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IHEA has several educational opportunities available throughout the summer into the fall, including a webinar series, online course and two seminars. IHEA’s new webinar series will focus on carbon-producing heating processes and provide methods to optimize their efficiency and reduce their carbon-emission intensity. IHEA’s fall seminars will be held on October 31 and November 1 in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Wallwork Group is establishing a hot isostatic pressing (HIP) center at its site in Bury, North Manchester. Housed in a 2,500-square-meter facility, the first new HIP – designed and built by Quintus Technologies – is expected to be fully operational in September 2023. According to Wallwork, the HIP operates at pressures of 40-207 MPa (5,800-30,000 psi) and temperatures up to 2282°F (1250°C). The new unit being installed has the latest technology capable of rapid cooling and also the ability to increase cycle pressures to aid with new engineering advances, particular in additive manufacturing. Components with complex geometries can be processed to near-net shape, saving additional machining steps.

Can-Eng Furnaces International Ltd. received a contract for a roller-hearth isothermal annealing line from a producer of steel automotive forgings located in North Carolina. The system consists of a high-temperature furnace operating under exothermic atmosphere, a separate low-temperature roller-hearth furnace, automatic bin dump and loading system, integrated tray/basket return system, and Level II automation technology. Installation of the system, which will be capable of both isothermal annealing and normalizing, will begin in the second quarter of 2024.

A multinational aluminum producer finalized an order for a 100,000-pound-capacity tilt melting furnace for one of its regional aluminum extrusion plants. SECO/WARWICK USA will fabricate the aluminum reverb furnace in Pennsylvania. It is designed to reduce the charge of aluminum scrap to a molten bath that will then be tilted and poured into an adjacent tilting holding furnace, which was built and installed by SECO/WARWICK about 10 years ago, where further purification and alloying occurs prior to casting. The furnace hearth will have dimensions of 20 feet, 10 inches wide x 14 feet, 3 inches long x 34 inches deep, giving it a full capacity of 100,000 pounds of molten aluminum. The furnace will be custom-designed to fit in an existing constrained space.

Solar Atmospheres commissioned a new 25,000-square-foot brazing facility in Souderton, Pa., aimed at high-volume, high-quality braze production. The facility includes six vacuum furnaces dedicated to brazing, including an all-metal hot-zone furnace designed for brazing stainless steel to copper with silver- and gold-based braze filler metal (BFM). The production facility also boasts 4,000 square feet of climate-controlled workspace where technicians assemble and inspect parts, ranging from tiny capillary-tube manifolds to large land-based gas-turbine blades. The operation incorporates increased capacity for helium leak testing and pre-braze tack welding of braze assemblies.

PMS Alüminyum, an aluminum extrusion company in Turkey, added a Nitrex nitriding system to enhance its production capabilities and meet the increasing demand for high-quality profiles across multiple industries. The pit-type furnace, which is equipped with Nitreg controlled nitriding and Nitreg-C controlled nitrocarburizing technologies, provides PMS Alüminyum with advanced capabilities for processing H11 and H13 dies. Using these technologies and customized recipes ensures superior performance and extended lifespan of the treated dies, ultimately resulting in high-quality extrusion products.

Wisconsin Oven Corp. designed, built and shipped a gas-fired batch oven that will heat high-powered magnets used in the energy industry. The heavy-duty oven has a maximum operating temperature of 500°F and work-chamber dimensions of 17 feet wide x 21 feet long x 7 feet high. It is designed with a vertical lift door at the front that includes two windows and four lights inside the oven chamber to illuminate the interior for viewing. One personnel access door is located on the door and another access door is at the rear of the oven.

Solar Manufacturing shipped a vacuum furnace to a firearms manufacturer based in the Midwest. It will primarily be used to anneal firearm components. The vacuum furnace features a graphite-insulated hot zone measuring 36 x 36 x 48 inches with a weight capacity of 5,000 pounds and a maximum operating temperature of 2400°F (1315°C). Solar Manufacturing also assisted with installation.

Refractories manufacturer Rath converted two vacuum nitriding furnaces at its plant in Krummnussbaum, Austria, to electric operation. The furnaces are used exclusively for the production of silicon-carbide plates and bricks in a nitrogen atmosphere. After the conversion, CO₂ emissions are around 70% lower compared to the previous gas-fired furnace, and fossil fuels have been reduced to a minimum. For SiC production, according to Rath, this means a CO₂ reduction per ton of fuel of about 1.9 tons.

GIFA, Metec, Thermprocess and Newcast (Bright World of Metals 2023) drew 63,300 visitors from 114 countries in Düsseldorf, Germany. About 2,200 exhibitors from 56 countries presented the power of the metallurgical industry and displayed their equipment and solutions. Sustainability and Artificial Intelligence (AI) were much-discussed topics in the 12 exhibition halls of the four trade fairs.