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Source: Global Casting Magazine
With annual sales approaching $2 billion, Waupaca Foundry is one of the largest metalcasting groups in the world. Focused on the automotive, commercial vehicle, off-highway and other industrial markets, the Wisconsin-based company produces millions of components that keep cars and trucks of all sizes on the road.
Read More: An Iron Giant’s Big Plans
An Iron Giant’s Big Plans Read More »
Source: Eurotherm by Schneider Electric
Read More: Industry 4.0 + IIoT=Smart Industrial Ovens & Furnaces by Perter Sherwin
Industry 4.0 + IIoT = Smart Industrial Ovens & Furnaces Read More »
As of immediately, StrikoWestofen covers another step in the production chain of the light metal casting industry. From now on, heat treatment units for cast aluminium parts are another core competence of StrikoWestofen.
This is made possible by the recent takeover of the employees of BPR-Engineering GmbH from Rheda-Wiedenbrück. The 20 years of expertise of Frank Herkenräder, the founder of the company, and his team form the basis of the new StrikoWestofen business unit Heat Treatment.
The goal of this extension of our product portfolio is to meet the customers’ needs even better. The new Heat Treatment business unit pursues a holistic approach: heat treatment furnaces, quenching units and product carriers are not seen as individual components of a system but as part of a whole. This allows enormous cost savings due to the better coordination of processes, in some cases bringing distorsions down to 0% and reducing energy consumption by up to 30%.
StrikoWestofen Opens Heat-Treatment Business Unit Read More »
Source: Linked In – Peter Sherwin
“I am wide awake on a late night flight from Kolkata to Delhi (India) so I pick up my phone to continue reading “Design to Grow – How Coca Cola learned to combine scale and agility.” I happened on the chapter discussing wicked problems – with sustainability of water use being one of Coke’s wicked problem (basically a wicked problem is one that is ill-defined, has many uncontrollable variables and has no so-called right or optimal solutions).
Having spent the week traveling around India and visiting customers with typical heat treat problems and seeing and hearing about and presenting the latest technology solutions in Heat Treat – I have come to the conclusion Heat Treatment is itself a wicked problem.”
Read More: Peter Sherwin – Eurotherm – Linked IN
Heat Treatment and Wicked Problems Read More »
Source: Global Heat Treatment Network
“Vacuum heat treatment tasks for AM manufactured parts is the same process as traditional subtractive manufacturing and its purpose is to assure AM parts has the correct physical and metallurgical properties for specific applications. In some cases, when a bidder is involved, the purpose of the heat treatment process is to deciding and sinter parts. Most vacuum furnaces use up to 800°C degrees to relieve stress and a higher temperature of up to 1800°C for other processes.
Vacuum furnaces with high vacuum levels are preferred to heat treatment equipment to process AM parts. AM parts made from Titanium, Cobalt, Aluminum require vacuum levels of up to 10-6 mbar with 99.9995 Argon purity. Argon is the preferred gas because of its neutrality and that it has no adverse reaction with the above alloy components. Creating an Alfa surface layer on titanium parts is not desirable and should be avoided.
The small parts and small production volume influences vacuum furnaces of small to medium size. The next challenge for the heat treatment industry is to integrate heat treatment process into the AM equipment in one continuous process.”
Vacuum Heat Treatment’s Role in Additive Manufacturing (AM) 3D Printing Read More »
Source: Thermal Processing for Gear Solutions
Read More: Quality Counts: Gas Nitriding by Jim Oakes
Quality Counts: Gas Nitriding Read More »
Source: ETMM The Website
“One look at the back of the part told me it was filled with one sub-gate (see Figure 2). In the US at the time, we were trying to pack out this type of speaker grill with 12-drop systems, which resulted in poor fill and a lot of stress in the piece. In Japan, mouldmakers were using a mould material developed to enhance venting. This was a steel manufactured with interconnecting pores so the gas could pass through the seemingly solid piece of metal. To make this steel, powder metal was combined with metal fibers for added strength, cold-pressed into master blocks measuring 215 by 300 by 650 mm, sintered and heat-treated to 35 HRC. It was available with average pore diameter of either 7 or 20 microns; porosity averaged 25 percent of the mass of the block. Other materials available at the time ranged from porous ceramics to sintered porous vent buttons.”
Read More: The Potential of Enhanced Venting Materials by Tom Schade
Heat Treating Involved in Production of Speakers Read More »
Source: Heat Processing On-Line
Walking Beam Furnace Energy Savings: New Skid Pipe Insulation Concept Read More »
Source: MoldMaking Technology
“The process of building conformal cooling inserts can be generally broken up into four steps: 1) simulating the molding process, 2) insert design and optimization, 3) 3D direct metal laser melting, and 4) post processing. Simulation software in the first step allows tool designers to visualize flow capabilities and thermal properties that can cause mold deformation prior to actual production. Cavity block or core block inserts then can be designed with conformal water lines in place, based on simulation results. The layer-by-layer 3D-printing that comes next not only can be completed in a number of materials that match conventional tool steels, but the resulting built-in channels will exhibit outstanding geometric flexibility. Post-processing tasks include stress relief and heat treatment, using EDM to machine the part from its platform base, polishing the part surface, adding water lines, and inspection.”
Read More: Reshaping Moldmaking by Lou Young
Heat Treatment Used in Building Conformal Cooling Inserts Read More »
Moldmaking Technology – July 2016
“When it comes to steel selection, the standard grades and heat-treat cycles might need to be changed depending on the selected PVD coating. The moldmaker must ensure that the application temperature of the PVD process is lower than the heat-treatment cycle temperature that is used on the steel.
…..too often the customers allow the steel and heat treatment to determine the coating that can be considered. ”
Read More: PVD Coatings and Tool Steel Selection by Mark Falkingham
PVD Coatings and Tool Steel Selection Read More »