MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT Archives - Page 75 of 93

Special Steel Plant in Kapfenberg, Austria, to Boast Fully Automated Melting System

August 10, 2018 / MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT NEWS

Franz Rotter, head of the High Performance Metals Division

Since the official groundbreaking ceremony in April 2018, preparations for the construction of the world’s most advanced special steel plant in Kapfenberg, Austria, have been progressing rapidly. By awarding the contract for the electric arc furnace, the converter, and the secondary metallurgical systems—which represent the technological core of the plant—voestalpine has taken another important step in realizing the project.

The SMS group, based in Düsseldorf, Germany, will be responsible for the engineering, process technology, and start-up of the fully automated melting system, which will begin production in 2021.

“Awarding the contract for the supply of the main melting units, which represent around one-third of the total investment volume, lays the technological basis for the new special steel plant,” said Franz Rotter, member of the management board of voestalpine AG and head of the High Performance Metals Division. “The SMS group will contribute its comprehensive know-how to this project, both in the metallurgical systems and in the areas of digitalization and automation.”

In addition to the electric arc furnace, in which ultra-pure scrap and alloys are melted into liquid special steels at temperatures of up to 16232°F (9,000°C), the SMS group will also supply various after treatment systems that give the material its special properties. The units are operated with electricity from 100 percent renewable energy.”

The plant technology will set new standards worldwide in terms of digitalization. An ultra-modern sensor and electronic system enables the entire production process to be controlled from a central control station.

Special Steel Plant in Kapfenberg, Austria, to Boast Fully Automated Melting System Read More »

Selecting the Right Vacuum Pump Oil Starts with Knowing Your Pump

Source: VAC AERO International

Vacuum furnace heat treaters know that one of the most critical parts of their system is the pump oil, but it may be a bit overwhelming trying to determine which is the right kind of oil is needed. Selecting the correct vacuum pump oil starts with knowing your pump.

“‘Oil’ is a bit of a misnomer because modern pump oil technology has evolved well beyond the original distilled petroleum products. There are now double- and triple-distilled oils available, as well as hydro-treated oils, low sulfur oils, silicone-based synthetic oils, and flushing oils used to clean the pump. Due to the wide variety of formulations available, these are often now referred to as pump ‘fluids’ rather than pump ‘oils’.” — VAC AERO International

“Different pump oil formulations are specifically designed for different pumps and different vacuum applications,” notes VAC AERO, and a key factor in learning how to select the correct pump oil is the understanding of vapor pressure, viscosity, and distillation methods, as well as solvent refining, hydrotreating, synthetic oil (Perfluoropolyether), flushing oil for vacuum pumps, and diffusion pump oils.

Figure 1 | Viscosities of various liquids

Dan Kay on Brazing Stop-Off Materials

August 6, 2018 / BRAZING TECHNICAL CONTENT, FEATURED NEWS, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT NEWS

Heat Treat Today will soon be launching Heat Treat Consultants, a resource that offers the most comprehensive listing of heat treat industry consultants. An example of the type of exchange we anticipate will result from this resource is provided below. Click the link above for a sneak peek at our inaugural list of consultants and more information about contacting one of the experts listed.

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Mike Dascoli, general manager of County Heat Treat in Millbury, Massachusetts, asked our publisher, Doug Glenn, about a product the company had used previously, “an alumina oxide powder to coat graphite fixturing plates . . . in our vacuum furnaces to stop off against braze alloy run off and eutectic melting.” Doug queried whether it was aluminum brazing or more conventional brazing of stainless or other metals and Mike specified, “No aluminum brazing . . . used to be gold/nickel, silver alloys. Here at County, I am just looking to introduce some options. I remember we would mix the powder with the acetone and paint it on the carbon plates. Acetone evaporated quick and the powder was left behind. For us now, it’s more about a layer against eutectics when heat treating.”

Doug brought in one of Heat Treat Today‘s consultants, Dan Kay of Kay & Associates Brazing Consulting & Training Services, to assist in hunting down the answer to Mike’s question.

Dan Kay:

Hi Mike —

Yes, there are a number of brazing filler metal (BFM) manufacturers who also produce and supply brazing stop-off materials that can be painted onto graphite surfaces such as you mention in your note to Doug Glenn. Here are just a few: Surface Flow Technologies (Div. of LSN Diffusion Int’l) in Michigan, Wall Colmonoy Corp in Michigan, Vitta Corp in Connecticut, and Wesgo Metals (Div. of Morgan Advanced Materials) in California are some of the primary ones.

