Sometimes our editors find items that are not exactly "heat treat" but do deal with interesting developments in one of our key markets: aerospace, automotive, medical, energy, or general manufacturing.
To celebrate getting to the “fringe” of the weekend, Heat Treat Today presents today’s Heat Treat Fringe Friday: a negotiation established between major airline players to expand maintenance capabilities.
Anne Brachet
EVP
Air France-KLM Engineering & Maintenance
Source: LinkedIn
Airbus is negotiating establishment of a new joint venture with Air France SA to provide component maintenance services (maintenance, repair, overhaul, or MRO) for the global A350 fleet. Looking at a 2024 start, the long-term maintenance needs of A350 operators will be addressed.
The Airbus A350 is a twin-engine wide-body aircraft in service on long-range routes with more than three dozen carriers and leasing agencies. According to Airbus, there are more than 550 A350 jets currently in service and more than 1,000 on order.
“This project aims to bring customers the best expertise of our two companies on a product as high-tech as the A350,” stated Anne Brachet, EVP at Air France-KLM Engineering & Maintenance.
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A front-loading box furnace delivered to a northeastern U.S. supplier of titanium castings will expand the manufacturer’s aerospace and gas turbine castings heat treat abilities. The company supplies to the aerospace and power generation fields and deals with exotic metals that are ideal for superior products using the lost wax process for castings, such as nickel and cobalt-based alloys.
L&L Special Furnace Co., Inc. Box Furnace Source: L&L Special Furnace Co., Inc.
The L&L Special Furnace Co., Inc. model FB435 has an effective work area of 48” wide by 32” tall by 60” deep and has certifiable temperature uniformity of ±10°F from 500 to 1,850°F. Additionally, the elements are very evenly spaced around the chamber and the furnace is lined with ceramic fiber on the sides and top.
The furnace case is sealed internally for atmosphere control, and an inert blanketing gas such as nitrogen is used to displace oxygen present within the work chamber. This provides a surface finish in which oxidization is less likely to form on the part. The atmosphere is delivered automatically through a flow panel by the furnace control.
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The Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS), a government-funded research institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT, has invested in a new vacuum furnace from a manufacturer headquartered in North America.
Nikola Dzepina Nitrex Regional Manager – Asia Source: NITREX
KIMS conducts a wide range of technological R&D activities, including process improvements, application development, material enhancement, testing, and evaluation. The new Nitrex vacuum furnace will support domestic companies -- including Hanwha Aerospace, Doosan Enerbility, Sung-il Turbine, and Samjeong Turbine -- in a development project that aims to improve the cycle efficiency of industrial land-based gas turbines.
The furnace is a horizontal type 2-Bar external quench equipped with a curved molybdenum wide band heating element arranged in a circular configuration around the main hot zone. Its work area measures 15″ in width by 15″ in height by 24″ in length (381 x 381 x 610 mm).
“The Nitrex system can support a wider range of R&D projects and metals,” said Nikola Dzepina, regional manager in Asia at Nitrex. “With the ability to achieve higher vacuum levels with 10-6 Torr ultimate range, the furnace can heat treat parts at temperatures up to 1,371°C (2,500°F).”
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Sometimes our editors find items that are not exactly "heat treat" but do deal with interesting developments in one of our key markets: aerospace, automotive, medical, energy, or general manufacturing. To celebrate getting to the “fringe” of the weekend, Heat TreatToday presents today’s Heat Treat Fringe Friday press release: a look at the future of heat treating and 3D printing in aerospace engines and energy turbines.
Find out more about the possibilities of bringing additive manufacturing and heat treating turbine and engine components; and read on to see what's happening at MIT.
A new MIT-developed heat treatment transforms the microscopic structure of 3D-printed metals, making the materials stronger and more resilient in extreme thermal environments. The technique could make it possible to 3D print high-performance blades and vanes for power-generating gas turbines and jet engines, which would enable new designs with improved fuel consumption and energy efficiency.
There is growing interest in manufacturing turbine blades through 3D-printing, but efforts to 3D-print turbine blades have yet to clear a big hurdle: creep. While researchers have explored printing turbine blades, they have found that the printing process produces fine grains on the order of tens to hundreds of microns in size — a microstructure that is especially vulnerable to creep.
