Nitrex Vacuum Furnaces shipped a large vertical vacuum furnace to an engine MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) company in South America. The company repairs jet engines, components and integrated systems for commercial and military aircraft. The vacuum furnace was ordered to expand production capacity, modernize the company’s plant, and meet quality standards and accreditations. The furnace was ordered from Nitrex’s GM Enterprises division, which was acquired by Nitrex in 2020 and now operates under the Nitrex Vacuum Furnaces name. It is designed for vertical bottom-loading applications and is suited for processing high-stacked loads and larger and taller workpieces, such as aircraft engine components. The company will use the furnace for annealing and stress relieving.

L&L Special Furnace Co. received orders for a floor-standing box furnace for heat treating saw blades and for a large floor-standing, fiber-lined furnace that will be used to stress relieve and temper large steel castings. The box furnace has an effective work zone of 34 inches wide x 34 inches high x 44 inches deep and includes an electric vertical door, an alloy hearth and a complete control system. The furnace's primary function is to heat treat a range of tool steels that are used for saw blades. The floor-standing furnace has an effective work zone of 36 inches wide x 36 inches high x 72 inches deep. It includes a pneumatic vertical door, 24-inch-high convection alloy fan, a complete control system, castable piers and a cast-alloy load platform for forklift loading.

Tenova has been contracted through its subsidiary Tenova Inc. for the turnkey supply of a roller-hearth STC (short time cycle) furnace. The 26-metric-ton batch furnace will be shipped to Grand Blanc Processing’s wire processing facility in Holly, Mich., where it will be used to spheroidize anneal and stress relieve the company’s wire products. It will include Daido Steel’s advanced nitrogen control technology, which will reduce nitrogen consumption by up to 30% per cycle and reduce fuel consumption by 2% per cycle. Tenova will also design and supply three product-cooling tables and the complete control and automation package. Furnace start-up is expected to take place by the end of 2022.

As every heat treater – captive or commercial – knows, distortion will occur. The heat treater must recognize the many reasons why distortion occurs. This applies to both ferrous and nonferrous materials.

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.

Solar Manufacturing recently shipped five Mentor vacuum furnaces to a company in the southeast United States that provides products to industries including aerospace and medical. The furnaces include a graphite-insulated hot zone, a load weight capacity of up to 250 pounds and a maximum operating temperature of 2400°F (1315°C). They will be used primarily to sinter and stress relieve stainless steel components.

Wisconsin Oven shipped a continuous-duty conveyor oven to a U.S. manufacturer that will use it for stress relieving steel snap rings used in automotive parts. The natural-gas-fired oven has a maximum operating temperature of 650°F and a work zone measuring 2 feet, 2 inches wide x 10 feet long x 1 foot high. When preheated, the oven has sufficient capability to heat 350 pounds of steel parts per hour from 70°F to 550°F. Heated air will be delivered in a horizontal airflow configuration through a fully adjustable boxed duct located along the length and across the height of the work chamber.

Gasbarre Thermal Processing Systems built and commissioned a high-temperature car-bottom furnace for a manufacturer of excavating equipment based in the southern U.S. The furnace has a work zone of 84 inches wide x 144 inches long x 48 inches high with a 16,000-pound load capacity and an operating temperature range of 1000-2282°F (538-1250°C). It will be used for stress relieving, normalizing and other high-temperature processes. The furnace, which replaced an existing furnace, gives the manufacturer improved operating efficiency and higher-temperature processing capabilities.

SECO/VACUUM (SVT), a SECO/WARWICK company, sold a vacuum tempering furnace to a global manufacturer of cutting tools. The furnace, which will be used for tempering and stress relieving metal parts, is part of the company’s expansion and complements another vacuum tempering furnace commissioned earlier in 2019 at the facility. The horizontal, front-loading furnace has an all-metal hot zone for clean vacuum processing. It includes a convection fan and a pressurized gas quench for quick cooling.

Wisconsin Oven Corp. shipped five electrically heated, standard draw batch (SDB) ovens to East Carolina Metal Treating in Raleigh, N.C. The ovens, which have a maximum operating temperature of 1250°F, will be used for stress relieving. The basket dimensions of each oven are 2 feet wide x 3 feet long x 2 feet high. Guaranteed temperature uniformity of ±10°F at setpoints 300°F, 750°F and 1250°F was documented with a nine-point temperature uniformity survey in empty oven chambers under static operating conditions.