hardening heat treat

Heat Treater To Receive 2 Furnaces

François Studer SA, a Swiss commercial heat treater with 45 years of experience, will advance their hardening capabilities with the order of two furnaces: a vacuum furnace with 15 bar abs high-pressure gas hardening and a furnace for tempering with vacuum purging.

The new solutions from SECO/WARWICK will help increase processing capacity while maintaining the processed element’s high precision and quality. This is important to the heat treater, a hardening plant that processes two truckloads of charges every day.

“We are constantly developing,” commented Francois Studer, CEO of Francois Studer S.A. “We needed to add the capacity to utilize vacuum carburizing, pre-nitriding for carburizing technology and low-pressure carbonitriding, and the new Vector fits these needs perfectly. The retort furnace, on the other hand, significantly increases the hardening plant’s processing capacity in terms of time-consuming tempering and nitriding processes using ZeroFlow technology.”

The vacuum furnace on order by the hardening plant enables efficient processes to be carried out at a vacuum level in both medium and high ranges. The round heating chamber allows for oversized loads. Combined with dedicated LPC, HPGQ technology and a high vacuum system, the furnace will meet the heat treater’s requirements for hardening and carburizing a wide range of various parts.

Maciej Korecki
Vice President of Business of the Vacuum Furnace Segment
SECO/WARWICK

The partial pressure system used helps to prevent evaporation and sublimation of alloying elements from the load surface during the vacuum heat treatment or vacuum brazing process. Partial pressure control is important when processing many materials to prevent the heating chamber evaporation and contamination. Isothermal quenching provides control of the cooling process by automatically managing the load temperature and the gas blower motor control using a frequency converter. The carburizing and low pressure carbonitriding (LPCN) options, which the furnace for François Studer SA is equipped with, enables precision processing to increase the steel surface hardness during the entire thermal process.

“The Vector furnace will streamline and increase the hardening process capacity and improve process efficiency. The advantage of this product is a large working space which can be adjusted to an oversized load, using the round heating chamber’s advantages. This is the so-called golden mean for many commercial heat treaters, also because it can be equipped with numerous additional options. With limited production areas, multifunctional, failure-free furnaces are worth their weight in gold for commercial heat treatment,” added Maciej Korecki, VP of the Vacuum Furnaces Team at SECO/WARWICK.

The second furnace on order is a horizontal retort furnace for gas nitriding using ZeroFlow technology and for high tempering with vacuum purging.

The press release is available in its original form here.


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Tool & Die Manufacturer Increases Heat Treat Capacity

HTD Size-PR LogoA leader in the “Tool & Dies” sector — voestalpine High Performance Metals Polska -- placed an order for a retort tempering furnace with vacuum purging. The furnace will be used for tempering tool steel after the gas quenching process.

While this is the first opportunity for the company and SECO/WARWICK to cooperate after the global-pandemic-caused crisis, the contract is the result of long-term cooperation between the supplier and voestalpine High Performance Metals Polska Sp. z o.o. (formerly Bohler Uddeholm Polska). A retort tempering furnace with vacuum purging will complete the production line installed in Łomianki near Warsaw. The facility is currently operating the equipment delivered previously from the supplier, including a hardening furnace and a tempering furnace. Another furnace will significantly increase the capacity of the hardening plant.

Cezary Żurada
President of the Management Board
voestalpine High Performance Metals Polska

“Voestalpine High Performance Metals Polska is a partner whom we’ve known for many years," said Maciej Korecki, VP of the Vacuum Business Segment, SECO/WARWICK Group. "We know their needs, we are able to provide advice and most importantly, customize the equipment to their specific needs. Our relationship is not just superficial — we learn from each other, and thus we know the challenges they face in their day-to-day production."

Vacuum furnaces are perfect for hardening and tempering. They are characterized by the high-quality of processed parts, much lower number of hardening deformations and the absence of batch oxidation which directly translates into significant money savings.

“Our main goal was to increase the capacity. Our machinery park has already included a SECO/WARWICK tempering furnace, which has proved itself perfectly," summarized Cezary Żurada, president of the Management Board of voestalpine High Performance Metals Polska. He continued, "It is worth noting that despite being less demanding, the tempering process usually takes more time than the hardening process. Therefore, in order to be able to make full use of the hardening furnace, for tooling steel we needed two tempering furnaces. Now we will be able to make production more dynamic and conquer new markets."

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