Vac Aero sells vacuum furnace to international airline

July 20, 2015
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Vac Aero, Burlington, Ontario, has sold a VAV6648 HV-2 vertical vacuum furnace to an international airline company. The furnace is designed to have rapid heating rates while maintaining tight uniformity at high vacuum levels. The furnace features metal elements and a graphite hot zone with a diameter of 66 in. and height of 48 in. The hot zone insulation package is mounted on a stainless steel support ring. The heavy-duty hearth is designed to support a uniformly distributed load of 4400 pounds.

The furnace, which is capable of meeting applicable AMS 2750E requirements, is also equipped with Vac Aero's advanced Honeywell HC900 interactive hybrid control package. It includes SCADA and complete network integration capabilities, as well as remote monitoring and control. Vac Aero's 50-plus years of experience operating its own heat treating facilities allows it to provide turnkey solutions to customers, including technology transfers as well as training, hands-on instruction, and collaboration.

www.vacaero.com

RTI to supply finished titanium structural parts to Airbus

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RTI International Metals Inc., Pittsburgh, announces that it has been selected to provide finished titanium structural parts to Airbus for its new A350-1000 aircraft program. RTI is to supply two final-machined structural titanium fuselage parts for the Airbus A350-1000 aircraft. The award from Airbus represents its first procurement of RTI parts manufactured entirely by RTI's vertically integrated supply chain.

Work to be completed by RTI includes providing titanium mill products, as well as extruding, forming, final machining, and managing external suppliers. A portion of the extrusion, forming, and machining will be carried out by business units acquired by RTI over the last three years. These facilities include RTI Advanced Forming Ltd. and RTI Extrusions Europe Ltd., both located in The United Kingdom.

"This award is representative of the vertically-integrated, value-added business opportunities available to RTI as a direct result of our commitment to the execution of our strategy to extend RTI's reach downstream, where we believe a majority of the incremental commercial aerospace industry growth opportunities lie," said Dawne S. Hickton, Vice Chair, President, and CEO of RTI. "In addition, our selection for this work further confirms the credibility and breadth of capability of RTI's vertically integrated supply chain, as well as our ability to build the strategic partnerships that are critical to successfully competing in today's commercial aerospace industry."

Split-Zone Oxidation oven cuts cost of carbon fiber production

July 15, 2015
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Despatch Industries, Minneapolis, Minn., reports that it has developed a Split-Zone Oxidation oven with Novariance Technology that can significantly reduce oxidation cycle time for carbon fibers. By creating two discrete thermal profiles for the upper and lower half of the chamber, the temperature in the upper half of the oven can be increased by several degrees, advancing the rate of oxidation of the carbon fiber within the same process chamber. This will allow manufacturers to aggressively push the oxidation rate to reduce oxidation cycle time, and lower the cost of oxidized carbon fiber.

Novariance Technology, with its patent-pending orifice-plate nozzle structures, eliminates the side-to-side and directional variance inherent in conventional nozzle designs.

"The Split-Zone oxidation oven will lower process variability, widen the window to optimize heat transfer rates to a specific precursor, and double the effective number of zones of control," says Steve Oman, Despatch Industries General Manager of Carbon Fiber Business. "We estimated that a 25% cycle time reduction, or more, can be achieved with Split-Zone Oxidation technology." An animated video is available on the Despatch website to learn more.

www.despatch.com/oxidation.

Constellium forms partnership to develop 3D printing of aluminum aircraft fuselage

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Constellium N.V., Amsterdam, announces that it has formed a partnership with Stelia Aerospace and CT Ingenierie to optimize large aluminum aerostructures via additive manufacturing. Called Fast, the goal of the project is to make large aerospace structures and parts more efficiently and cost effectively by developing 3D printing on a large scale. In particular, 3D printing of a fuselage has the potential to transform the aerospace industry, allowing for easy design modification, duplication, and customization at a lower cost. 

"The goal of the Fast project is to change the way innovative technologies are implemented and to expand the usage of 3D printing. 3D printing will allow us to create metal shapes and properties that were previously impossible to produce," said Bruno Chenal, Director of R&D, Constellium Research and Technology. Fast is a long-term project that was formed last year and currently remains in early stages of development. 

Constellium will act as the primary material supplier, while Stelia Aerospace will lead the design and production efforts and CT Ingenierie will optimize the design.  3D printing is already used widely in technology and extrusion manufacturing, but the large scale and the holistic optimization approach make this project unique.

www.constellium.com

SecoWarwick to deliver equipment for recycling aerospace titanium in Europe

June 24, 2015
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Seco-Warwick Europe, Poland, together with Retech Systems, Ukiah, Calif., have signed a contract for delivery of a comprehensive melt-shop equipment package to a new European facility for recycling aviation-grade titanium. EcoTitanium, launched in France in April, will provide the aerospace industry with a new titanium supply channel, independent of American and Russian sources.

The equipment package includes three metallurgical units: one plasma arc melting (PAM) furnace, two vacuum arc remelting (VAR) furnaces, and associated equipment. Plasma melting systems have the proven commercial ability to consistently produce titanium alloy ingots and castings more efficiently than competing technologies. This is primarily because plasma melting systems operate under an inert gas atmosphere, which allows the alloy composition of the metal to be maintained easily with minimal evaporative losses, as opposed to other processes that operate in a vacuum.

The Retech PAM system fully integrates simple, robust mechanisms with proven melting systems and control techniques. The feed system consists of a proven rotary can feeder and vibratory chute combination that delivers turnings to the melt hearth. Also included is a  bar feeder for feeding titanium scrap. 

Once in the melt hearth, the material is thoroughly melted by Retech's robust transferred-arc plasma torch. Material continues on to a series of refining hearths where both high-density and low-density inclusions are removed under the action of the plasma torches and the residence time provided by the refining hearths.

An ingot is formed within the water-cooled copper mold, on top of a matching water-cooled copper puller.  As the puller withdraws out the bottom of the mold, the titanium alloy solidifies as new liquid continues to flow into the top of the mold. The system will be able to produce large ingots that will be then used as electrodes for the VAR system.

Two vacuum arc remelting furnaces Retech, each equipped with two melt stations, are designed to melt and refine titanium and titanium alloy final ingots. These ingots will be produced from fully dense electrodes produced by Retech's Plasma Cold Hearth Melting process. New ingots will be formed in copper crucibles by melting the consumable electrode under vacuum conditions by the electric arc.

www.secowarwick.com