AEROSPACE HEAT TREAT NEWS

Heat Treating Projects Part of Pratt & Whitney Expansion

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Aircraft engine maker Pratt & Whitney Canada is expanding its production at facilities in Québec with two recently announced furnace projects, with equipment supplied by local machining manufacturer Pyradia Belfab. The first is a low-temperature conveyor drying oven for steel parts complying with AMS2750 standards, and the second is a bottom-loading type furnace to be used for the stress relief of combustion chambers of P&W Canada aero engines. The latter unit will be a high temperature (2000 F) retort furnace using argon/nitrogen and hydrogen equipped with state of the art batching monitoring/logging capabilities.

The projects figure into an expansion effort by Pratt & Whitney, which includes a recently commissioned new fan blade manufacturing facility at its AutoAir plant in Lansing, Michigan. The new 93,000 square-foot facility adds to an already existing GTF fan blade production line in Lansing and is one of thirty dedicated manufacturing, production or assembly locations across the globe performing work on various parts and components of the GTF engine program.

“We are pleased to be a part of this successful engine program,” said Conor Tracy, general manager, Pratt & Whitney AutoAir. “The expansion of the Lansing plant is an opportunity for our employees to contribute to the future of the company, but it is also an exciting opportunity for Lansing to continue to participate in the advanced manufacturing sector and the economic growth of the region.”

In addition to the manufacturing expansion, Pratt & Whitney has four maintenance and repair operations (MRO) facilities to repair and overhaul GTF engines, and additional facilities will be added moving forward.

 

 

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Mobile Heat Treatment Launch Targets Aerospace, Motorsports Customers

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Ian Perks, Sales Director, Alloy Heat Treatment

Alloy Heat Treatment (AHT), a specialist in the heat treatment of aluminum alloy, has developed and is set to launch an innovative mobile heat treatment service.

The Dudley-based (UK) firm, a member of the manufacturing alliance Made in the Midlands, is targeting the new service in support of the additive layer manufacturing market in the UK and Europe, especially in the aerospace and motorsport (F1 and MotoGP) sectors.

“The proposed service is currently being designed to be transported on the back of a fix-bed lorry,” said sales director Ian Perks. “We aim to fill a gap in the AM market, as we feel that this innovation will provide a great benefit to aerospace, F1 and Moto GP organisations; and with the global AM market predicted to be worth more than $6.6 billion by 2026, we are hopeful that the service will attract plenty of interest.”

AHT would load the service onto a truck and then drive to a customer’s designated location to enable them to offer rapid heat treatment processes within tight schedules.

 

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Precision Tubing Manufacturer Awarded Nadcap Accreditation

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Fine Tubes technical team with 4th Nadcap Certificate: Valerie Hart, Technical Manager; Dr. Abdul Saeid, Process Engineer; Wayne Taylor-Vicary, Deputy Cell Leader; David Killoran, Welding Process Engineer; Rob Eatwell, Quality Manager

A precision tubing manufacturer has been awarded a Nadcap accreditation for chemical processing. This is the fourth Nadcap approval awarded to Fine Tubes; its first accreditation was for heat treating in 2004, followed by nondestructive testing (ultrasonic testing) in 2005 and fusion welding in 2013. In addition, the Plymouth (UK)-based manufacturer anticipates receiving another accreditation for fluid distribution systems shortly.

Nadcap is an internationally recognised accreditation system that covers the key manufacturing and production processes used within the aerospace industry.

Very few companies hold four Nadcap accreditations simultaneously.

Chemical processing is a critical part of the Fine Tubes production process. Tubes must be chemically milled after the cold-working and heat-treating manufacturing processes, by being etched to ensure they meet the customer specification requirements.

“The tubing we manufacture is designed to withstand in-process fatigue loading, and failure is not an option.  When aircraft manufacturers need tubing, they inevitably look for suppliers who can demonstrate the most-stringent quality standards. Nadcap accreditation is widely viewed as confirmation of that, and, so with every Nadcap accreditation that we earn, we further enhance our ability to win new contracts,” comments David Killoran, representing the Fine Tubes’ technical team.

To achieve its latest accreditation, Fine Tubes undertook an intensive on-site inspection and investigation by a Nadcap auditor. This audit covers all aspects of the process – the machinery, consumables, and methods employed, as well as the qualifications and experience of the staff involved in the process.

“The auditor found no failures to comply with the Nadcap criteria, and that is a major credit to the Fine Tubes production team involved in the audit,” said Dr. Abdul Saeid, Process Engineer at Fine Tubes.

