Solar Manufacturing recently shipped a complete rebuild of a large vacuum furnace hot zone. The customer, a manufacturer of thermal-transfer components for the automotive industry, ordered a rebuild of an aging hot zone in order to put its vacuum furnace back in service. After receiving five hot-zone ring assemblies, Solar removed the existing graphite insulation, gas-quench nozzles, plenum shields and all related hardware.

Support bushings were either replaced or repaired and the stripped hot-zone rings were cleaned and jacked back to concentricity. New insulation, element support assemblies, gas-quench nozzles and plenum shields were installed prior to shipment back to the customer. The complete rebuild had a turnaround time of one week.