Between May and December 2023, Nutec Bickley will manufacture and install five completely new furnaces for a U.S. manufacturer of high-quality alloy-steel and carbon-steel closed-die forgings. On-site work will be completed by Nutec Bickley one furnace at a time so that no more than one furnace will be out of operation in any given month to help the forging company keep its production schedules on track. The contract involves five lift-up furnaces: two for tempering and three for austenitizing. Each furnace will be fitted with a comprehensively modernized combustion system, control systems, complete fiber flues, and an exhaust and pressure control system. Operational temperature ranges will be 900-1950°F (480-1065°C) for the austenitizing furnaces and 840-1600°F (450-1065°C) for the tempering furnaces.

Delta H manufactured and supplied twin convection furnace systems to Winston Heat Treating of Dayton, Ohio. The SCAHT-HD series furnaces replaced older tempering systems that were extremely difficult to qualify to Class 5 (+/-25°F). The furnaces had to be heavy duty for rugged daily use in a commercial heat-treating facility. Another challenging design aspect was the ability to heat rapidly but cool just as fast without damage to interior metal. A load heat treated at 1000°F (538°C) could be quickly followed by the next at 300°F (149°C). The result is that the Delta H furnaces can heat and cool in a fraction of the time of the previous systems.  

Nutec Group announced effective Feb. 1, 2023, Genaro F. Cueva will step down from the position of CEO, remaining in his position as Chairman of the Board. He will be replaced as CEO by Daniel Llaguno, currently president, Nutec Fibers Division. This transition had been announced internally back in September 2022.

A flow-meter upgrade will better support the natural gas flow heating of your processes.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2023, the assets of L&L Special Furnace Co. Inc. of Aston, Pa., will be acquired by Specialized Thermal Solutions Inc. However, the company will maintain operations under the name L&L Special Furnace, with David Cunningham serving as both owner and president.

Hirschvogel Group, a manufacturer of steel and aluminum components, commissioned a new heat-treatment plant with electric heating at its main plant in Denklingen, Germany. This fully automatic chamber furnace line is key to Hirschvogel’s decarbonization strategy because the heating is CO₂-neutral. Designed and supplied by Aichelin, the double continuous chamber furnace line ensures high output with maximum flexibility. It includes pre- and post-cleaning systems, a preheating furnace, two high-temperature furnaces, two tempering furnaces and two endothermic gas generators.

SECO/WARWICK received an order for furnace upgrades from the Philadelphia Mint, the nation’s first mint. SECO/WARWICK Group’s American subsidiary in Meadville, Pa., recently began the current round of upgrades – a comprehensive refurbishment of all five of the mint’s heat-treating furnaces, one furnace per year. SECO/WARWICK installed the heat-treating furnaces from 1994 through 2000. Their function in the minting process is to anneal, clean and dry the coin blanks to soften the metal prior to striking into coins, extending the service life of the striking dies. All five furnaces are 4,000-pound/hour rotary-retort furnaces outfitted with SECO/WARWICK’s patented Whirl-A-Way Quench system, as well as a hopper feeder, a batch burnish barrel and a batch/continuous drum drier.

Following an extensive, nearly yearlong full facility remodel, industrial furnace manufacturer AFC-Holcroft held a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony at its world headquarters in Wixom, Mich. A dedicated testing and development area specific for process control equipment was created, allowing a virtual environment where furnace process-control functions can be developed, simulated and tested prior to being deployed in the field. A main focus of the renovation, however, was to make the building more environmentally friendly, specifically with regard to heating and cooling. The walls of the entire production area were replaced with insulated wall panels, and numerous windows were added to provide more natural light. The roof system was renewed and insulated, and the overhead warehouse doors were modernized to contribute to the new high-efficiency ventilation/heating systems. These measures improve energy efficiency by around 35%.

Lindberg/MPH built and shipped a gas-fired cyclone box furnace to a manufacturer. The heat-treat furnace has a maximum temperature rating of 1250°F and a load capacity of 6,000 pounds. It is designed for air atmosphere applications and utilizes a high-velocity forced heating system. A circulation fan provides optimum heat distribution by delivering heat evenly throughout the work chamber through high static pressure airflow. The furnace is designed to accept fixtures that are 48 inches wide x 84 inches deep x 48 inches high, and a full-width roller hearth is located across the furnace chamber floor for manual loading and load support.

Taking these four preventive measures brings uniformity and reliability to heat-treat processes.