SECO/WARWICK received an order for delivery of a very large vacuum furnace for heat treatment. The furnace will heat treat coils designated for a new thermonuclear reactor under construction in France, and it will be installed at the customer's facility in California. The entire furnace will be designed, constructed and tested at SECO/WARWICK facilities in Poland. Due to the complexity of the project, the work is scheduled for 17 months and shipment is planned for February 2014.

Apart from its extensive dimensions – 18 feet in diameter and 39 feet high when opened – the furnace is capable of heating a 125-ton coil up to 1200°F while maintaining process purity within the range of a single ppm. In order to secure such a perfect degree of purity, nearly the entire furnace will be manufactured of approximately 80 tons of stainless steel. One of the crucial factors is ensuring continuous multi-day operation of the furnace. Due to the continuous treatment, the processed coil changes its physical properties and turns into a superconductor. In order to provide continuous operation, the unit will feature redundant control systems and specially doubled heating-system solutions, both convective and gaseous.