Stop-off materials come in different colors, the coloring of them being merely to identify its manufacturer, since all stop-off materials use metallic oxide materials to create their “stop-off” capabilities, and all these oxide powders are essentially white, to begin with. Thus, to differentiate the various stop-offs they began to color them so that people would learn to associate green stop-off with company A, pink stop-off with company B, red stop-off with company C, etc.

White stop-off products are essentially the weakest of all the colored stop-offs out there and are primarily aluminum-oxide products in a paint-like consistency. The binders/gels used to make the stop-offs vary considerably from manufacturer to manufacturer are proprietary, and you’ll not get any of them to actually tell you about all the ingredients in them. People are often surprised to hear that a product such as Phillips Milk of Magnesia, available in lots of stores or pharmacies, is actually a decent stop off (magnesium oxide) for a number of applications.

But you are correct to say that you can make your own in many different ways by merely mixing some aluminum-oxide powder, or titanium-oxide powder, etc., in with a variety of quick-drying solvents, perhaps also with a thin acrylic type cement to give it adherence, paint it onto graphite surfaces, and after evaporation you would be left with an adherent layer of that protective oxide barrier, so that it prevents direct contact of a metal (especially any iron-containing metals) with the graphite, since an iron-carbon reaction is to be avoided.

I’d be happy to assist you further with this, if you have additional questions, since I’ve had much direct manufacturing experience over my 45+years in the brazing world, a lot of it involved in making BFMs, brazing stop-offs and cements, etc., and am pretty much aware of the companies today who make and supply such materials.

On my website at http://www.kaybrazing.com, you will see a tab on the homepage that shows “Brazing Suppliers”. By clicking on that tab you can see a listing of the different companies who produce these materials, and in that tabular section the name of each company (such as those I mentioned above) is a hotlink that will bring you directly to that company’s website so that you can search it for a specific type of product that you might desire. It part’s of the service that I want to provide to users of my website. I hope you will find it useful.

Let me know how I can help you further.

Best regards,
Dan

Daniel Kay
Kay & Associates
Brazing Consulting &Training Services
4 Lawton Drive
Simsbury, CT 06070
Phone: 860-651-5595

E-mail: dan.kay@kaybrazing.com
Website: http://www.kaybrazing.com

Heat Treat Consultants is a unique opportunity for personnel in the field to engage some of the industry’s knowledge powerhouses with questions about equipment, processes, management, troubleshooting — just about anything having to do with heat treating. We invite you to take a look at our inaugural crew of Heat Treat Consultants by clicking on the provided links, and we would be happy to help you make any connections. Just email Doug Glenn at doug@heattreattoday.com. You can also submit any questions or comments on Heat Treat Today articles to editor@heattreattoday.com.

Dan Kay on Brazing Stop-Off Materials Read More »

Rail Systems Provider Expands Heat Treatment Capacity

August 2, 2018 / FEATURED NEWS, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT NEWS

Tracy Dougherty, sales manager at AFC-Holcroft

A global leader in fully integrated freight car systems for the heavy haul rail market has added a new, complete furnace line to meet a growing need for additional heat treatment capacity.

Amsted Rail® purchased the UBH line from AFC-Holcroft, a manufacturer of turn-key heat treating systems for multiple applications based in Wixom, Michigan. The line includes a batch style carburizing furnace, two expansion modules to increase endothermic generator gas output, a rotary hearth reheat furnace for press quenching, and a continuous integrated parts washer and temper furnace.

“The batch furnace itself has an effective load size of 72 inches by 72 inches by 56 inches with a gross load capacity of 13,000 lbs, which is considered very large for this type of equipment, but is, in fact, one of AFC-Holcroft’s standard sizes,” stated Tracy Dougherty, sales manager at AFC-Holcroft. “The ability and experience to provide equipment for reliable processing of such large loads is just one of the benefits that AFC-Holcroft is able to offer, and one more thing that sets us apart from our competitors.”

Amsted Rail is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and has locations spanning the globe in every significant railroad market. The equipment is scheduled to ship to a joint venture facility located in Eastern Europe in the third quarter of 2018.

