SECO/WARWICK will deliver a vacuum furnace to SonFlow’s facility in Kolding, Denmark. The furnace is designed for copper brazing of large-dimension plate heat exchangers for industrial, HVAC and offshore applications. A work area of 35.5 x 35.5 x 47 inches (900 x 900 x 1,200 mm) will enable the SonFlow plant to perform in-house brazing without the need to outsource work to third parties. A graphite chamber ensures power savings, and shortened cycle times are guaranteed due to the vacuum level of 10^-3 mbar. As part of the contract, SECO/WARWICK also designed the external water-cooling system. This portion of the project will use SonFlow’s pumps and heat exchangers for fabrication.

Solar Manufacturing shipped a vacuum heat-treating furnace to NexGen Advanced Fuel Systems, an Allied Power Group Company, based in Houston, Texas. NexGen, a gas turbine component overhaul facility, ordered the furnace to help increase capacity and reduce turnaround time for its heat-treating and brazing operations. Built specifically to heat treat land-based turbine equipment, with attention to specific cooling requirements required by NexGen’s customers, the furnace includes a Solarvac Polaris control system and a graphite hot zone that can accommodate loads up to 48 inches wide x 48 inches high x 72 inches deep. It has a maximum load weight capacity of 6,000 pounds and a maximum operating temperature of 2400°F.

Vacuum thermal processing is vital for automotive and aerospace component manufacturers due to industry demands for the highest possible quality. Brazing and surface treatment are two process areas where vacuum technology is used.

GKN Driveline Bruneck AG in Italy is modernizing its hardening shop with two low-pressure carburizing (LPC) plants from ALD Vacuum Technologies GmbH. GKN will utilize the equipment to develop and produce E-powertrains. ALD delivered a ModulTherm plant consisting of a mobile quenching module and five treatment chambers, as well as fully integrated peripheral tempering and preheating furnaces. The plant can be expanded up to 10 treatment chambers depending on demand. ALD also delivered a SyncroTherm plant that will be used for parts that are especially susceptible to distortion. According to GKN, the process combination of LPC and subsequent high-pressure gas quenching (HPGQ) allows the company to optimally adjust the parts’ properties.

SMS group received an order from Corporación Aceros Arequipa SA (CAASA), based in Lima, Peru, for a 120-ton vacuum tank degasser for its Pisco site. The degasser will be integrated into the already-delivered SMS group melt shop and enable CAASA to expand production in terms of quantity and quality. The degassing process aims to reach the lowest possible level of hydrogen content in the steel, which is required for CAASA to produce high-carbon grades for grinding balls. Nitrogen removal and oxygen control are other important factors for the production of further SBQ grades.

Furnacare Inc., TAV Vacuum Furnaces’ U.S. group company, received an order for a horizontal vacuum heat-treatment furnace from a U.S. automotive aftermarket company that manufactures fuel injectors, diesel injectors and pumps, and mechatronic engine controls. The furnace, which has useful dimensions of 24 inches wide x 24 inches high x 36 inches deep, provides a solution for high-vacuum heat treatment for different components. The maximum gross charge is 1,800 pounds, and the maximum operating temperature is 2200°F (1204°C).

Hard lessons learned from the 2020 pandemic taught us that we needed to rebuild and re-establish our U.S. supply-chain ecosystem. The systemic shock to our global supply chains left us with bottlenecks, shortages and an acute awareness of our overdependence on imports.

TAV Vacuum Furnaces manufactured a vertical high-vacuum furnace for one of Asia’s leading aerospace companies. The bottom-loading furnace offers an advanced solution for heat-treatment and brazing processes and can process aerospace materials such as titanium alloys and superalloys. It has useful dimensions of 1,500 mm diameter x 2,600 mm high (59 x 102 inches) with a maximum gross charge of 5,510 pounds (2,500 kg) and a maximum operating temperature of 2192°F (1200°C).

Solar Atmospheres of Western PA recently took occupancy of a new 15,000-square-foot connector building that joins the 80,000-square-foot workspace, which houses some of the largest vacuum furnaces in the world, to the 10,000-square-foot Nadcap laboratory, testing building and vacuum oil quenching building. The primary purpose of the new building is to create a clear and defined flow of work using a pull-push system rather than having incoming and outgoing jobs combined in front of heat-treating equipment. All incoming jobs will now be “pulled” from this building, and completed jobs will be “pushed” back to a designated outbound area. The new space will serve as a conduit for transfer of materials from production to final testing.

Solar Atmospheres named Frank Trujillo director of sales at Solar Atmospheres of California (SCA). With more than 30 years of experience in the metals industry, Trujillo has established career-building relationships through clear and honest communication, responsiveness and consistent reliability. He brings a wealth of knowledge from the aerospace (military and commercial), medical and power-generation industries.