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‘s 101 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 offer one of the tips published under the Vacuum Furnace category.
Vacuum Furnace
Heat TreatTips #3
Make and Stick to a Clear Preventative Maintenance Program
Make sure a preventative maintenance schedule is clearly defined and adhered to. Most modern furnace control systems include diagnostics to assist in determining when certain components of the equipment require maintenance. Use these tools to prevent downtime and avoid wasting unnecessary maintenance.
Change pump oil regularly: roughing, pump, boosters, and holding.
Check hot zone for wear, loose, or missing hardware; verify element to ground resistance is greater than 10 ohms, vacuum out loose debris (monthly).
Check water chemistry and adequate flow to and from the furnace (weekly).
Check front door O-ring integrity, make sure there is no damage and that the ring is not flat; light grease as needed.
Bubble check process gas lines for potential leaks.
From minuscule medical implants to massive aerospace engine parts, vacuum furnaces process components that come in a variety of shapes and sizes. The challenge that faces a furnace operator is to load parts in such a way as to maximize efficiency (important) but also achieve desired metallurgical properties and minimize distortion (more important).
Understanding that loading options generally follow common sense rules can help with the puzzle of load arrangements, spacing parts properly, accommodating geometric irregularities, and loading orientation. This Technical Tuesday feature examines everything to consider about loading parts into a vacuum furnace — from the size and orientation of a workload to the “final spacing . . . [as] dictated by concerns for heating, soaking, flow (of partial pressure or backfill gases), the type and volume of quench media (e.g. oil, gas) and gross load weight.”
Many heat treat processes require protective or process gases. These gases often require careful monitoring. One of the protective and/or process gases used in many heat treat applications is an endothermic atmosphere which is made up largely of CO, CO2, H2, and N2. This article is about the creation and proper monitoring of endothermic atmospheres.
In an atmosphere furnace, the proper mix of these gases can help facilitate changes in the metal such as proper hardness and strength, resistance to temperature, or improved tensile strength to mention a few. Without careful control of temperature, time and atmosphere, metals can experience unwanted changes in properties such as hydrogen embrittlement, surface bluing, soot formation, oxidation, and decarburization. With such critical outcomes in the balance, it is necessary to control the endothermic gas.
An excerpt:
“In order for the required metal treatment to be a success, you must control and monitor the gas composition with extreme care. The concentrations of gases, CO₂, H₂O, CH₄, N₂, H₂ and CO, that make up the endothermic gas atmosphere should be measured in order to aid the prevention of unwanted reactions and ensure that the endogas generator and the furnace are operating normally.”
A distributor of data loggers, paperless recorders and data acquisition equipment recently supplied a surface treatment company with runtime data collection to continually monitor its salt bath production line.
CAS DataLoggers provided the industrial data logging solution to Northeast Coating Technologies (NCT) in Kennebunk, Maine. NCT is a surface treatment company specializing in Salt Bath Nitriding Melonite® Quench-Polish-Quench (QPQ), among other processes, to produce high-durability metal components including piston rods, axles and more. NCT is using CAS’s dataTaker DT80 Intelligent Data Logger to continually monitor its production Melonite® line, specifically the salt bath area, recording tank temperature from multiple thermocouples and using these readings to trend the run data.
The Melonite® QPQ process forms a nitrocarburized layer around components comprised of an outer compound layer (iron, nitrogen, carbon and oxygen compounds) and a diffusion layer underneath. Initially, the process preheats components to raise their surface temperature before they’re placed in a tank containing liquid Melonite® salt (MEL 1/TF 1 bath) to start the nitrocarburizing process. Alkali cyanate is the active constituent in the salt bath, and this step requires the temperature in the range of 896°F – 1166°F with a target temperature of 1076°F. The components react with the salt and start to diffuse nitrogen and carbon into the substrate.
After a preset period of 1-2 hours, the components have the proper compound layer thickness and case depth. After immersion in the salt bath, the components are placed in a cooling bath (AB 1 bath) maintained at 700°F – 800°F for oxidative treatment which forms a magnetite layer on the components to improve corrosion resistance.
Tank temperature is the parameter NCT needed to monitor and trend for each of its 3 Melonite® salt tanks and the AB 1 oxidizing bath tank. With this in mind, CAS DataLoggers provided the facility with a Series 3 dataTaker universal data logger to automate their data collection.
