturing with Powder Metallurgy (AMPM) 2022
June 12 - June 15
"Focusing on metal additive manufacturing, AMPM2022 will feature worldwide industry experts presenting the latest technology developments in this fast-growing field."
"ceramitec is the meeting point for the international ceramics industry: Every branch, every market leader, every decision-maker, and the entire value chain is represented here. And it is this that makes ceramitec the leading international trade fair within the industry."
A Chinese company has ordered a horizontal vacuum furnace which will help in producing highly specialized cast parts used in the aerospace industry. Delivery of the furnace is scheduled for June 2022.
The Vector® horizontal vacuum furnace with a graphite chamber and a gas quenching system comes from SECO/WARWICK. This type of furnace from the international manufacturer comes with a graphite hot zone and can be used for most standard hardening, tempering, annealing, solution heat treating, brazing, and sintering.
The furnace will be installed in a facility that specializes in the production of high-temperature alloys used in the aviation, shipbuilding, and power industries, offering a wide range of products, including but not limited to, bars, wires, bands, pipes, and specialized castings.
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A retrofitted vacuum furnace will now produce more metal injected molded (MIM) components with considerably less downtime.
In 2021, a North American heat treater, Solar Atmospheres of Western PA, retrofitted a vacuum furnace for use in a new metal injection molding (MIM) and additive manufacturing (AM) binder removal technology application. The goal was to build a vacuum sintering furnace with a new innovative hot zone and pumping technology that would minimize and target the deposit of detrimental binders evaporating out of MIM and AM parts.
Robert (Bob) Hill, FASM President Solar Atmospheres of Western PA
The hot zone, after a month of repeated 2400°F sintering cycles, remains clean. The problematic binders coalesced at the targeted area within a separate heated pumping port while keeping the primary pump and booster uncontaminated. Most importantly, the client reported that their sintered parts processed in this new furnace never looked better. The MIM parts were extremely bright and met their critical density and dimensional requirements.
The heat treater anticipates considerable maintenance savings on this dedicated furnace versus processing sintering and AM work with binders in a traditional vacuum furnace. Working in a traditional furnace meant added labor and material costs coupled with the lost production time and degradation on the life of the hot zone, which cost the company more than $180,000 per year. The projected maintenance costs on this newly designed sintering furnace will be $10,000 per year.
"Knowing the effects," reported Bob Hill, president of Solar Atmospheres of Western PA, "of what MIM and certain AM processing had done to our equipment in the past, Bill Jones and the engineers at Solar Manufacturing developed an innovative solution for us. Having this newly designed vacuum furnace will be an asset for our future in MIM and AM processing."
William (Bill) Jones Owner and CEO Solar Manufacturing
Recently, a North American heat treater acquired a used VFS HL50 external quench vacuum furnace at an auction in the Philadelphia area. The main objective of this purchase was to retrofit this older furnace with a newer hot zone and pumping technology that will help minimize and target the condensation of detrimental binders evaporating out of MIM injection molded parts.
Solar Atmospheres of Western PA's maintenance team was responsible for refurbishing the furnace to its current standard. Solar Manufacturing, led by owner and CEO William Jones, designed the technology and the apparatus needed to consolidate the binders into one central location, thus minimizing the cleaning downtime the staff was experiencing. This includes a completely new hot zone, a binder pumping port, and a second vacuum pump. The collaborative effort ensured both projects came together seamlessly.
By mid-October, the high production MIM sinter job will be fully transferred from current Solar vacuum furnaces to this dedicated and refurbished vacuum furnace. After multiple sintering runs, the company will then have the data to compare the downtime of a traditional vacuum furnace versus the newly designed debind/sinter furnace. Solar looks forward to providing the MIM world with this new, critical processing information.
Massachusetts manufacturer Desktop Metal, Inc., is acquiring The ExOne Company, a North Huntingdon, Pa. company that specializes in 3D printing technology, in a deal valued at $575 million.
"We are thrilled to bring ExOne into the DM family to create the leading additive manufacturing portfolio for mass production," said Ric Fulop, founder and CEO of Desktop Metal, in a statement. "This transaction is a big step in delivering on our vision of accelerating the adoption of additive manufacturing 2.0.
"We believe our complementary platforms will better serve customers, accelerate adoption of green technologies, and drive increased shareholder value," said John Hartner, CEO of ExOne, in a statement.
Ric Fulop (bottom left), Co-Founder and CEO with the 2015 core leadership team at Desktop Metal, Inc.
The deal, which has been unanimously approved by the ExOne’s board of directors, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2021, subject to the approval of ExOne shareholders and satisfaction of customary closing conditions.
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."
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