Zachary Cordero
Boeing Career Development Professor in Aeronautics and Astronautics
MIT
Zachary Cordero and his colleagues found a way to improve the structure of 3D-printed alloys by adding an additional heat-treating step, which transforms the as-printed material’s fine grains into much larger “columnar” grains. The team’s new method is a form of directional recrystallization — a heat treatment that passes a material through a hot zone at a precisely controlled speed to meld a material’s many microscopic grains into larger, sturdier, and more uniform crystals.
“In the near future, we envision gas turbine manufacturers will print their blades and vanes at large-scale additive manufacturing plants, then post-process them using our heat treatment,” Cordero says. “3D-printing will enable new cooling architectures that can improve the thermal efficiency of a turbine, so that it produces the same amount of power while burning less fuel and ultimately emits less carbon dioxide.”
Materials Science student
Oxford University
MIT
“We’ve completely transformed the structure,” says lead author Dominic Peachey. “We show we can increase the grain size by orders of magnitude, to massive columnar grains, which theoretically should lead to dramatic improvements in creep properties.”
Cordero plans to test the heat treatment on 3D-printed geometries that more closely resemble turbine blades. The team is also exploring ways to speed up the draw rate, as well as test a heat-treated structure’s resistance to creep. Then, they envision that the heat treatment could enable the practical application of 3D-printing to produce industrial-grade turbine blades, with more complex shapes and patterns.
“New blade and vane geometries will enable more energy-efficient land-based gas turbines, as well as, eventually, aeroengines,” Cordero notes. “This could from a baseline perspective lead to lower carbon dioxide emissions, just through improved efficiency of these devices.”
Cordero’s co-authors on the study are lead author Dominic Peachey, Christopher Carter, and Andres Garcia-Jimenez at MIT, Anugrahaprada Mukundan and Marie-Agathe Charpagne of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Donovan Leonard of Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
This research was supported, in part, by the U.S. Office of Naval Research.
Watch this video from Thomas to see a visual of some of the heat treating advances.
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Trevor Jones President Solar Manufacturing, Inc. Source: Solar Manufacturing, Inc.
A vacuum furnace manufacturer in North America has acquired purchase orders for ten vacuum furnaces this 3rd quarter. The furnaces will be shipped to companies in the following market sectors: aerospace, commercial heat treating, and additive manufacturing.
Solar Manufacturing Inc. is based out of Pennsylvania, and the new systems will be sent to locations throughout North America. The various types of new furnace orders ranged in size from the compact Mentor® and Mentor® Pro series to a large production furnace with a work zone of up to 72” in length.
“[S]trong quotation activity levels seem to indicate customers are optimistic to expand after the pandemic ramifications continue to ease," commented Trevor Jones, President of Solar Manufacturing.
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A heat treat furnace has been delivered to a Midwest manufacturer of ceramic matrix parts. This system will be used for aerospace and military purposes.
Atmosphere-Controlled Retort-Burn Off Furnace Source: L&L Special Furnace Company, Inc.
Ceramic matrix parts materialize when nanofibers of silicon carbide or other ceramic nano threads are wound together, forming various sheets and 3D-printed shapes. The nano threads in the process are coated with proprietary resins that must be completely removed from the substructure using heat. The resulting finished product is lighter and stronger than titanium.
L&L Special Furnace Company, Inc.'s Model XLC3672 has a work zone of 32” wide by 32” high by 66” deep. It has a single zone of control with a temperature gradient of ±20°F at 1,100°F using four zones of temperature control with biasing to balance any temperature gradients. The Model XLC3672 is controlled by a Eurotherm Nanodac Mini 8 program mechanism with overtemperature protection.
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A North American heat treater in aerospace manufacturing acquired a three-cell vacuum furnace for multi-purpose operation from a U.S.-based manufacturer of vacuum furnaces. The system will bring the heat treater's carburizing processing in-house and contribute to the facility's ability to maintain takt time.
ECM USA's director of sales, Bill Gornicki, announced the purchase of a NANO system vacuum furnace for use in the North American aerospace market. The system will provide low pressure carburizing, hardening, brazing, and annealing, automation capabilities, cryogenics, tempering, and pre-washing. Both alloy and CFC fixtures will be used in this installation.
A manufacturer in the aerospace market with captive heat treating capabilities received a custom built atmosphere tempering furnace. With a working load size of 84” wide, 42” deep, and 60” tall, coupled with a max load weight of 6,000 pounds, the furnace is specifically designed for the customers' key manufactured components.
