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.

A high-pressure fluid cell press from Quintus Technologies will boost efficiencies and lower production costs for Thailand’s Jinpao Precision Industry, a manufacturer of structural sheet metal and machined parts. The Flexform press will be used for forming aerospace parts for airplanes and helicopters. It has a work area measuring 27.6 x 73 inches (700 mm x 1,800 mm), which can accommodate 90% of the forming parts requested by Jinpao’s customers. Operating at a forming pressure of 1,400 bar (20,000 psi), the fluid cell press is suited to applications requiring close-tolerance parts with little or no need for secondary hand work.

A manufacturer based in China ordered a horizontal vacuum furnace from SECO/WARWICK. It will help produce highly specialized cast parts used in the aerospace industry. The furnace, which has a graphite chamber and gas quenching system, has a heating zone measuring 59 x 59 x 70 inches (1,500 x 1,500 x 1,800 mm) and can handle loads of precision cast parts up to 6,615 pounds (3,000 kg). The furnace is scheduled for delivery in June.

This article looks at ways our means of transportation – how we get from here to there – are heat treated. We start with aerospace and then consider vehicular transportation followed by manual propulsion.

SECO/WARWICK will deliver a vacuum furnace to a European manufacturer of heavy equipment. The furnace, which has workspace dimensions of 600 x 600 x 900 mm, will be used for hardening and tempering processes for steel. Its design has been customized in order to meet the demands of a dedicated thermal process used in the production of aircraft landing gear. SECO/WARWICK engineers fitted the furnace with a non-standard system for sub-quenching with liquid nitrogen, which enables the required quick cool-down of landing-gear components.

Optomec delivered a multi-functional metal additive-manufacturing (AM) machine to a supplier to the aviation engine maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) market. The machine combines two turbine repair process operations that are typically done manually, which not only reduces the cost of engine overhauls but also improves the quality and consistency of these flight-critical procedures. Optomec’s metal AM machines use a process called directed energy deposition (DED) to build 3D metal parts by depositing powdered metal into a precisely controlled pool of melted metal. Fiber-optic lasers supply the thermal power, while advanced motion-control systems produce the required geometries for the parts. This proprietary process precisely adds metal to worn engine components, restoring them to the geometric specifications set by the original manufacturers.

As part of an expansion and reorganization of its parts manufacturing and fabrication areas, Duncan Aviation created a new division called Duncan Manufacturing Solutions (DMS). The company invested more than $4 million in the 21,000-square-foot DMS facility, which was built adjacent to its Turbine Engine Overhaul Shop in Lincoln, Neb. The company added more equipment to supplement its previous capabilities and machinery to allow for heat treatment, CNC milling, waterjet cutting, metal pressing and engraving. DMS brought heat-treating capabilities in-house with the addition of two industrial ovens capable of heat treating aluminum, stainless steel, tool steel and titanium.

An international aircraft controls manufacturer ordered a low-temperature vacuum furnace from SECO/VACUUM, a SECO/WARWICK Group brand, for tempering, aging and other processes. The furnace will ensure bright part surfaces after treatment in lower temperatures. It is designed to operate up to 1380°F (750°C) with work-zone dimensions of 24 x 24 x 36 inches and a load capacity 1,750 pounds. The furnace meets class 2 TUS requirements per AMS 2750F and is capable of nitrogen convection heating and cooling. This is the fifth vacuum furnace supplied by SECO/WARWICK Group to this company, which operates multiple facilities in the United States and Asia.

Experiments were undertaken to develop the best process for brazing Hast X alloy for an aerospace application.

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.