Solar Atmospheres of Western PA successfully vacuum hardened one of the largest aluminum extrusion liners ever produced by Lake Park Tool and Machine in Youngstown, Ohio. The H13 liner measured over 100 inches OAL and weighed a total of 16,000 pounds. The liner was turned on Lake Park’s new large-capacity lathe, which has a maximum diameter of 34 inches and a maximum length of 200 inches. This H13 liner arrived at Solar Atmospheres of Western PA only one month after the large vacuum furnace was installed and started up. The 10-bar furnace, which was built by Solar Manufacturing, is equipped with a hot zone measuring 48 inches wide x 108 inches OAL.

Gasbarre Thermal Processing Systems designed and commissioned a vacuum oil-quench furnace to an international manufacturer. The batch system, which has an isolated graphite heating chamber, is capable of processing 12-inch-wide x 12-inch-high x 36-inch-long loads weighing up to 500 pounds. It is rated for operation up to 3000°F (1649°C). The modular furnace design gives the company the capability of utilizing the 2-bar gas quench in the heating chamber or transferring through internal doors to the oil-quench module.

Solar Atmospheres of California and Kittyhawk announced a strategic partnership for vacuum heat treating and hot isostatic pressing (HIP) services. Because many parts require both heat treating and HIP, the relationship allows the customer to work with two companies that have extensive experience and a strong reputation within the industry. Solar Atmospheres and Kittyhawk are both Nadcap, ISO 9001 and AS9100 certified, and both companies maintain source approvals for a full line of major aerospace primes.

Italy’s TAV Vacuum Furnaces received an order for two horizontal vacuum heat-treatment furnaces from a leading global energy company. The equipment will be used for the production and maintenance of gas turbine components used to generate power from natural gas. The furnaces have useful dimensions of 48 inches wide x 48 inches high x 72 inches deep with a maximum charge weight of 4,850 pounds and peak operating temperature of 2360°F (1293°C). The equipment’s configuration enables quick and easy loading of different volumes using a customized TAV loading truck.

Solar Manufacturing recently shipped five Mentor vacuum furnaces to a company in the southeast United States that provides products to industries including aerospace and medical. The furnaces include a graphite-insulated hot zone, a load weight capacity of up to 250 pounds and a maximum operating temperature of 2400°F (1315°C). They will be used primarily to sinter and stress relieve stainless steel components.

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.