The electrically heated furnace, shipped by Gasbarre Thermal Processing Systems, has an operating temperature range of 350℉ to 1600℉, and passes uniformity at +/- 10℉ per AMS2750E. The system is equipped with custom controls, including Eurotherm brand temperature controlling instrumentation and an Allen-Bradley PLC and HMI.
Automatic atmosphere control is included for running under nitrogen, argon, and/or a hydrogen blend. Custom designed atmosphere cooling systems are installed to reduce overall cycle time. The equipment configuration also enabled the customer to switch from pit furnace style processing, which eliminated infrastructure costs and maintenance concerns.
A commercial heat treating company located in the heart of the aerospace industry on the West Coast of the United States recently commissioned a custom built batch tempering furnace. With a working load size of 168” wide, 48” deep, and 48” tall, coupled with a max load weight of 10,000 pounds, the furnace from Gasbarre Thermal Processing Systems can accommodate a number of differently sized parts within its market.
The gas fired air furnace passes survey at +/- 10℉ over a temperature range of 850℉ to 1350℉ per AMS2750E. At the customer’s request, the electrical controls are UL approved and include the latest in Eurotherm brand temperature controlling instrumentation.
Have you ever wondered how to create or revise AMS specifications? In this original Heat Treat Today Technical Tuesday feature, come along with Andrew Bassett, president of Aerospace Testing and Pyrometry and an expert in aerospace pyrometry specifications, as he shares his experience and knowledge in the process.
Andrew Bassett, President, Aerospace Testing and Pyrometry
Author’s Note: These comments are the non-binding opinion of the author and do not constitute an interpretation by SAE. Such opinions do not replace the need to ensure agreement between the supplier, customer, and cognizant engineering organization.
Those who are familiar with aerospace heat treating are accustomed to Aerospace Material Specifications (AMS) that guide heat treaters on how to process parts and raw materials. These specifications will mandate equipment requirements, atmospheres to be used, cleaning methods, soaking times and temperatures, and testing requirements, to name a few. The working committee, Aerospace Metals Engineering Committee (AMEC), is in charge of revising these specifications, which is required every five years. This is a long and sometimes tedious process of revising specifications with many knowledgeable experts involved.
There are various types of specifications that have been established by the SAE Technical Standards Board:
Aerospace Material Specifications (AMS)
These technical reports contain specific performance requirements and are used for material and process specifications conforming to sound established engineering and metallurgical practices in aerospace sciences and practices.
Aerospace Standards (AS)
These technical reports contain specific performance requirements and are used for design standards, parts standards, minimum performance standards, quality, and other areas conforming to broadly accepted engineering practices or specifications for a material, product, process, procedure, or test method.
Aerospace Recommended Practice (ARP)
These aerospace technical reports are documentations of practice, procedures, and technology that are intended as guides to standard engineering practices. Their content may be more general in nature, or they may offer data that has not yet gained broad acceptance.
Aerospace Information Report (AIR)
These aerospace technical reports are compilations of engineering reference data, historical information, or educational material useful to the technical community.
To create or revise an Aerospace Specification, a “sponsor” of the specification will request to either create a new or revise an existing standard with the approval of the chairperson. Once the approval has been granted, the sponsor will work to create and/or revise the existing document. When the draft document is complete, the draft is balloted for a 28 Day Ballot. Members of AMEC can make comments on the ballot with either a “T” comment or an “I” comment. The “T” comment is a technical error, missing requirement, or improper requirement that needs action by the committee. All technical comments should be accompanied by a reason for the comment and a suggested improvement to resolve the issue. The “I” comment is a non-technical correction. These may include spelling and grammatical mistakes, incorrect paragraph numbering, and the like. Each “T” comment must be discussed and voted on by the committee members and approved or disapproved. During the ballot process, members are asked to “Approve” or “Disapprove” the ballot. This process goes on until no more changes are required to the draft before the document is sent to the appropriate commodity committees.
The illustration (Figure 1) describes the creation/revision process for given specifications.
The projects for the revisions to AMS-2759 series of specifications started in 2009/2010 with many of the draft revisions waiting in “parking lots” until all the specifications were completed. Since their release in 2018, several of these specifications had to be revised again due to missing or omitted requirements or small changes to clarify issues.
