Aichelin Heat Treatment Systems will manufacture a pit furnace line consisting of two pit carburizing furnaces, washer, temper and quench to be installed at Flame Metals’ Rogers, Minn., facility. Each pit furnace has a work zone of 78 inches in diameter x 98 inches deep with a maximum gross loading capacity of 30,000 pounds. The furnace line will use the latest Super Systems Inc. controls, which include CarbCALC II for online carbon diffusion, redundant carbon-probe technology, probe plus IR compensation utilizing four gas technology, programmable controls for recipe management and SuperDATA for plant-wide data collection and furnace management.

This new pit furnace line will allow Flame Metals to significantly expand its capacity to carburize large components for the wind-energy market. Operations are expected to begin in spring of 2012, and Flame Metals will then be able to take advantage of the $1.35 million Advanced Energy Tax Credit it was awarded in 2010.