“The dataTaker’s software is internal so everything this application needs is there in the dataTaker unit itself,” said CAS DataLoggers Applications Specialist Bill Hoon. “Now they have the memory, the data trending capability, and the alarming feature. That’s why the DT80’s our workhorse.”
Registration is open for IHEA’s Fundamentals of Industrial Process Heating Online Learning Course that begins on April 15, 2019.
The course is ideal for students who wish to further their studies at home or work in a flexible web-based distance-learning format. It’s an affordable alternative to campus-based classes and allows students to go at their own pace. The program offers a vital tool to industrial process heating operators and users of all types of industrial heating equipment. Students learn safe and efficient operation of industrial heating equipment, how to reduce energy consumption, and ways to improve a company’s bottom-line.
The fundamentals course provides an overview of heat transfer, fuels and combustion, energy use, furnace design, refractories, automatic control, and atmospheres as applied to industrial process heating. For a complete listing of the topics covered visit www.ihea.org or click here.
Industry expert Jack Marino will lead students in this 6-week online course. Jack is a registered Professional Engineer with over 40 years’ experience in the heat processing business. He is a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering and has a master’s degree in Engineering Science from Penn State. Mr. Marino’s knowledge and experience offer invaluable resources that online students can access throughout the course.
IHEA will also offer an Advanced Industrial Process Heating course this fall. This course is a compliment to the Fundamentals of Industrial Process Heating and provides the student with an in-depth view of the control and efficient operation of industrial process heating equipment. Students will become familiar with a variety of oven, furnace, and kiln types used in industry.
The study was led by James Pikul, Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at Penn Engineering.
We’ve come a long way in the search for and application of lightweight metals, which are being used now in everything from high-performance golf clubs to airplane wings, but random defects that arise in the manufacturing process mean that these materials are only a fraction as strong as they could theoretically be.
In a new study published in Nature Scientific Reports, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, and the University of Cambridge have designed and built materials that are stronger than anything heretofore developed, using a sheet of nickel with nanoscale pores that make it as strong as titanium but four to five times lighter.
“The empty space of the pores and the self-assembly process in which they’re made make the porous metal akin to a natural material, such as wood.
And just as the porosity of wood grain serves the biological function of transporting energy, the empty space in the researchers’ “metallic wood” could be infused with other materials. Infusing the scaffolding with anode and cathode materials would enable this metallic wood to serve double duty: a plane wing or prosthetic leg that’s also a battery.”
Photo credit/caption: Penn Engineering/A microscopic sample of the researchers’ “metallic wood.” Its porous structure is responsible for its high strength-to-weight ratio, and makes it more akin to natural materials, like wood.
The world’s largest provider of heat treatment and specialist thermal processing services based in Macclesfield, United Kingdom, is pleased to announce plans to open a new heat treating facility in Elgin, Illinois.
Bodycote’s new facility will include advanced heat treating technologies such as low pressure carburizing and carbonitriding, vacuum nitriding and ferritic nitrocarburizing, Bodycote’s proprietary Corr-I-Dur® process, and traditional carburizing of large parts. The facility, scheduled to be operational by late 2019, will support the automotive, agricultural, mining, construction and various other manufacturing supply chains in the Upper Midwest region.
“This investment demonstrates Bodycote’s commitment to serving the Midwest with the services our customers ask for and require,” said Dan McCurdy, President Automotive & General Industrial, North America & Asia division.
A firearms maker from New York looking for a more spacious location for its business recently announced it will expand its manufacturing, including heat treating capabilities, to Thomasville, Georgia.
Although most well known for its magazines for small arms and rifles, Check-Mate Industries, currently located in Long Island, New York, is a metal stamping and tool and die manufacturer for medical, automotive, aerospace, and a variety of other industries.
Check-Mate Industries began the search for a new home for the industry after the owner died in 2014. After visiting Thomasville, his widow, Regina Viewig, though impressed with what she saw, was not prepared to take the big step of moving the company without confirmation. A friend reminded her that the southern Georgia town’s name included the name of her late husband, Thomas. That was the sign Vieweg needed.
