Michelin, a European tire manufacturer with technology centers in the U.S., will receive a new vacuum furnace from a global supplier with locations in North America. Tire manufacturing requires specialized tools; tools and dies used in production are heat treated in vacuum furnaces. The furnace, with a 16" x 16" x 24" heating chamber, will be used for gas hardening and will remove the need for third-party hardening.
Maciej Korecki Vice President of Business of the Vacuum Furnace Segment SECO/WARWICK
Michelin will receive a SECO/WARWICK Vector® vacuum furnace, enabling efficient hardening processes with the use of high pressure and cooling gas. “With a relatively low expenditure," explains Maciej Korecki, vice president of Business, Vacuum Furnace Segment at SECO/WARWICK, "the compact Vector vacuum furnace makes it possible to become independent from third parties. It also provides better control over the quality of heat-treated components and reduces the risk of delays which, as a result of lack of deliveries, slow down or obstruct manufacturing processes (tire manufacturing in this case)."
Peter Zawistowski Managing Director SECO/VACUUM TECHNOLOGIES, USA Source: secowarwick.com
An international extrusion die maker with in-house heat treating is set to modernize its gas-fired combustion technology with eleven furnaces at three U.S., Canada, and Mexico locations. The upgrade: new vacuum, nitriding, and tempering furnaces that will increase consistency and precision nitriding potential and reduce gas emissions.
SECO/VACUUMwill deliver four Vector®single-chamber gas quench vacuum furnaces, six tempering furnaces, and one ZeroFlow® pit-type gas nitriding furnace for use in the aluminum extrusion industry.
"This is a big deal for the customer," said Peter Zawistowski, managing director of SECO/VACUUM. "They’ll benefit from a complete modernization of their heat treatment capabilities across all of North America with clean, efficient vacuum heat treatment technologies. It’s a bigger deal for vacuum heat treating as a whole. It proves we’ve made great strides in the industry to convert legacy atmosphere users into vacuum technology believers."
An international aerospace manufacturer orders two furnaces for its factories in the USA and Singapore. While both are single-chamber vacuum furnaces, they will serve different functions. One will be used for the heat treatment of exotic electrical steels, and the second will be used for annealing parts produced by 3D printing technology.
The furnace purchased for the heat treatment of exotic electrical steels has diffusion vacuum levels and a horizontal chamber. The chamber has the workload size of 24” x 24” x 36” and a 1300 lb. hearth capacity. Additionally, each furnace has a single-chamber, high pressure gas quench heat treat system adaptable to a wide variety of thermal processing applications including annealing, brazing, hardening, LPC and LPN, normalizing, solution heat treating, sintering and tempering.
Two SECO?WARWICK Vector Furnaces (photo source: SECO/WARWICK)
Each of the furnaces were bought from SECO/WARWICK Vector furnaces lines. This is the manufacturer's first purchase for a US installation from this supplier. The Vector furnaces lines are used in multiple applications within the aerospace sector, including heat treating turbine blades and landing gear, as well as in the aerospace aftermarket to maintain fleets of aircraft.
Maciej Korecki, Vice President of Vacuum Business Segment, SECO/WARWICK (photo source: SECO/WARWICK.com)
“SECO/WARWICK Group," commented Maciej Korecki, Vice President of Vacuum Business Segment at SECO/WARWICK, "has delivered hundreds of Vector heat treat systems worldwide, many of which are in steady use supporting the aircraft industry. We offer Vector with either a horizontal or vertical chamber depending on part configuration and the process needs of the customer, and we support each customer all over the world with a dedicated team of aftermarket professionals to keep them running at peak efficiency.”
Vector 3D builds upon the single-chamber vacuum furnace technology to combine the advantages of gas quenching capabilities with the growing requirements of the additive manufacturing market. The result allows customers to perform processes such as sintering, debinding, stress-relieving, aging or solution heat treatment, which are essential for the metal 3D printing sector. It has numerous applications in such industries as aerospace, automotive, medical and energy.
Michelin, a European tire manufacturer with technology centers in the U.S., will receive a new vacuum furnace from a global supplier with locations in North America. Tire manufacturing requires specialized tools; tools and dies used in production are heat treated in vacuum furnaces. The furnace, with a 16" x 16" x 24" heating chamber, will be used for gas hardening and will remove the need for third-party hardening.
