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.

L&L Special Furnace Company Inc. has delivered an atmosphere-controlled retort burn-off furnace to a Midwest manufacturer of ceramic matrix composites (CMCs). The furnace, which has a work zone of 32 inches wide x 32 inches high x 66 inches deep, has a single zone of control with a temperature gradient of ±20°F at 1100°F using four zones of temperature control with biasing to balance any temperature gradients. The parts are heated to 1220°F (660°C) in a retort chamber that is pressurized with nitrogen. The byproducts of the outgassing part are directed by pressure and flow out of the rear of the furnace. The parts are then heated in a vacuum furnace to temperatures in excess of 2300°F (1260°C). The result is a super strong component that is lighter than titanium.

Temperature uniformity within a furnace can be defined as: “a uniform temperature set to operate within a specific tolerance band to create conditions under which a final uniform resulting metallurgy will be accomplished in the treated component.”

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced that Gasbarre, an industrial furnace manufacturer, will create and retain 172 total jobs in Pennsylvania as part of a planned expansion at the company’s facility in St. Marys, Elk County. The company is investing $5.8 million into the project and has leased a 150,000-square-foot facility in St. Marys, which will triple the size of its current location. Gasbarre also plans to relocate operations from their site in Plymouth, Mich., to this new facility.

International technology group Andritz received an order from Turkey’s Tatmetal for a galvanizing furnace for a new coating line that will produce hot-rolled and cold-rolled material. The line will provide hot-dip galvanized, coated flat steel for the automotive, construction, energy and mechanical engineering industries. Start-up is scheduled for the first quarter of 2024. Andritz’s scope of supply includes a direct-fired furnace (DFF), radiant-tube annealing and soaking sections, and the after-pot cooling and post-treatment sections.

SECO/WARWICK Group signed an agreement with Sweden’s GreenIron H2 AB for the delivery of a series of furnaces for fossil-free metal production from ore, residuals and waste recycling. The furnaces ordered by GreenIron will be used to recycle oxidized metals without emissions. They will directly contribute to CO₂ emission reduction. Each furnace has the capacity to reduce emissions by 56,000 metric tons/year, according to GreenIron.

Mexican steel producer TA 2000 S.A. de C.V. (TYASA) signed a contract with Primetals Technologies for a new twin-ladle furnace. The equipment will be installed at TYASA’s Ixtaczoquitlán site in the southeastern part of Mexico. TYASA started producing coils at the Ixtaczoquitlán a few years ago. This resulted in a need for additional capacity at the secondary metallurgy stage in the melt shop. Adding a new twin-ladle furnace will resolve this issue and increase performance. Installation of the 100-ton furnace will be executed with just minor impact on production. The integration of the twin-ladle furnace into the existing dedusting and water-treatment systems will be possible with no more than small modifications. Start-up is scheduled for July 2023.