A manufacturer of custom industrial chillers based in Houston, Texas, recently purchased a controlled atmosphere brazing (CAB) furnace line to conduct in-house furnace brazing of the company’s heat exchangers.
The CAB furnace was relocated to Cold Shot Chillers, which designs and manufactures standard and specialized custom industrial chillers for multiple industries, including metal finishing, medical, brewery and winery, laser and welding, and agriculture. SECO/WARWICK states that the CAB furnace, which was originally built for a different OEM, is the largest in North America.
An Ohio manufacturer of processing equipment recently received heat treating upgrades to its facility from a heat treat controls system manufacturer, also in Ohio.
Milacron LLC partnered with Super Systems, Inc., based in Cincinnati, Ohio, to make major upgrades to the heat treating assets at its plastics machinery facility in Mt. Orab, Ohio.
Included in the scope of work were new control cabinets, atmosphere flow panels, SCADA software, and a new ammonia dissociator. The work has been completed for this project.
“We are very happy we chose Super Systems… The quality and workmanship set them apart from others in the industry,” said Jeff Bissantz, project engineer, who led the Milacron team.
The Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory, also known as ARL, recently awarded a 3D engineering and manufacturing company a $15 million contract to create a metal 3D printer that it intends to be the world’s largest, fastest, and most precise.
3D Systems and the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) were awarded funding to create this printer and will partner with ARL and the Advanced Manufacturing, Materials, and Processes (AMMP) Program to advance the leadership and innovation. This printer will impact key supply chains associated with long-range munitions, next-generation combat vehicles, helicopters, and air and missile defense capabilities.
“The Army is increasing readiness by strengthening its relationships and interoperability with business partners, like 3D Systems, who advance warfighter requirements at the best value to the taxpayer,” said Dr. Joseph South, ARL’s program manager for Science of Additive Manufacturing for Next Generation Munitions. “Up until now, powder bed laser 3D printers have been too small, too slow, and too imprecise to produce major ground combat subsystems at scale. Our goal is to tackle this issue head-on with the support of allies and partners who aid the Army in executing security cooperation activities in support of common national interests, and who help enable new capabilities for critical national security supply chains.”
According to the U.S. Army Additive Manufacturing Implementation Plan, the Army has been using additive manufacturing (AM) for two decades to refurbish worn parts and create custom tools. Once developed, the Army will leverage its manufacturing experience by placing the new large-scale systems in its depots and labs. Subsequently, 3D Systems and its partners plan to make the new 3D printer technology available to leading aerospace and defense suppliers for development of futuristic Army platforms.
A supplier of refractory products and services in North America recently celebrated the completion of its phase one facility expansion plan.
HarbisonWalker International (HWI) hosted a ribbon-cutting event at its manufacturing operations in White Cloud, Michigan, to celebrate completion of the first phase of an expansion that increases the floor space of the facility by 35%. The project is part of a $9 million investment being made this year to significantly increase warehousing space along with the addition of new, advanced manufacturing and hydraulic press technologies.
Carol Jackson President & CEO HarbisonWalker International
“White Cloud is an extremely important facility that has been vital to our company and the community for more than four decades,” said Carol Jackson, chairman and CEO at HWI. “Historically, and especially in the past two years, the team at White Cloud has helped fuel our steel industry customers’ success by consistently delivering on their tremendous demand for the refractory products we produce here. We’re so proud of the great work our White Cloud employees do every day for our company and our customers.”
HWI’s White Cloud operations primarily produces refractory products that are utilized by the steel industry.
A domestic steel producer and metals recycler chose Sinton, Texas, as the site for the company’s new electric-arc-furnace (EAF) flat roll steel mill.
Steel Dynamics, Inc., a carbon steel producer which also owns Vulcan Steel Products that services the heat treat industry, recently announced its preferred choice as the Sinton location, 30 miles northwest of the port of Corpus Christi, Texas, because it is strategically located within the targeted Southwest U.S. and Mexico market regions; it’s central to the largest domestic consumption of flat roll Galvalume® and construction painted products; and it provides sufficient acreage to allow customers to locate on-site, providing steel mill volume base-loading opportunities.
Mark D. Millett President and CEO Steel Dynamics, Inc.
“We have been developing a flat roll steel business strategy for this region and Mexico for several years,” said Mark. D. Millett, President and Chief Executive Officer, “and the team is ready to execute. We have extensive experience and a proven track record for successfully constructing and operating EAF steel mills and downstream value-add finishing lines. Our planned new EAF flat roll steel mill will be the most technologically advanced facility existing today.”
