Can-Eng Furnaces International Ltd. designed, shipped and commissioned a 6,000-pound/hour mesh-belt furnace to a processor of safety-critical automotive fasteners. The system includes a computerized loading system, controlled-atmosphere mesh-belt hardening furnace, oil-quench system, post-quench wash system, mesh-belt tempering furnace, soluble oil system and Can-Eng’s PET SCADA system.

ControlEdge HC900 is an advanced safety and process controller with a modular, scalable design built to accommodate demanding applications and control a wide range of process equipment cost-effectively.

Many stakeholders involved in heat treating try to find answers as to why their products are discharged 100-300°F below the furnace setpoint temperature. We shall only consider continuous annealing furnaces used in metal heating for the purposes of this article.

Hy-Vac Technologies Inc. was born from Vac-Hyd Processing, which was founded 65 years ago in 1955. In 1982, however, Vac-Hyd sold the business. The name was then changed to Hy-Vac Technologies, and the rest is history.

Companies are trying to establish the new normal for working environments –
whether that involves work-from-home employees, creating safe work spaces on the shop floor or business interactions through voice and video conferencing.

Can-Eng Furnaces International Ltd. received a contract from a Tier 1 manufacturer of forged suspension components for a system that will produce lightweight forged-aluminum parts for passenger vehicles. The system includes a pre-forging rotary-hearth aluminum heating furnace, water quench and continuous aging furnace. The equipment will be integrated into an automated forging cell that includes specialized material-handling components and advanced controls.

Andritz received an order from Allegro, a subsidiary of Evraz and RailService established to produce train wheels in Russia, for a complete production line for train wheels. The production process includes several stages. Blanks produced by Evraz are heated to 2282°F (1250°C) in a rotary-hearth furnace, then descaled and pre-formed in a hydraulic press with 10,000 tons of press force. The blanks are then rolled in a wheel-rolling machine developed by Schuler and forged into a finished product in a crimping and piercing press with 5,000 tons of press force. This is followed by a geometric test in a laser measuring system and permanent marking in a marking press. Finally, the wheels undergo heat treatment, and the running surfaces are hardened.

This is the first of several blogs that will describe some of the heat-treatment practices conducted on, handguns, rifle barrels, sniper barrels and artillery (155-mm howitzer).

Quintus Technologies delivered what it says is the world’s fastest fan-driven hot isostatic press (HIP) to Italy’s PRES-X, a start-up established to meet the post-production needs of 3D-printed metal components. The HIP’s high-pressure heat-treatment (HPHT) capability makes it possible to eliminate several operations in the AM production line. With Quintus’s proprietary uniform rapid cooling (URC) technology, a cooling rate of 1500K/minute can be achieved while minimizing thermal distortion and non-uniform grain growth, producing finished 3D-printed parts with optimal material properties.

L&L Special Furnace Co. Inc. shipped a high-temperature box furnace to a government defense organization located in the southeastern United States. The medium-sized furnace will be used for military ceramic-composite development along with research and development for other components. The furnace, which has a work zone of 24 inches wide x 18 inches high x 36 inches deep, is rated for continuous operating temperatures up to 2500°F (1371°C). It comes equipped with silicon-carbide heating elements for high-temperature operation.