SECO/VACUUM, a SECO/WARWICK Group brand, sold a vacuum aluminum brazing (VAB) furnace to an international aircraft component supplier. The furnace is designed to meet tight temperature tolerances of +/-3°C and incorporates a high-vacuum system with diffusion pump. The VAB furnace is equipped with six temperature control zones and can accommodate loads with dimensions up to 36 inches wide x 28 inches high x 48 inches deep (900 x 700 x 1,200 mm). Delivery is scheduled for early 2022.

This article discusses how sintering parameters, especially the atmosphere, can be optimized on vacuum furnaces to obtain the best-possible quality from sintered stainless steel parts.

Centorr Vacuum Industries received orders for six high-vacuum furnaces for the precision processing of metals in heat treating, annealing and brazing applications. With sizes from 12 x 12 x 24 inches to over 48 x 48 x 48 inches and from 1 cubic foot to over 100 cubic feet, Centorr’s Workhorse furnaces can handle a variety of customer loads in either high vacuum or partial pressures of inert gas. The furnace design has a refractory-metal hot zone and high-vacuum pumping system for the processing of advanced materials requiring an extremely clean high-vacuum environment.

SECO/WARWICK Group delivered multiple shipments of metal heat-treatment equipment to South America. The primary customers for this equipment are Brazilian commercial heat treaters. So far this year, SECO/WARWICK has shipped equipment to three heat-treating plants in Brazil. Most recently, a vacuum furnace was delivered to Supertrat in Santa Bárbara D’Oeste. The furnace has a workspace measuring 600 x 600 x 900 mm (23.5 x 23.5 x 35.5 inches), and it will streamline and improve the capacity of the heat treater’s processes.

Mercury Marine of Fond du Lac, Wis., launched a plan to upgrade its heat-treating capabilities with a move to low-pressure carburization and high-pressure gas quenching. Partnering with ECM Technologies, the plan incorporates completely automated Nano vacuum heat-treating systems, which incorporate 20-bar nitrogen gas quenching with low-pressure carburizing (LPC). The Nano will operate several different carburizing hardening, and spheroidizing processes simultaneously. This change is a departure from Mercury’s traditional atmospheric carburization and oil quench system.

This month, we pick up or discussion where we left off in August. If you missed that part of the discussion, check it out in the August issue (View Part 1).

Aerojet Rocketdyne finished a major expansion of its Los Angeles facility to support production of new-generation RS-25 main engines for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), which will send astronauts to the Moon as early as 2024. The $59 million expansion includes renovations to existing buildings, the addition of additive-manufacturing (3D-printing) capabilities and new testing and storage facilities. New equipment includes a horizontal vacuum furnace for brazing exotic engine materials, four selective laser melting machines for additive manufacturing and nondestructive inspection equipment.

Italy’s TAV Vacuum Furnaces received an order for a horizontal debinding and sintering vacuum furnace from a company focused on the design, development and production of braking systems. The furnace has useful dimensions of 31.5 inches wide x 31.5 inches high x 47.25 inches long (800 x 800 x 1,200 mm) with a maximum gross charge of 1,543 pounds (700 kg) and maximum operating temperature of 1022°F (550°C). It is equipped with a pumping unit, an AISI 310 retort for cycles up to 550°C and a forced-gas-circulation system. After pressing, the parts are placed inside the debinding furnace, where the binder is removed, pumped and trapped. Then the temperature is raised to carry out the sintering process. After a residence time at the maximum temperature, the heating is switched off and the retort is cooled.

In our final IH Rx Podcast, Dan Herring and I covered some readers’ questions about carburizing. We transcribed and edited that podcast into a two-part article, which is seen here and will continue in the September issue.

Centorr Vacuum Industries, to satisfy multiple orders, is currently building two furnaces designed for the metal 3D-printing and metal injection molding (MIM) industries. Sintervac AM is designed for debinding and sintering. It is outfitted with a graphite hot zone and operates in vacuum, partial pressure or positive pressure of forming gas. It also has a dual trapping system to handle the process off-gassing from binder-jet 3D-manufactured parts. MIM-Vac, which has multi-zone temperature control for improved processing uniformity, has the ability to handle virtually any metal feedstock.