Heat treatment of tool steels usually requires high flexibility combined with small lots of parts. Seal quench furnaces, executed with a single heating chamber, meet this demand.

Solar Manufacturing, Sellersville, Pa., has designed and installed an automatic disconnect switch into a production car bottom vacuum furnace at Solar Atmospheres in Souderton, Pa.

Nitrex Vacuum, Quebec, has sold a turnkey nitriding system to a manufacturing plant in Elblag, Poland.

Hannover Medical School, Germany, has developed a cochlear implant electrode array with shape memory for optimal placement in the ear.

Johnson Matthey, London, has again been included in the FTSE4Good Index series, recognizing strong environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices.

In the past, atmospheric furnaces were used quite often for heat treatment of tool steels. Due to the improved furnace technology of vacuum furnaces and their increased distribution in the market, the percentage of tools heat treated in atmospheric furnaces has fallen significantly over the last 20 to 30 years.

Quintus Technologies, Västerås, Sweden, has introduced the newest generation high pressure processing (HPP) system to meet the productivity needs of medium to large food and beverage processors.

Constellium, Decin, Czech Republic, is celebrating the expansion of its facility, including a new casthouse and extrusion press to serve the growing market for automotive aluminum.

Seco/Warwick, Poland, has an agreement with the Swedish company GreenIron H2 AB for the delivery of a series of furnaces for fossil-free metal production from ore, residuals, and waste recycling.

Seco/Vacuum, Meadville, PA, announced that their furnaces have once again been selected by the international Aalberts Surface Technologies Group.

Tools that are heat treated in molten salt baths are heated up much more rapidly than by convection or radiation, thereby heat treating times are significantly shortened. The molten salt provides a ready source of heat and maintains the rate of heating necessary to reach equilibrium with the rate of heat absorption.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology has published a new study that shows what happens when crystalline grains in metals reform at nanometer scales, improving metal properties. This includes recrystallization, in which the metal is deformed and heated.

Can-Eng Furnaces International Ltd, Canada, has been awarded a contract to deliver a high-capacity mesh belt heat treatment furnace line to a commercial heat treater in the Midwest U.S.

EFD Induction, Skien, Norway, has upgraded the Terac system, which uses induction heating for deck straightening with a new professional look and improved handling properties.

Nitrex Vacuum, Quebec, has delivered two large-capacity nitriding systems to the Italian gear manufacturer, Capi Group. Capi has been using Nitrex systems since 2018 and the new systems are expected to boost their nitriding/nitrocarburizing capacity.

Molten salts of various compositions are well adapted to all operations in the heat treatment of tool steels. For tools that cannot be ground after hardening or for tools that require an excellent surface condition and the maintenance of sharp edges, salt bath heating provides excellent results.

Seco/Vacuum, Pa., has shipped a single chamber high-pressure quench vacuum furnace, the Vector, to be utilized for a variety of heat-treating processes, including hardening of tool steels as well as high vacuum sintering and annealing.