automotive heat treat

Magna Announces New Aluminum Casting Facility in the UK

/ ALUMINUM PROCESSING NEWS, AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT, AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT NEWS, FEATURED NEWS, FOUNDRY CASTING NEWS

Magna International Inc. today announced it will build a new world-class aluminum casting facility in Telford, United Kingdom, to support Jaguar Land Rover, the UK’s leading vehicle manufacturer.

The new facility is expected to be approximately 225,000 square feet and will create up to 295 jobs at full capacity. Working with the UK Trade & Investment and the Automotive Investment Organization, along with financial support from the UK Government’s Regional Growth Fund, helped to secure this project. Construction is expected to start in the autumn of 2016.

Once production begins in 2018, the facility will use Magna’s innovative high-pressure vacuum die casting process to produce a number of advanced lightweight aluminum castings– a key building block in the next generation all-aluminum and multi-material vehicle architectures.  By using these types of castings, Magna helps automakers deliver maximum strength and stiffness and minimum weight, ultimately achieving better fuel economy, safety and handling.

“We are excited to work closely with Jaguar Land Rover in the development of this project which will bring the most advanced structural casting technologies to the UK,” said John Farrell, President of Cosma International, an operating unit of Magna International.   “As lightweighting continues to be a key technology driver, we are uniquely positioned to help automakers achieve optimal weight savings throughout the vehicle architecture.”

Magna, through its Cosma International operating unit, is one of the world’s premier suppliers providing a comprehensive range of body, chassis and engineering solutions to automakers around the world.

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Industrial Batch Ovens to Automotive Supplier

/ AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT, AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT NEWS, FEATURED NEWS, HEAT TREATING EQUIPMENT, OVENS-HIGH-TEMPERATURE

Wisconsin Oven Corporation announced the shipment of two (2) direct gas fired batch ovens to a leading automotive supplier for tempering tire molds. The tempering process of the molds results in a longer mold life. This industrial oven was designed with the load capacity of 6,000 pounds and provides easy access of loading and unloading of tire molds by fork truck.

Each tempering batch oven has a maximum operating temperature rating of 800°F, work chamber dimensions of 5’0”W x 5’0”L x 8’0”H, and a 6” reinforced insulated floor. The recirculation system utilizes combination airflow which provides both horizontal and vertical upward airflow to maximize heating rates and temperature uniformity of the product. The batch oven is equipped with a 10,850 CFM @ 15 HP belt-driven blower. Supply air is delivered through fully adjustable boxed ducts and side-mounted along the length on each side of the work chambers. The heating system features an industrial air heat burner rated at 850,000 BTU per hour.

“Designing a solution for our customers that improves their production process is always a top priority. Improved work flow and ease of loading/unloading was a focus for this project to increase production efficiencies.” Tom Trueman, Senior Application Engineer, Wisconsin Oven Corporation

Unique features of these tempering batch ovens include:

  • Load capacity to 6,000 pounds
  • 575-volt electrical capacity
  • Operating temperatures to 800° F
  • 3/16” plate construction for durability
  • High volume of air flow; 10,850 CFM
  • Motorized dampers for quick cool down
  • Natural gas fired
  • Programmable controller
  • Meets all Canadian requirements – CUL, CSA TSSA
  • Field inspection provided by a trained factory technician
  • Temperature triggered door locks with safety pull cord

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Revolutionary steel treatment paves the way for radically lighter, stronger, cheaper cars

/ AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT, AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT NEWS, FEATURED NEWS, HEAT TREAT NEWS, INDUSTRIES

featured flash-bainite-automotive-hyundai-11[Best of the Web] Source: GizMag

Back in 2011, we wrote about a fascinating new way to heat-treat regular, cheap steel to endow it with an almost miraculous blend of characteristics. Radically cheaper, quicker and less energy-intensive to produce, Flash Bainite is stronger than titanium by weight, and ductile enough to be pressed into shape while cold without thinning or cracking. It’s now being tested by three of the world’s five largest car manufacturers, who are finding they can produce thinner structural car components that are between 30-50 percent lighter and cheaper than the steel they’ve been using, while maintaining the same performance is crash tests. Those are revolutionary numbers in the auto space.

Darren Quick did a good job explaining exactly how Flash Bainite is produced in our original story, but in basic terms, you take regular, off-the-shelf AISI1020 carbon steel, and instead of heat treating it for 10 minutes like costly alloyed steel, you put it through a roller-driven system that induction-heats and liquid-cools the steel in a matter of 10 seconds or so.

 

Read more about Flash Banite and its potential and growing use in the automotive industry.

Revolutionary steel treatment paves the way for radically lighter, stronger, cheaper cars Read More »

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