G-M Enterprises, a Nitrex company, received a multimillion-dollar order from a global manufacturer of metal injection molding (MIM) products for two horizontal vacuum furnaces. These 2-bar sintering furnaces have a work area measuring 36 inches wide x 30 inches high x 84 inches long (900 x 762 x 2,100 mm), a 4,400-pound weight capacity, a maximum operating temperature of 2600°F (1430°C) and uniformity of +/- 10°F (+/- 5.5°C). A multistage debinder trap system designed to thermally extract binder from the parts is integral to the vacuum system. Sintering and debinding occur in a single cycle using a unique system design that is optimized to handle the maximum designed load capacity. Consequently, there is never a need to operate below the rated load capacity to achieve the required part quality.

Industrial Heating, during a Q&A session at FNA 2020, announced that it will support the Reshoring Initiative with a $2,500 sponsorship. The mission of the Reshoring Initiative is to bring good, well-paying manufacturing jobs back to the United States by assisting companies to more accurately assess their total cost of offshoring and to shift collective thinking from offshoring is cheaper to local reduces the total cost of ownership. As part of this new relationship, the Reshoring Initiative will provide Industrial Heating with editorial content throughout 2021.

Solar Manufacturing shipped a vacuum furnace to a company in the southeast United States that services the defense industry. It includes a graphite-insulated hot zone, a load weight capacity of up to 250 pounds and a maximum operating temperature of 2400°F. The Mentor vacuum furnace will be used to age harden precipitation-hardened stainless steels and beryllium copper. Solar Manufacturing also delivered a water system and the recipes for the heat-treat cycles the company’s materials require.

It is a well-known fact that too many recordable safety incidents will result in the good people from OSHA showing up to hang around and ask a lot of questions. Nobody wants to get hurt on the job. Everyone at the facility has some other place to be once their shift is over, and many employees have family waiting for them. With that being said, why would people continue to operate poorly maintained manufacturing equipment and material-handling machinery? 

The additive-manufacturing (AM) process as a whole involves turning 3-D CAD files on computers into finished products layer by layer –although AM specifically relates to the construction part of that process. What happens after the printing phase has concluded also matters, however, in order to ensure that products are ready for use. 

Solar Atmospheres recently installed its sixth all-metal hot-zone vacuum furnace at its facility in Souderton, Pa. This is also Solar’s fourth furnace for its climate-controlled room. The Mentor model, which was built by sister company Solar Manufacturing, has a work zone measuring 12 inches x 12 inches x 18 inches and is the first of its kind. It increases Solar’s capacity for processing sensitive materials – such as PH stainless, nickel-based superalloys, titanium and ferritic/austenitic stainless steels – yet focuses on smaller lots and one-off items.

Most vacuum furnaces currently active in the heat-treating world incorporate some form of, or combination of, graphite-felt insulation, with either a foil or board internal facing in the furnace hot-zone construction. The graphite felt used in high-temperature furnaces is either PAN-based or Rayon-based.

Busch Vacuum Solutions collaborated with the European Space Agency, Fluid Gravity Engineering Ltd. and the University of Glasgow to prepare a space mission for the Mars rover Perseverance. The craft started its mission to Mars weeks ago and will hopefully bring back rock samples for future research. Vacuum pumps from Busch are part of a system that studies the behavior of a rocket when it lands on the surface of Mars or the Moon. With the help of the vacuum pumps, the landing of a rocket is simulated, and the surface of Mars and the Moon is imitated on the basis of different pressure levels.

Rex Heat Treat, a commercial heat treater specializing in the aerospace market, became the first company to install and commission SECO/WARWICK’s new Super IQ gas carburizing furnace. The hybrid system combines a conventional furnace and a vacuum furnace in one unit. Rex Heat Treat has commissioned several vacuum furnaces over the past several years at its Lansdale, Pa., location as part of a plant modernization initiative. The new furnace will allow the heat treater to upgrade its through-hardening and carburizing capabilities alongside its legacy harden and temper furnaces while using the existing loader, baskets and washing system.

Despite uncertain market conditions presented by the coronavirus pandemic, Ipsen has been awarded five orders for vacuum furnaces between four customers, each with unique process requirements in the aerospace, defense and commercial heat-treating industries. The furnaces ordered include MetalMaster, TurboTreater and Ipsen’s signature vacuum aluminum brazing furnace. In addition to the five new orders, Ipsen shipped nine furnaces in July to companies across six states in America as well as Canada and the United Kingdom.