Rail Systems Provider Expands Heat Treatment Capacity Read More »

Before Normalizing, Pause to Assess Materials

July 31, 2018 / MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT

Source: BluewaterThermal.com

When there is a need to provide a uniform, pearlitic structure at a microscopic level, many heat treaters turn to normalizing to increase or restore metal strength, but experts at Bluewater Thermal Solutions note the need to assess all aspects of the material before choosing this process.

“It is possible with given alloys and metals that the process may also cause a decrease in overall strength.”

Before Normalizing, Pause to Assess Materials Read More »

IHEA Monthly Economic Report — Stability or Confusion?

July 27, 2018 / FEATURED NEWS, HEAT TREAT ECONOMIC NEWS, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT

We begins this month’s economic report with a special request: Please register and attend the International ThermProcess Summit (ITPS) in Atlanta next week, July 30-August 1. This event, sponsored by IHEA, is meant for high-level executives in the heat treating industry including manufacturers with in-house heat treat as well as industry suppliers and contract heat treaters. Click here for more information. Thank you. Now on to our report…

IHEA Transportation Index June 2018 — Transportation was up strongly in June. Source: IHEA Monthly Economic Report

This month’s Industrial Heating Equipment Association (www.ihea.org) economic summary report shows sustained growth in nearly all sectors. The report, issued monthly to key executives whose companies are members of IHEA, summarizes approximately 12 indicators determined to be important to the thermal processing market. These indices include metal prices, housing starts, durable goods orders, purchasing managers index, credit managers index, a transportation index, new car & light truck sales, as well as others. The 12-13 page report, provided to IHEA by The Armada Group, IHEA’s exclusive economic advisor, provides not just a summary of the index movements, but an in depth explanation of the factors affecting each index. The report has been a valuable tool for key executives in IHEA member companies.

IHEA Steel Consumption Index — Steel consumption was up significantly in June. Source: IHEA Economic Survey

This month’s report showed an increase in the transportation index, steel consumption, and housing starts. Flat this month were factory orders, durable goods, and capital expenditures, as well as the PMI and industrial capacity utilization. Tariffs, or the threat of tariffs, continue to loom large over the direction of the economy. It is speculated that steel consumption is up strongly due to preemptive purchases, purchases made by many manufactures in advance of what they consider will be significant tariff price hikes.

For a complete copy of the monthly report, please email Anne Goyer.

IHEA Monthly Economic Report — Stability or Confusion? Read More »

High-tech Heat Treatment Facility Launched in Russia

July 25, 2018 / FEATURED NEWS, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT NEWS

A leading global iron ore and HBI producer and supplier, as well as a producer of high-quality steel, recently launched heat treatment systems with advanced technology for a Russian steelmaking and metal rolling company.

Andrey Varichev, CEO, Management Company Metalloinvest

Metalloinvest, based in Moscow, installed the Roller Hearth Heat Treatment Furnace #1 and Rolling Quenching Machine #1 at Ural Steel. Mosgipromez provided the design and engineering work for the new facility, while Tenova LOI Thermprocess was responsible for equipment delivery.

The installation of Roller Hearth Heat Treatment Furnace #1 and Rolling Quenching Machine #1 at Sheet Rolling Facility #1 enables Ural Steel to increase the production capacity of the heat treatment furnace from 28.6 to 30.7 tonnes per hour. Over the next 10 years, between 2019-2028, Ural Steel will be able to increase the production of heat-treated heavy plate by three times, and the output of steel for bridge construction by 39%. Production volumes will increase due to the introduction of a new product variety, which will be developed at the heat treatment facility.

Roller Hearth Heat Treatment Furnace #1 and Rolling Quenching Machine #1 will also help to improve the characteristics of the heavy plate, ensuring the physical uniformity of the rolled steel products following heat treatment, by improving heating and cooling conditions.

“The project has been completed as part of Metalloinvest’s comprehensive investment programme to reorganize production processes at Ural Steel, which will boost the operational and management efficiency of the enterprise,” said Andrey Varichev, CEO, Management Company Metalloinvest. “This new high-tech facility will strengthen the Company’s position in the market for heat-treated rolled products.”

“Metalloinvest is a special client for Tenova, to whom we supply our full range of products and technological solutions,” said Andrea Lovato, CEO, Tenova. “Taking part in the reorganization and modernization of Ural Steel’s production processes is a great opportunity for us, and we are confident that our partnership with Metalloinvest will help the enterprise to progress its development even further.”

