Ipsen received two orders for vacuum furnaces at the start of 2021. A power-tool manufacturer based in the United States ordered a TurboTreater vacuum furnace to increase production capacity. It is the ninth Ipsen vacuum furnace at that facility. In addition, a medical implant manufacturer ordered a MetalMaster external-quench vacuum furnace. It will be designed with an all-metal hot zone for long high-temperature cycles. The furnace’s multi-staged pumping system is capable of providing low residual-oxygen levels for processing titanium components.

Solar Manufacturing shipped an external-quench vacuum furnace to a West Coast aerospace manufacturer. The furnace has an all-metal hot zone, load capacity up to 10,000 pounds and a maximum operating temperature of 2400°F. It also includes a 2-bar quench system optimized for argon with a 150-HP quench motor and variable-frequency drive. The AMS 2750F-compliant furnace, which has a work zone measuring 48 inches wide x 48 inches high x 72 inches deep, will be primarily used for vacuum heat treating investment castings.

The HiPace 350 and 450 turbopumps are dedicated for applications like mass spectrometry, electron microscopy, metrology tools, particle accelerators and plasma physics.

The COBRA NX 0950 A PLUS is a dry, oil-free vacuum pump that can run with pressure control or at a constant rotational speed, making it exceptionally energy-efficient.

Editor’s note: The following is an edited (for length) transcription of an interview between SECO/WARWICK’s Tom Hart and Dan Herring, The Heat Treat Doctor. It was part of the company’s E-Seminar held in September 2020.

AVS Inc. (AVS), a manufacturer of custom vacuum and pressure furnaces, announced the successful transfer of ownership from Steven Levesque to Jacob (Jake) Krashan. Since 1984, Levesque had committed his life’s work to the design, development and construction of quality vacuum and pressure furnaces. In 2005, he became CEO, president and owner. Levesque now confidently leaves Ayer, Mass.-based AVS in the capable hands of Krashan, a long-term employee who was promoted to COO in 2015. He became CEO, president and owner on Nov. 20, 2020.

Solar Atmospheres of Western Pennsylvania completed a hot-zone replacement on one of its larger horizontal car-bottom vacuum furnaces. This is the second hot-zone rebuild over 17 years of furnace operation. The furnace, which has a work zone measuring 54 inches wide x 54 inches high x 144 inches long and a load capacity of 50,000 pounds, has been in service since 2003 and is the first furnace built by our sister company, Solar Manufacturing. It has a maximum operating temperature of 2800°F (1538°C) and performs many different daily thermal cycles ranging from 500-2750°F (260-1510°C).

If you’re at all like me, you wonder which articles get the most attention on our website. Every year we publish around 45 feature articles, and at the end of the year we gather statistics to see which ones get the most page views. So, without further ado, here are the five most-viewed articles on www.industrialheating.com based on page views. This ranking applies only to articles published in 2020.

Solar Atmospheres of California (SCA) added additional large furnace capacity to its inventory of vacuum equipment. The furnace was specifically designed to process a variety of materials that require optimum performance during controlled heating, controlled cooling, vacuum processing, positive-pressure processing and differential-pressure processing. The furnace includes an 84-inch-diameter x 144-inch-long graphite and CFC hot zone. It has a maximum operating temperature of 2650°F, temperature uniformity ±10°F and a maximum load of 50,000 pounds.

Solar Manufacturing recently shipped a 10-bar gas-quenching vacuum furnace to a captive heat treater in New England. Featuring high-pressure gas quenching and vacuum carburizing, the furnace has a graphite-insulated hot zone with a work area measuring 24 inches wide x 24 inches high x 36 inches deep and a load capacity up to 2,000 pounds. The AMS 2750F-compliant furnace has a maximum operating temperature of 2400°F (1315°C) and temperature uniformity of ±10°F. The furnace is equipped with the state-of-the-art SolarVac Polaris control system with carburizing software.