Over the last eighteen months, the heat treat industry has experienced new revisions to the following specifications (revision dates):
AMS-2759 Rev G Heat Treatment of Steel Parts General Requirements (04-23-19)
AMS-2759/1 Rev H Heat Treatment of Carbon and Low Alloy Steel Parts Minimum Tensile Strength Below 220 ksi (1517MPa) (09-19-19)
AMS-2759/2 Rev J Heat Treatment of Low Alloy Steel Parts Minimum Tensile Strength 220 ksi (1517MPa) and Higher (07-15-19)
AMS-2759/3 Rev H Heat Treatment Precipitation-Hardening Corrosion-Resistant, Maraging and Secondary Hardening Steel Parts (01/07/19)
AMS-2759/4 Rev D Heat Treatment Austenitic Corrosion-Resistant Steel Parts (04-28-18)
AMS-2759/5 Rev E Heat Treatment Martensitic Corrosion-Resistant Steel Parts (04-28-18)
AMS-2759/6 Rev C Gas Nitriding of Low Alloy Steel Parts (06-11-18)
AMS-2759/7 Rev D Carburizing and Heat Treatment of Carburizing Grade Steel Parts (04-15-19)
AMS-2759/8 Rev B Ion Nitriding (06-11-18)
AMS-2759/9 Rev E Hydrogen Embrittlement Relief (Baking) of Steel Parts (10-18-18)
AMS-2759/10 Rev B Automated Gaseous Nitriding Controlled by Nitriding Potential (06-11-18)
AMS-2759/11 Rev A Stress Relief of Steel Parts (04-28-18)
AMS-2759/12 Rev B Automated Gaseous Nitrocarburizing Controlled by Potentials (07-02-18)
AMS-2759/13 Gaseous Nitrocarburizing (06-11-18)
AMS-2769 Rev C Heat Treatment of Parts in Vacuum (07-12-19)
AMS-2770 Rev P Heat Treatment of Wrought Aluminum Alloy Parts (04-08-19)
ARP-1962 Rev B Training and Approval of Heat Treating Personnel (06-11-19)
ARP-7446 Vacuum Gauge Calibration (03-06-19) New ARP
There are several more projects underway that include the revision of AMS-H-6875, Heat Treatment of Steel Raw Materials that will become a four-digit AMS Specification, AMS-2774, Heat Treatment Wrought Nickel Alloy and Cobalt Alloy Parts, AMS-2801, Heat Treatment of Titanium Alloy Parts and AMS-2750, Pyrometry, to name a few. As new technology emerges, such as additive manufactured metal parts, AMS standards will need to be revised or created to address the thermal processing of these parts.
AMS-2750 (Pyrometry) is one of the more contentious specifications, which is currently under revision, because it is the main specification for the testing of thermal processing equipment. This specification not only has an effect on commercial heat treaters working in aerospace, but this specification has been adopted in chemical processing/coatings for baking/drying ovens, composites for curing and bonding laminates, and as of January 28, 2018, the FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health has added this standard to its list of recognized consensus standards database. For those who are heat treating medical devices such as needles, heart wires, titanium staples, and metallic joint replacements, AMS-2750 is now governing how the thermal processing equipment will be tested.
When I first became involved with AMEC in June 2008, the AMS-2750D (Pyrometry) was starting to be revised to AMS-2750E. I attended my first meeting in Niagara Falls, New York, with the expectation that I would be working only with a group of aerospace primes who write these standards. As it turned out, many of the members at AMEC are end users, such as captive and commercial heat treaters who are experts in the specifications in which they are involved. Since being in the field of pyrometry, I thought I would volunteer my time and expertise on the revision of AMS-2750. The sub-team group consisted of experts from Boeing, Honeywell, Carpenter Technology, Alcoa, Performance Review Institute (PRI), and Bodycote Thermal Processing with each team member bringing to the table his/her own knowledge and expertise in pyrometry. The process of revising this specification took four years to complete with numerous team meetings to discuss and propose changes to better clarify the previous revision. The final revision was finally published in July of 2012. Since then, I have been involved with other specifications such as AMS-2769 (Heat Treatment of Parts in a Vacuum), ARP-7446 (Vacuum Gauge Calibration), and the next revision of AMS-2750F.
Getting involved with AMEC and the various commodity groups is rewarding as it allows you to have a voice in the specifications that affect your business. You work with other members in the heat treat community to develop and create specification to enhance the industry, better the process, and continually strive to deliver quality parts or materials.
About the Author: Andrew Bassett is the president of Aerospace Testing and Pyrometry and is an expert in aerospace pyrometry specifications. He has 25 years of experience in the calibration and testing of thermal processing equipment. This article originally appeared in Heat Treat Today’s March 2020 Aerospace print edition.
