CARBURIZING NEWS

47,000 Pound Gear Heat Treated and Quenched at Metlab

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A Pennsylvania company recently heat treated and quenched a fabricated 47,000-pound gear. In addition to this gear, about a month ago, its reverse image (with the helix in the opposite direction) was also heat treated. The halves will be matched when grinding is complete to make a complete gear to drive a rolling mill for a steel plant.

Mark Podob
President
Metlab
Source: LinkedIn

The gear, the largest Metlab has ever treated, measured 12' in diameter and has a 30” face width. Material was 18CrNiMo6-7, and case depth required was a nominal 0.275” effective case depth with a surface hardness of HRC 58 – 62. Typical taper on a gear this size is about 0.030”. Carburizing time to achieve the required case depth is about 10 days in the furnace at 17250F. After lowering the temperature of the furnace and gear to 15500F, it is quenched in oil. The transfer time from the pit furnace into the quench tank is less than a minute.

After quench, the gear will be double tempered, sandblasted and prepared for shipment to the Midwest for final grinding. Mark Podob, president at Metlab, commented, "To our knowledge, the furnace used to heat treat this series of four gears is the largest pit carburizing furnace in the United States . . . . [T]he two 47,000 pound gears are the largest that Metlab has carburized and hardened in its 25 year history."

Photographs show the gear at 1550°F being lowered into the oil tank.

 

 


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Nitride/Nitrocarburizing System Delivered to Heat Treating Company

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Marcin Stokłosa
Project Manager
NITREX Poland
LinkedIn.com

A turnkey system has been delivered to SAGLAM METAL, a Turkish commercial heat-treating company. With this new addition, the company now offers controlled nitriding, nitrocarburizing, and post-oxidation treatments for a wide range of metal applications to different markets.

The turnkey system delivered to SAGLAM METAL includes a 5500 lb. load capacity pit-type furnace, as well as technologies for controlled gas nitriding, controlled nitrocarburizing, and in-process post-oxidation. The system is used to nitride/nitrocarburize a variety of different parts, part sizes, and materials to various specifications for the automotive, extrusion, tooling, and other manufacturing industries.

“SAGLAM selected NITREX based on the recommendation of our local representative, in addition to nitriding/nitrocarburizing results,” stated Marcin Stokłosa, project manager at NITREX Poland.


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Endo Gas Upgrades Heat Treat for Nordic Traction

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Nordic Traction Group, a manufacturer of traction chains and tracks for forestry and agricultural machinery, recently upgraded their heat treatment operations by installing a new endothermic gas generator system.

Daniel Panny
Head of Sales
UPC-Marathon in Germany
Source: LinkedIn

To carburize its traction chains, Nordic Traction Group, with manufacturing locations in Finland and Scotland, added the EndoFlex™ S system. The system, from UPC-Marathon, a Nitrex company with North American locations, replaces an outdated generator. The new system improves process reliability and product quality and requires less preventative maintenance.

“Since the EndoFlex™ S produces only the amount of gas required by the carburizing furnace, there is zero waste in endogas production. This also allows Nordic Traction to save big by maximizing energy usage and gas consumption,” said Daniel Panny, Head of Sales at UPC-Marathon.


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Mercury Marine Launches Heat Treat Upgrades

HTD Size-PR LogoMercury Marine of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, recently launched a plan to upgrade its heat-treating capabilities with a move to the low-pressure carburization and high-pressure gas quench system. The new plan incorporates completely automated vacuum heat treating systems.

In the partnership with ECM Technologies, the Nano vacuum heat treating system (pictured above) incorporates 20 bar nitrogen gas quenching along with low pressure carburizing (aka vacuum carburizing). The Nano will operate several different carburizing, hardening, and spheroidizing processes simultaneously.

