If combustion and its related efficiencies were not challenging for us, we and others would not dedicate so many new resources to the topic. This article will point out some of these available resources, including the pages of Industrial Heating.

Now the heat-treat world is seeing another groundbreaking technological advancement, the introduction of the next generation of integral-quench furnaces.

Many in the thermal-processing industry can recite dew-point conversion tables with closed eyes.

Atmosphere thermal processing improves the properties of fabricated metals. Operations include annealing, brazing, sintering (for powdered metals, metal injection molding and additive manufacturing) and glass or ceramic-to-metal sealing.

We have already covered “certified gas piping” and “all joints should be soldered, brazed, welded or O-ring sealed.”

Whenever a gas is introduced into a brazing furnace for a brazing operation, I’m always very concerned about the dew point of that gas because dew point represents moisture in the gas and moisture represents the presence of oxygen.

Hydrogen is one of the highest-volume gases consumed by the heat-treat industry and is used for a broad range of process applications because of its unique chemical and physical properties.

The heat treatment of powder-metal (PM) parts presents a number of unique challenges, influenced primarily by material and density considerations.

Both sintering and the heat treatment of sintered components require careful understanding and control of the furnace atmosphere because its role must change from one point in the process to another.