Fine Tubes and its US-based sister company, Superior Tube, are units of AMETEK Specialty Metal Products and both have supplied the aerospace industry with high-performance tubes for more than fifty years. Their precision tubes are used in airframes, aircraft engines and aerospace instrumentation, where they are relied upon to withstand the most-critical operating conditions.

 

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Aluminum Aging Oven Shipped to Aerospace Parts Manufacturer

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An aerospace parts manufacturer recently acquired an electrically heated aluminum aging oven as part of an upgrade of its line. The SWH series batch oven was ordered to replace antiquated equipment in order to facilitate compliance with AMS 2750E Class 2 specifications. Wisconsin Ovens, a Thermal Product Solutions (“TPS”) brand, completed the shipment in August 2017.

 

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15 Atmosphere and Vacuum Furnaces Shipped to Aerospace, Commercial, MIM Industry Customers

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Fifteen atmosphere and vacuum furnaces were shipped to customers in aerospace, commercial heat treating and MIM industries around the world during the second quarter of 2017, including China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.

The shipments included:

*   Two large, vertical (bottom-loading) MetalMaster® vacuum furnaces, each with a 120″ (3 m) diameter work zone and 10,000-pound (4,500 kg) load capacity
*   Five standard TITAN® vacuum furnaces complete with PdMetrics®
*   Debind and sinter vacuum furnaces for the MIM industry
*   ATLAS integral quench atmosphere furnace, which was delivered six weeks after order placement

In addition to these transactions, Ipsen USA of Cherry Valley, Illinois, delivered several custom-built vacuum furnaces that will process parts for the aerospace industry.

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Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems Award Heat Treat Contracts Down Under

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Karen Stanton, owner and director of HTA Group, Photo Credit: LinkedIn

Heat Treatment Australia  (HTA), a commercial and aerospace heat treater based in Brisbane, Australia, recently secured industry agreements with two of the world’s largest global defense companies, Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems’ Controls and Avionics Solutions.

Lockheed Martin granted the F-35 supplier accreditation of its newly established facility in Sante Fe Springs, California, its first outside Australia, to provide thermal processing services for U.S. heat treat customers and to process stainless steel orders from Australian companies before the raw material leaves U.S. shores.

“We hope this new US facility will provide opportunities for HTA to collaborate with other Australian companies, and that our US-based thermal processing capabilities will be an asset to Australian industry,” said Karen Stanton, owner and director of HTA Group. “HTA’s entry into the US market aligns with the Australian government’s 2016 Defence Industry Policy Statement, and will subsequently boost Australian Global Supply Chain opportunities, creating more jobs and economic benefit to Australia.”

In addition, BAE Systems, based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, has awarded HTA a contract for the supply of pressure manifolds for commercial aircraft jet engines in the U.S. The pressure manifolds are part of the digital engine controls for the LEAP family of jet engines. The LEAP engines will power some of the biggest fleets of commercial aircraft in the world, including Boeing 737 MAX and Airbus A320neo.

HTA will use its recently opened state-of-the-art thermal processing facilities in Brisbane to assemble the manifolds.

Minister for Defence Industry Christopher Pyne, upon congratulating the company for their achievements, said, “This will increase Australian companies’ competitiveness in the U.S. and other global markets and gain access to new global supply chain opportunities.”

HTA is the only aerospace heat treater in Australia with AS9100 and Nadcap accreditations. The company has branches in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and now Los Angeles.

Sources: Defenceconnect.com.au, Australian Government Department of Defence, Australian Defence Business Review, Lockheed Martin

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Using Heat Treatment and Thermal Shape Memory to Tailor Nitinol to Industry Applications

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  Source: AZO Materials

Nitinol’s shape memory and superelastic properties allow it to be used in a wide range of applications in the aerospace, medical, consumer technology, telecommunications, and automotive industries. In particular, heat treatment and thermomechanical processes can change the parent shape of Nitinol wire, making it indispensable for use in medical devices.  Read more: Using Heat Treatment and Thermal Shape Memory to Tailor Nitinol to Your Application by AZO Materials

 

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Aerospace Manufacturer Replaces Batch IQs with Integrated Vacuum System

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A North American based aerospace manufacturer is replacing two integral quench batch furnaces with an integrated vacuum furnace heat treat system. In addition to running low pressure carburizing (LPC), the vacuum heat treat furnace is also capable of austenitizing, brazing, gas quenching, cryogenic treating and tempering. The SyncroTherm(r) system, provided by ALD Vacuum Systems, Inc. a wholly owned subsidiary of Advanced Metallurgical Group N.V., is believed to be the first of its type to be installed west of the Mississippi. This is the third unit being installed in the aerospace industry capable of performing processes compliant with Nadcap (National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program). The vacuum heat treat furnace will have five independently controlled hot zones each rated for load sizes of 24″ x 20″ x 9″ high and up to 110 lbs. The complete systems will be a “lights-out,” fully-automated system with individual part tracking and complete process history retention along with a consistent process cadence.