This project follows Metalloinvest’s recent agreement to build a heat treatment facility for hot-rolled steel at the OEMK’s finishing plant #2, which will include the construction of a building for the heat-treatment facility and two thermal furnaces, and the creation of heavy-lifting and transmission equipment, as well as associated infrastructure. The first furnace is planned to be launched in 2019, and the second will begin operations in 2020.

The new facility will enable OEMK to carry out various kinds of heat treatment from 750-1800°F (400-980°C), a wide range of temperatures, in order to produce high-quality rolled steel products with a specific microstructure. Heat treatment is required in the production of various kinds of steel for springs, ball and roller bearings and construction, as well as for high-strength metal.

Varichev said: “We are seeing a high level of demand among customers for high-quality bars, which require heat treatment. Creating this new production facility will enable Metalloinvest to increase sales volume of this premium product and reinforce its position on the SBQ market.”

Metalloinvest expands steel heat treatment capacity as part of SBQ client-orientation and quality development.

High-tech Heat Treatment Facility Launched in Russia Read More »

Troubleshooting Thermocouples: Detecting Small Issues Before They Become Big Problems

July 24, 2018 / FEATURED NEWS, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT NEWS, THERMOCOUPLES TECHNICAL CONTENT

Source: GeoCorp, Inc.

Heat treating thermocouples are thermal processing sensors that allow equipment operators to accurately measure and maintain the right temperatures for softening, hardening, and material modification. A faulty thermocouple can result in inaccurate measurements, so it’s critical for quality management personnel to determine when and why thermocouple failure has occurred. GeoCorp, Inc., has provided a series of short articles that walk operators through assessment and troubleshooting of thermocouples that go bad.

Sometimes the smallest issues can lead to big problems. When your business relies on crucial temperature readings from your thermocouples, it can pay to pay identify individual factors that may have cause part failure. ~ James LaFollette, GeoCorp, Inc.

When troubleshooting thermocouple failure, the authors, James LaFollette and John Ochenas, recommend reviewing three key issues: system wiring, probes, and wire and junction. In addition, the following could cause misreadings:

metal fatigue
oxidation
contamination
poor installation

Troubleshooting Thermocouples: Detecting Small Issues Before They Become Big Problems Read More »

Controls, Software Upgrade at Bearings Plant to Improve Efficiency

July 23, 2018 / FEATURED NEWS, INSTRUMENTATION NEWS, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT NEWS

Bob Fincken, Super Systems National Sales Manager

A Cincinnati-based heat treat technology solutions provider recently completed a controls and software upgrade for the bearings brand of an engineering and manufacturing group at the latter’s facility in Dahlonega, Georgia, including instrumentation and software for hardening furnaces, quench, washer/rinse, and temper equipment.

Super Systems Inc. and JTEKT Corporation’s Koyo Bearings brand announced that the scope of the upgrade includes all engineering, installation, controls, and software for Koyo’s gas-fired hardening furnace line. The new automation included a turnkey retrofit of new control cabinets as well as software necessary for furnace control and historical process data review. The controls and software provide JTEKT with the confidence to heat treat parts to meet the highest standards with complete traceability for its Koyo brand bearings.

Michael Rebula, Heat Treat Supervisor at JTEKT

“We have been fortunate to work with JTEKT on a number of automation projects over the years and we are looking forward to participating in more innovative heat treating opportunities in the Dahlonega facility,” says Bob Fincken, Super Systems National Sales Manager.

“SSi’s ability to understand our needs and provide customized solutions has been a tremendous benefit to us,” says Michael Rebula, Heat Treat Supervisor at JTEKT.

Controls, Software Upgrade at Bearings Plant to Improve Efficiency Read More »

How to Know Which Softening Process to Use in Your Heat Treatment

July 17, 2018 / ANNEALING TECHNICAL CONTENT, FEATURED NEWS, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT NEWS

Source: Metlab Heat Treat

When steel needs to be softened to alter ductility, toughness, or properties, or to produce a specific microstructure, a heat treater can turn to any one or combination of processes to suit the material or the application.

Metlab Heat Treat’s primer series includes a short explanation of the options available, whether it is

annealing, which “removes the internal stresses, which build up as a result of cold working and other fabrication processes;”
protective atmosphere normalizing, which “refines the grain size and enhances the uniformity of the microstructure;” or
spheroidize annealing, which “is generally done on parts which have been work hardened, to allow them to be further worked, either rolled in the case of coils, or drawn for wire.”