SECO/WARWICK will deliver a vacuum furnace to SonFlow’s facility in Kolding, Denmark. The furnace is designed for copper brazing of large-dimension plate heat exchangers for industrial, HVAC and offshore applications. A work area of 35.5 x 35.5 x 47 inches (900 x 900 x 1,200 mm) will enable the SonFlow plant to perform in-house brazing without the need to outsource work to third parties. A graphite chamber ensures power savings, and shortened cycle times are guaranteed due to the vacuum level of 10^-3 mbar. As part of the contract, SECO/WARWICK also designed the external water-cooling system. This portion of the project will use SonFlow’s pumps and heat exchangers for fabrication.

Solar Manufacturing shipped a vacuum heat-treating furnace to NexGen Advanced Fuel Systems, an Allied Power Group Company, based in Houston, Texas. NexGen, a gas turbine component overhaul facility, ordered the furnace to help increase capacity and reduce turnaround time for its heat-treating and brazing operations. Built specifically to heat treat land-based turbine equipment, with attention to specific cooling requirements required by NexGen’s customers, the furnace includes a Solarvac Polaris control system and a graphite hot zone that can accommodate loads up to 48 inches wide x 48 inches high x 72 inches deep. It has a maximum load weight capacity of 6,000 pounds and a maximum operating temperature of 2400°F.

Vacuum thermal processing is vital for automotive and aerospace component manufacturers due to industry demands for the highest possible quality. Brazing and surface treatment are two process areas where vacuum technology is used.

Super Systems Inc. (SSI) completed a controls upgrade for Elmira Heat Treating in Elmira, N.Y. The scope of the project included a new 9220 control system for a vacuum furnace at the heat treater’s 80,000-square-foot facility. The 9220 is a vacuum furnace recipe-based controller that is the command center for control, I/O and redundant data logging for the processes performed on the equipment. The instrument was integrated into Elmira Heat Treating’s existing plant-wide SuperDATA SCADA package for plant-wide visibility, historical load tracking and recipe selection based on shop-order part numbers.

Furnacare Inc., TAV Vacuum Furnaces’ U.S. group company, received an order for a horizontal vacuum heat-treatment furnace from a U.S. automotive aftermarket company that manufactures fuel injectors, diesel injectors and pumps, and mechatronic engine controls. The furnace, which has useful dimensions of 24 inches wide x 24 inches high x 36 inches deep, provides a solution for high-vacuum heat treatment for different components. The maximum gross charge is 1,800 pounds, and the maximum operating temperature is 2200°F (1204°C).

SECO/VACUUM received an order from a global aerospace manufacturer for a gas-quench vacuum furnace. It is the company’s second order for its U.S. plant in less than one year. The furnace, which meets Class 2 requirements per AMS 2750F, will be installed in the company’s Center of Excellence and will be used to heat treat 3D-printed parts. The Vector 2-bar quenching unit is equipped with a high-vacuum diffusion pump and convection heating for improved performance at low temperatures.

TAV Vacuum Furnaces manufactured a vertical high-vacuum furnace for one of Asia’s leading aerospace companies. The bottom-loading furnace offers an advanced solution for heat-treatment and brazing processes and can process aerospace materials such as titanium alloys and superalloys. It has useful dimensions of 1,500 mm diameter x 2,600 mm high (59 x 102 inches) with a maximum gross charge of 5,510 pounds (2,500 kg) and a maximum operating temperature of 2192°F (1200°C).

Solar Atmospheres of Western PA recently took occupancy of a new 15,000-square-foot connector building that joins the 80,000-square-foot workspace, which houses some of the largest vacuum furnaces in the world, to the 10,000-square-foot Nadcap laboratory, testing building and vacuum oil quenching building. The primary purpose of the new building is to create a clear and defined flow of work using a pull-push system rather than having incoming and outgoing jobs combined in front of heat-treating equipment. All incoming jobs will now be “pulled” from this building, and completed jobs will be “pushed” back to a designated outbound area. The new space will serve as a conduit for transfer of materials from production to final testing.

Solar Atmospheres named Frank Trujillo director of sales at Solar Atmospheres of California (SCA). With more than 30 years of experience in the metals industry, Trujillo has established career-building relationships through clear and honest communication, responsiveness and consistent reliability. He brings a wealth of knowledge from the aerospace (military and commercial), medical and power-generation industries. 

Ipsen was awarded an order from SITES Medical for two 2-bar vacuum furnaces. The furnaces will be used for orthopedic implant processing, such as stress relieving Ti and CoCr components, as well as diffusion bonding of Ti and CoCr implants. Each TurboTreater has a work zone size of 24 inches wide x 24 inches high x 36 inches deep with an all-metal hot zone. SITES Medical is an orthopedic technology development company that invents and de-risks new technologies and collaborates with OEMs to bring them to market. The furnaces will help the Columbia City, Ind.-based company accommodate increased volume resulting from growth in business.