Aerospace Heat Treating
Photo Credit: www.corelitecomposites.com

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Heat Treat CEO Comments on 3D TUS Tool

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Shaymus Hudson - Heat Treat Radio #5Mr. William Jones, CEO of the Solar Atmosphere Group of Companies, listened with interest to the recent Heat Treat Radio podcast featuring Phoenix Heat Treating president, Peter Hushek. Peter introduced a new 3D TUS tool, Virtual Visual Surveys.

Below, Mr. Jones offers his comments about this new tool and TUS practices in general.

If you’d like to listen to the Heat Treat Radio episode that sparked these comments, click here.

Please note that immediately following Mr. Jones’ comments is a response from Peter Hushek.

Unedited comments from Mr. Bill Jones, CEO, Solar Atmospheres & Solar Manufacturing…

Like Peter Hushek we have been in this TUS business for more time than we like to remember. So, most up to date HT companies track our TUS data on paperless video recorders and down load onto an Excel spread sheet and plot out the data a minimum of every 30 seconds. This is done with a preprogrammed digital temperature controller thru the necessary ramps, soaks, and set points. The Excel spread sheets also contains all the survey and controller TC correction factors. Prior to the survey each data point contains the preset temperature controller PID parameters. All survey TC’s are set into their preset locations per AMS 2750E with careful notation to position and correct TC length and care for equal hot / cold lengths. Prior to survey each electronic instrument is checked with a calibrated thermocouple millivolt run-up box and each instrument calibrated. Normally midafternoon each furnace under test is set up thus and the survey to run preprogrammed overnight. Our QC department downloads the data, reviews and makes the pass fail decision, within a few hours, the next day. If the TUS failed back to maintenance to look into the issues, make corrections and rerun the TUS. Problems are not always furnace related but thermocouple, TC position, jack panel, jack panel wiring, instrumentation, and numerous other issues. I view the VVS 3D presentation as an aide but only part of the story”.

William R. Jones, CEO, FASM
Solar Atmospheres Inc.
Souderton, Pa.

More about Solar Atmospheres? www.solaratm.com

And Peter Hushek’s unedited response to Mr. Jones’ comments…

In regards to the response from the listener I can say he makes some valid points.  There are many issues that can affect the outcome of a TUS.  We realize that the evaluation of the furnace uniformity involves many aspects and we are only addressing the data generated by the process.  We believe that when companies begin the process of actual data analytics they will become more aware of the process and improve the quality of their processing as a result.  VVS is only beginning to scratch the surface of the data flow that occurs daily in processing companies.  We look to greater innovation through customer supplier interface as well and technological improvements that can be used as feed stock to improve future generations of this software.  We are only starting the process and I hope the market realizes that this is not a static process or company.

If you haven’t done so already, clicking here to listen to the Heat Treat Radio episode being discussed above.

To find out more about VVS, go to www.virtualvisualsurveys.com.

Peter Hushek. Heat Treat Radio podcast - President of Phoenix Heat Treating

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Heat Treat Radio #6: Peter Hushek on Reducing TUS Failures

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Welcome to another episode of Heat Treat Radio, a periodic podcast where Heat Treat Radio host, Doug Glenn, discusses cutting-edge topics with industry-leading personalities. Below, you can either listen to the podcast by clicking on the audio play button, or you can read an edited version of the transcript. To see a complete list of other Heat Treat Radio episodes, click here.

Audio: Heat Treat Radio: Peter Hushek on Reducing TUS Failures

In this conversation, Heat Treat Radio host, Doug Glenn, interviews Peter Hushek about Virtual Visual Surveys, a new 3D software that will help minimize temperature uniformity survey failures. Listen to Peter’s description of how this innovative new tool can help aerospace heat treaters know what’s going on inside the furnace during a TUS.

Click the play button below to listen.

 

Doug Glenn, Publisher, Heat Treat Today
Doug Glenn, Heat Treat Today publisher and Heat Treat Radio host.

To find other Heat Treat Radio episodes, go to www.heattreattoday.com/radio and look in the list of Heat Treat Radio episodes listed.

 

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