A high-temperature vacuum and controlled atmosphere furnace manufacturer recently invested in new equipment for advanced firing capabilities.
Centorr Vacuum Industries recently announced it has added new furnace capabilities to its Applied Technology Center for customer use for process proofing, toll work, and process development runs.
The new furnace is based on Centorr’s successful Super VII platform and will join two smaller System VII furnaces, an induction melting furnace, and a continuous belt furnace already in use.
This newly updated 2nd Generation Super VII design comes with several innovative features to allow the processing of a wide variety of metals, hard metals, ceramics, and carbon/graphite composites. The furnace can be used for low temperature degassing, heat treating, annealing, brazing, and sintering of a variety of materials.
During the day-to-day operation of heat treat departments, many habits are formed and procedures followed that sometimes are done simply because that’s the way they’ve always been done. One of the great benefits of having a community of heat treaters is to challenge those habits and look at new ways of doing things. Heat TreatToday’s101 Heat TreatTips, tips and tricks that come from some of the industry’s foremost experts, were initially published in the FNA 2018 Special Print Edition, as a way to make the benefits of that community available to as many people as possible. This special edition is available in a digital format here.
Today we continue an intermittent series of posts drawn from the 101 tips. The tips for this post can be found in the FNA edition under Hardness Testing, CQI-9 Compliance, and Hardening/Tempering.
Heat TreatTip #22
Properly preparing a hardness sample can save time and money.
Inspection Mistakes That Cost
Rockwell hardness testing requires adherence to strict procedures for accurate results. Try this exercise to prove the importance of proper test procedures.
A certified Rc 54.3 +/- 1 test block was tested three times and the average of the readings was Rc 54 utilizing a flat anvil. Water was put on the anvil under the test block and the next three readings averaged Rc 52.1.
Why is it so important that samples are clean, dry, and properly prepared?
If your process test samples are actually one point above the high spec limit but you are reading two points lower, you will ship hard parts that your customer can reject.
If your process test samples are one point above the low spec limit but you are reading two points lower, you may reprocess parts that are actually within specification.
It is imperative that your personnel are trained in proper sample preparation and hardness testing procedures to maximize your quality results and minimize reprocessing.
Whether you need to meet rigid CQI-9 standards or not, what are the top 3, nay 4 best practices that nearly every in-house heat treat department ought to follow to make sure their pyrometer stuff is together?
Daily furnace atmosphere checks. Use an alternative method to verify your controls and sensors are operating properly and that there are no issue with your furnace or furnace gases.
Daily endothermic generator checks. Using an alternate method to verify your control parameter (dew point typically) or the gas composition is accurate will alleviate furnace control issues caused by bad endothermic gas.
Verify/validate your heat treat process every 2 hours OR make sure process deviations are automatically alarmed. this is a solid practice to ensure your controls and processes are running properly. This practice can help ensure that parts are being heat treated to the proper specification intended.
Conduct periodic system accuracy tests (SATs) per pre-defined timelines in CQI-9. Good pyrometry practices are an essential part of heat treatment. Because of the importance of temperature in heat treatment, ensure timeliness of all pyrometry practices addressing thermocouple usages, system accuracy tests, calibrations, and temperature uniformity surveys.
Control of Back Tempering With Induction Heat Treating
Induction heat treating is a selective hardening process. When hardening an induction path close to an area that had previously hardened, the heat from the hardening the second path tempers back the area that was previously hardened. This is a particularly common issue when tooth by tooth hardening of small gear teeth. Back tempering will reduce the hardness on the adjacent area and this effect may range from a few to over 10 HRC points.
Factors to Minimize Back Tempering
Process Issue
Questions to ask
Correct & repeatable placement of quenches
Can quench position be verified and set up repeatedly in the same position?
Verification of quench flow
Is the quench flowing freely through the quench system? Are the quench holes blocked? Are the flowmeters reading accurately?
Integrity of the quench
Was the percentage polymer measured? Is the quench quality okay? Is the quench contaminated?
Inductor design
Is the inductor designed to minimize heat on the tip? Is the quench effectively cooling the part?
Retained heat
Is a skip tooth hardening pattern being used to minimize residual heat in the induction hardening zone? Is the scan speed appropriate?