Photo credit and caption: WALB.com / Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal speaking to crowd, behind him are Check-Mate Industries representatives as well as local and state economic representatives, including, State Representative Darlene Taylor; Pat Wilson, a commissioner with Georgia Department of Economic Development; Shelly Zorn, Thomasville PDA executive director; Joseph DeBello, Check-Mate president and chief operating officer; Jacquelyn Santoro, Director, Checkmate Industries; and Regina Viewig
A global leader in materials science recently celebrated the grand opening of its new multi-million dollar development center which will pioneer research into carbon materials and technologies.
Neil Sharkey, Vice President for Research at Penn State
Morgan Advanced Materials has opened the doors to its Carbon Science Center of Excellence (CoE) research and development facility at Penn State University. The CoE, which is a collaboration between the manufacturer and the university, will focus on carbon-based materials used in a wide range of industries and engineering applications, including aerospace, healthcare, industrial, power generation and more.
Among many projects, the company is working on electrified rail products including carbon current collectors used at the top of train carriages to connect to overhead wires.
“The work undertaken at our facility with Morgan will be truly revolutionary,” said Neil Sharkey, Vice President for Research at Penn State. “The electrified rail carbon strips that Morgan is already working on, for example, will change how train transport works, making it both safer and more reliable, and decreasing downtime. Our partnership with Morgan places us at the forefront of developing new methodologies, in line with Morgan’s mission and values as well as our own. Their existing expertise and insights will help our researchers and students turn new ideas into commercially viable solutions. The Center itself is a huge attraction for other businesses to join the Innovation Park, furthering job creation and economic development in Pennsylvania.”
Located at the Penn State Innovation Park, Morgan’s CoE is close to the university staff, students and facilities. Penn State’s reputation as a world-renowned institution for carbon and materials science-focused research and its collaborative approach to working with business was key when choosing a partner for the project. The partnership brings together resources, experience, and knowledge from both sides, with researchers and scientists on site, many of whom have existing ties to Penn State.
Despite specializing in carbon science materials, the CoE will be utilized by Morgan’s wider businesses and, to date, has also become the home of research projects for the company’s Thermal Ceramics, Technical Ceramics, and Braze Alloys businesses.
“We’re incredibly proud to have launched this ground-breaking Center of Excellence with Penn State,” said Mike Murray, Chief Technology Officer at Morgan Advanced Materials. “It marks an important milestone in both organizations’ history, as we both strive for excellence and understanding of the properties and uses of carbon. With brilliant science minds on our doorstep, we hope the synergies created between us can accelerate our engineering and solutions for our customers, while benefitting more and more industries going forward.”
“Our Centers of Excellence ensure Morgan remains at the forefront of materials development on a global scale,” said Pete Raby, Chief Executive Officer at Morgan Advanced Materials. “In addition to helping us to create world-leading materials, our partnership with Penn State also allows us to recruit some of the best talent in carbon science and provide unrivaled training to our technologists and engineers.”
Photo credit and caption: INVENT PENN STATE / From left to right: Vern Squier, president and CEO of the Chamber of Business & Industry of Centre County; Andrew Goshe, global technical director at Morgan Advanced Materials; Neil Sharkey, Penn State vice president for research; Pete Raby, CEO at Morgan Advanced Materials; Phil Armstrong, CoE lead at Morgan Advanced Materials; and Nick Jones, Penn State executive vice president and provost, celebrate the opening of the Carbon Science Research Centre for Excellence with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
A Texas-based steel distributor recently restarted its facility in Mingo Junction, Ohio, after being idle for 3,545 days.
The JSW USA plant is now a melt and manufacture mill, the largest Connsteel Tenova EFA in North America. The first slab was cast on December 14, 2018.
John Hritz, President and CEO of JSW USA
“Today, we are making history,” said John Hritz, President and CEO of JSW USA. “I would like to congratulate the entire Ohio team on this great success. Together, we will be making hundreds of new jobs in Mingo Junction.”
JSW USA also announced that it is in the design process to install another EAF in Ohio and is beefing up its Baytown, Texas, mill with additional melt and manufacture equipment. Once the company completes both of the EAFs in Ohio and a third in Texas, JSW USA will become a 3-million-ton fflat-rolledmill, a 1-million-ton plate mill, and a 500,000-ton pipe mill.
“When all is said and done, JSW USA will be producing the highest quality, lowest cost steel products in the country, whether they’re made in Texas or here in Ohio,” said Hritz. “This is all about installing the best technology in the world here in the US and creating secure jobs for decades to come in our industry.”
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 Treat Today‘s 101 Heat Treat Tips, 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.