This change marks a departure from Mercury’s traditional atmospheric carburization and oil quench system while benefiting from advantages that come with vacuum processing:

  • Applies vacuum heat treating in lieu of traditional atmosphere (elimination of intergranular oxidation & highly repeatable process with consistent results)
  • Employs preventive maintenance planning, remote system status access, and facility information systems integration
  • Relocates heat treat from a secondary location to the clean, controlled environment of the machining centers
  • Converts to small batch processing principles to maximize process efficiency
  • State-of-the-art growth with ECM’s advanced system automation and robot capability with load building and breakdown
  • Controls downstream operations by matching incoming dunnage with exiting workpieces
  • Takes advantage of vapor and vacuum-based pre-cleaning technology to remove multiple machining lubricants
  • Incorporates cryogenic and tempering processes within the automated system

The system uses all CFC workload fixtures and ECM’s advanced automation fixture tracking to maintain a precise cycle count to know fixture life. For Mercury, this significantly reduces energy consumption and process cost per piece. Additionally, the vacuum process takes their heat treatment to a near-zero emissions for drivetrain components processed within the system.

Mercury Marine Launches Heat Treat Upgrades Read More »

Aalberts Surface Technologies Heat To Receive a Vacuum Furnace with Nitrogen Quenching

HTD Size-PR LogoGlobal commercial heat treater with 17 locations in North America, Aalberts Surface Technologies Heat in Kalisz (Poland), will receive a vacuum furnace with nitrogen quenching and an atmosphere furnace at their specialized commercial hardening plant. This expansion of its production line builds on their acquisition of a high vacuum furnace at their Dutch branch in Eindhoven last year.

The new SECO/WARWICK furnaces, added to the furnace that they had supplied last year, will create a production line that will be used for successive vacuum carburizing (LPC) and gas quenching (with the new CaseMaster Evolution-T vacuum furnace, or CMe-T furnace), followed by annealing (with the new BREW atmosphere furnace) to reduce the internal stress of the treated metals. Performing so many processes is possible thanks to the combination of vacuum technology with atmosphere technology.

The commercial heat treater believes that this expansion in capabilities will progress their mission. "According to our mission statement," said Wojciech Matczak, plant manager at Aalberts Surface Technologies Heat Kalisz, "‘Best-in-class’ is not about our core technologies but about our commitment to do everything we can to make our clients successful."

Maciej Korecki
Vice President of the Vacuum Furnace Segment
SECO/WARWICK
(source: SECO/WARWICK)

The three-chamber CaseMaster Evolution-T furnace has 1 ton per batch capacity and an annual output of up to 2,000 tons of parts. It can replace 3 conventional atmosphere furnaces. Additionally, it has fast cooling nitrogen chamber, achieving results similar to helium and oil cooling, creating an environmentally friendly system. Using the nitrogen taken from and discharged to the air eliminates both the use of expensive and difficult to obtain helium and harmful quenching oil. This makes it possible to reduce CO2 emissions by 300 tons annually, which is the amount generated by three standard atmosphere furnaces.

“Aalberts Surface Technologies Heat had special requirements," explained Maciej Korecki, VP, of the Vacuum Business Segment at SECO/WARWICK, "regarding the components and solutions used, and thus [the vacuum furnace] will replace the existing semi-continuous processes under protective atmosphere followed by oil quenching with complete vacuum heat treatment with low pressure carburizing and nitrogen quenching (25 bar!), delivering process precision and repeatability. . ."

The second furnace, the BREW 6810 solution, will make it possible to perform the annealing process immediately after vacuum carburizing. It can operate between 572 and 1382°F (300 and 750°C) and is equipped with a system to enable treatment under nitrogen atmosphere, preventing oxidation on the heat-treated workpieces.

Aalberts Surface Technologies Heat To Receive a Vacuum Furnace with Nitrogen Quenching Read More »

US Defense Contractor to Receive Vacuum Oil Quenching Furnace

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Piotr Zawistowski
Managing Director
SECO/VACUUM TECHNOLOGIES, USA

Source: secowarwick.com

A new vacuum furnace for a division of the US Department of Defense will bolster its capability to ensure supply chain reliability. The furnace is equipped to handle steel hardening, surface engineering, vacuum annealing, nickel alloy processing, and titanium heat treatment.

As a critical supplier of aerospace components to the US Department of Defense, this division will use the new vacuum oil quenching furnace, provided by SECO/WARWICK, Group, to handle functions of the department’s existing heat treatment furnaces and expand their capabilities. The addition of low pressure carburizing (LPC) and high pressure gas quenching (HPGQ) is new to this location.