A thermal processing company donated a $300,000 commercial-grade vacuum heat treating and brazing furnace to Lehigh University’s materials science program to help increase opportunities for its students in the field.
The new addition, known as The Mentor®, was donated to Lehigh University by thermal processing company Solar Atmospheres and its CEO and founder, William R. Jones. Its sister company, Solar Manufacturing, designs and builds vacuum furnaces at its location in Souderton, Pennsylvania, just 23 miles from Lehigh’s campus.
Additionally, Solar Atmospheres built and donated a transformer and water-cooling system that was specifically designed for the application.
Wojciech Misiolek, professor and cha ir of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science
“This is a very powerful, advanced piece of equipment that will allow us to conduct important experiments in our metallurgy teaching and research, especially around additive manufacturing, which is a hot topic these days,” explains Wojciech Misiolek, professor and chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science. “And we will challenge ourselves to use it up to its full capabilities for heat treatment of metals.”
“With this donation,” adds Misiolek, “suddenly you have the industry-grade equipment. It’s not a miniature version, it’s what you will see out in the field. Our educational system at Lehigh is very hands on, and we have a reputation for that. This furnace will increase opportunities for our undergraduate and graduate students and help them hit the ground running when they go into industry.”
Induction heat treaters know that proper coil design is crucial to increasing longevity, improving production quality, and cutting costs. Among the topics addressed in this paper about induction heat treat coil design and fabrication (presented by R. Goldstein, W. Stuehr, and M. Blackby at ASM International) are these:
The design and fabrication of induction heating coils over the years
The Variable of Flow and the Influence of Frequency
Control and Presentation
Structure, Quenching, and Cooling
The paper closes out with a case study using computer simulation to show typical temperature distributions in a single-shot induction hardening coil.
A good place to start whenever preparing parts for induction heat treating is the consideration of inductor design. The authors provide this list (an excerpt):
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Considerations for Inductor Design
Induction heat treating coils are available in many shapes and sizes and must perform a variety of tasks in a given induction heat treating application. Depending on the application, the induction coil design requirements include:
Meet heat treatment specifications in desired production rates
Be robust enough to tolerate manufacturing variations
Mount into the induction machine
Have electrical parameters that match the induction power supply
Deliver quench
Have a satisfactory lifetime
Have satisfactory efficiency
Be repeatable from inductor to inductor
In developing a new induction heat treating coil and process, the first question is whether the component will be produced on an existing system or if a new machine must be built. In many cases, the part producer’s desire is to develop new tooling for an existing machine with spare capacity. This reduces the degree of freedom and can make the induction coil design procedure more complicated because a less-than-optimal frequency or coil style will be necessitated to fit the existing machine (Ref 16).
To determine the ability to use existing equipment, it is necessary to make an analysis of the part to be heat treated. Part material, prior processing, geometry, production rate, and heat treatment specifications all play roles. The part material and prior processing determine what the minimum heat treatment temperature should be, along with how much time is allowed for cooling. The part geometry and heat treatment specifications indicate how much energy is required, what the preferred frequency ranges are, and what type of induction method (i.e., single shot, scanning) is best suited for the application. Finally, the production rate determines how much power and/or how many spindles or stations are required.
A major provider of innovative heat processing solutions recently developed an augmented reality (AR) system in conjunction with a global technological corporation to adapt its holographic computer systems to metallurgical applications in the manufacturing environment.
SECO/WARWICK introduced SECO/LENS, an adaption of Microsoft’s HoloLens, to bring the advances in virtual reality to manufacturing enabling users to view equipment, systems, and processes in 3D; this is the first use of this technology by heat treatment industry.
Slawomir Wachowski, Automation Department Director for SECO/WARWICK
SECO/LENS can superimpose a 3D model of a specific piece of heat treating equipment or an entire technological line, providing the most optimal layout of the production line on the plant floor for the line’s monitoring, diagnostics, maintenance, remote repair, and planning. SECO/LENS is intended to create an accurate visualization of the system, permitting staff training on the operation of the equipment without the need for expensive and time-consuming travel.
“SECO/LENS is a new era of working with SECO/WARWICK devices—it’s the era of interaction,” said Slawomir Wachowski, Automation Department Director for SECO/WARWICK. “Introduction of virtual technologies to the production process, training, and operation of our devices are significant benefits, more intuitive device operation, increased mobility, increased efficiency and reduced response times to service requests.”
