Solar Manufacturing announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) officially issued a patent for the new 20-bar super-quench vacuum furnace as Patent number 9,187,799. The official patent is available to the public at USPTO.gov.

Solar Manufacturing’s first 20-bar high-pressure-quench vacuum heat-treating furnace is located at Solar Atmospheres of Western PA. The furnace has a 36-inch x 36-inch x 48-inch work zone with a 5,000-pound load capacity, and the cooling rates are reported to be significantly better than any other high-pressure gas-quench furnace currently in production.

One major advantage of the new design is the use of movable radiation baffle doors that prevent heat loss during heat cycles and open wide to avoid pressure drops during cooling cycles. The application of the open doors in combination with the use of a plenum fan arrangement, generous annular space for uniform gas flow and a low static pressure loss nozzle design provide inert gas-quenching capabilities typically achieved only with oil quenching by concentrating the available system horsepower on the task of producing a high nozzle exit velocity.