“Assuring redundancy in heating needs of this location was critical,” said Piotr Zawistowski, Managing Director of SECO/VACUUM.

US Defense Contractor to Receive Vacuum Oil Quenching Furnace Read More »

Carburizing vs Nitriding Engineering Components

 

Source: Advanced Heat Treat Corp.

 

Extensive wear or fatigue from friction and contact stress cause many engineering components made of ferrous or titanium alloys to fail. In this Best of the Web

Edward Rolinski,”Dr Glow”, Advanced Heat Treat

Technical Tuesday feature, Edward Rolinski, aka Dr. Glow, from Advanced Heat Treat Corp., compares “wear resistance between engineering components that were carburized vs nitrided,” originally published in his article, “Tribological Performance-Enhancing Surface Treatments for Improving Durability of Engineering Components” at AHT’s website.

An excerpt:

“The results of the tribological studies strongly suggest that for many engineering components, the application of nitriding may be more beneficial than carburizing since the nitrided layer had better wear properties than the carburized layer despite the fact that the layer was about four times as thick.”

Rolinski defines the uses, advantages, and tribological behavior of nitrided and carburized steel and provides illustrations of samples subjected to both treatments.

 

Read more: “Tribological Performance-Enhancing Surface Treatments for Improving Durability of Engineering Components”

Main image photo credit/caption: Advanced Heat Treat Corp / Advanced Heat Treat’s Cullman, Alabama, location ion nitroding vessel, which the company says is one of the largest in the United States—”big enough for two small cars to fit inside.”

 

 

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Comparing Carburizing Technology and Furnace Features

 

Source: ECM-USA

 

Pierre Rousset and Vincent Lelong from ECM USA compare the significant differences between a conventional furnace and a low pressure carburizing furnace and provide guidelines for heat treaters to consider when determining which to use for metallurgical processing.

 

Read more: “Conventional Carburizing Furnace Versus Low Pressure Carburizing Furnace”

Comparing Carburizing Technology and Furnace Features Read More »

LEAX Installs Low Pressure Carburizing Furnace: Boost Hardening Capabilities

Anders G Larsson, COO Heat Treatment, LEAX Group

LEAX Group, a Swedish manufacturer of advanced components and subsystems for automotive, commercial vehicles, mining, construction, and general industry sectors, has installed a low pressure carburizing (LPC) furnace at their Brinkmann, Germany, facility (LEAX Brinkmann GmbH) to boost the company’s heat treatment processing capabilities. The extensive installation takes about two months and the first hot load is scheduled for December. Along with the addition of a new induction machine at their Falköping, Sweden, facility,  this new LPC furnace serves as the centerpiece of the massive MBS project.

LEAX, which is based in Köping, Sweden, operates heat treatment shops in seven of their twelve production sites, including Latvia, Germany, Hungary, Brazil, and China, and focuses on induction hardening and processing and refining approximately 300,000 parts per year. This added LPC hardening furnace brings a process to LEAX’s manufacturing process that has been a mainstay in the automotive industry. The full transition to the MBS project will take up to two years, but “we [will] switch hardening from the older oven to the new,” said Anders G. Larsson, COO/Heat Treatment for LEAX Brinkmann GmbH.

 

 

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UPC Energizes Aging Carburizing Cell for Axle Gears Manufacturer

A U.S.-based axle gears manufacturer recently commissioned hardware and software enhancements to add to their existing heat treat cell and automation.

Migration of legacy controls was not economically feasible, and after investigating options to boost equipment functionality, the customer opted to integrate a new PLC that bridges the gap between the heat treat cell and new robotic loading cell. The new control system installed by United Process Controls, Inc., (UPC) provides operators with a quick display of the furnace status, functions, and operational data of three AFC Holcroft carburizing pusher furnaces. Furnaces were similarly adjusted to liaise with the new robotic loader. In addition, material handling data from the registers of the old PLCs was transferred to the new robot cell to help increase the factory information system. UPC was also retained to program and connect the updated furnace controls, including the new conveyor line, and charge cars to the factory information system.

UPC Energizes Aging Carburizing Cell for Axle Gears Manufacturer Read More »