Ipsen installs atmosphere and vacuum heat-treating systems for SKF

August 9, 2016
Source:

Ipsen, Cherry Valley, Ill., recently installed both atmosphere and vacuum heat-treating systems at SKF's state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in St. Louis. With the relocation of its existing facility to a new location, SKF continues to focus on enhancing the quality, efficiency, and overall effectiveness of its heat-treating equipment.

Among this new Ipsen equipment was a complete Atlas atmosphere heat-treating system, including two Atlas integral quench batch furnaces and ancillary equipment – washer, temper, endo generator, loader/unloader, and a feed-in/feed-out station. SKF also purchased a Titan vacuum heat-treating system to round out production capabilities.

Heat-treating is considered a core competency at SKF, and this new equipment will allow the company to bring the majority of heat treatment in-house and efficiently handle the increase in production demands and volume of parts.

The Atlas batch furnaces feature a 24x36x40-inch load size, with an 1100-pound load capacity. They also operate at temperatures of 1400 to 1800°F, and have a quench oil capacity of 1030 gallons.

The Titan vacuum furnace features an 18x24x18-inch load size, with a 1000-pound load capacity. It operates at temperatures of 1000 to 2400°F.

Overall, this Ipsen equipment will be used for carburizing, carbonitriding, brazing, and annealing, and will process a wide variety of parts that support SKF's Lubrication business unit.

"We run a very large variety of parts and batch quantities here," says SKF's Bryan Stanford.  "A custom solution designed to run tens of thousands of the same parts was not going to work for us. We wanted a low-cost, off-the-shelf-solution that would allow us the flexibility we required – which is what the Atlas and Titan delivered. Now, after having performed some pre-training, I would say what stands out the most is the ease of use and control of the equipment."

www.IpsenUSA.com/Products.

Steel Dynamics completes acquisition of Vulcan Threaded Products

Source:

Steel Dynamics Inc., Fort Wayne, Ind. , has completed the acquisition of Vulcan Threaded Products Inc., America's largest manufacturer and supplier of threaded rod products, and also a producer of cold-drawn and heat-treated bar.

The purchase price for Vulcan and its real estate assets is $114 million on a debt-free, cash-free basis, including $30 million of estimated working capital. The purchase has been funded with available cash. The transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to 2016 earnings and cash flow per share.

"We welcome the employees and customers of Vulcan into the Steel Dynamics family," stated Mark D. Millett, President and Chief Executive Officer. "The successful completion of the Vulcan acquisition represents a step towards one of our growth objectives, the pursuit of higher-margin downstream business opportunities that utilize our steel products in their manufacturing processes. This strategy is intended to reduce volatility during both strong and weak market cycles, given steel raw material supply optionality. 

"During weak steel demand environments these businesses could pull through volume internally from our own mills, thus increasing SDI's steel mill utilization. As a consumer of special-bar-quality products currently produced at our Engineered Bar Products Division, Vulcan depicts this model and fits well within our core operating strengths." 

Vulcan employs 225 people and shipped approximately 89,000 tons during the trailing twelve month period ended March 31, 2016.

www.steeldynamics.com

Laser profile scanner evaluates high-strength steel welds during welding process

Source:

SSAB Steel, Stockholm, announces that its engineers together with researchers from the Royal Institute of Technology have developed a quality assurance method for welds in high-strength steel in which a laser profile scanner assesses the welded surface and measures the quality of the weld. The most revolutionary aspect of this method is that the assessment takes place in real time – online – during the actual welding process.

"This system will provide instant feedback to the welding operator on whether the welded joint fulfills all its requirements," explains Dr. Thomas Stenberg. "If not, the welding robot will be able to adjust the process parameters to ensure that the weld quality complies with the desired result, without needing to disrupt the process or repeat the work."

As Anders Ohlsson, Manager of Joining & Thermal Cutting Technologies at SSAB's Knowledge Service Center explains, the new QA method has the potential to revolutionize the ways in which many of SSAB's customers utilize high-strength steel, opening up opportunities for more applications to benefit from its superior qualities, which include lower component weight and reduced fuel consumption.

"Minimizing the occurrence of failures caused by fatigue will enable us to use HSS in many applications in which they cannot be used today – such as in machines and components that are known to be subject to high stress concentrations. Examples of these applications may include chassis for manufacturing and forestry equipment, trailer chassis and components used in energy production," says Mr. Ohlsson.

According to Dr. Stenberg, who won the 2015 Swedish Steel Prize "University Challenge" award from SSAB for his groundbreaking work on the new QA method, the method will deliver significant benefits to the customers who implement it. 

"Firstly, we expect productivity to increase by about 50% due to increased robot travel speed, coupled with a reduction of up to 30% in the consumption of weld filler material," he says. "It will also allow manufacturers to cut lead times, thanks to the reduced number of inspections, while the need to scrap or rework products will be minimized."

www.ssab.com

New graphite board insulation enables more thermally efficient furnace hot zone

August 1, 2016
Source:

Solar Manufacturing, Souderton, Pa., announces that it has been cooperating for the past year with Graphite Machining Inc., Topton, Pa., on the development and testing of a new graphite board material and its application in vacuum furnace hot zones. This new graphite board material has undergone extensive thermal and vacuum testing to prove its improved thermal efficiency and excellent vacuum performance compared to prior and present graphite board designs.

GMI intends to market this new graphite board under the name of Heatguard insulation, while Solar will incorporate this new material into its vacuum furnace hot zones under the trade name of Hefvac (High Efficiency Vacuum).

According to Frank C. Schoch, president of GMI, "After extensive testing against our existing and competitive insulating materials, Solar Manufacturing and Graphite Machining combined our respective experience and created this new thermally efficient graphite board insulation material."

By incorporating Hefvac board insulation, Solar Manufacturing has now developed a proven, more thermally efficient vacuum furnace hot zone design that is capable of achieving faster and better vacuum levels because of the Hefvac sealed and low-moisture-absorption structure.

William R. Jones, CEO of the Solar Atmospheres family of companies notes, "I will be giving a presentation at the 2016 FNA (Furnaces North America) show in Nashville, Tenn., to highlight the testing and comparisons of prior designs to this new board material and to illustrate not only the more thermally efficient aspect of the new material, but also the ease and advantages of its use. Hefvac will be on display at Solar Manufacturing's booth 301-303 with a full size hot zone."

www.solarmfg.com

Buehler upgrades Wilson DiaMet hardness testing software

Source:

Buehler, Lake Bluff, Ill., announces that it has extensively upgraded its Wilson DiaMet hardness testing software with features designed to facilitate and accelerate specific applications, such as the documentation of the hardness distribution in welds, or the depth of hardening in induction-hardened workpieces or in objects hardened with conventional processes. The upgraded  DiaMet software is even more user friendly, and is internationally consistent.

DiaMet is designed for operation under Windows 10, and can interface with Office spreadsheet applications. It fulfills the requirements for industrial hardness measurement in a production-related environment – an application requiring high precision along with a maximum degree of automation in handling extensive test programs.

Designed for operation by mouse or touchscreen, the system offers expert users the required flexibility and broad feature set for planning, running, analyzing, documenting and archiving of individual measurements and measurement series, while at the same time enabling less extensively trained operators to work quickly and efficiently.

DiaMet is optimized for evaluating Macro-Vickers, Micro-Vickers, Knoop, and Brinell indents according to ISO 6507, ISO 4545, ASTM E384, ISO 6506 and ASTM E10. It is designed to work with all models of the current Wilson VH and UH hardness tester series, as well as some legacy systems.

As an international software package offered in multiple languages, the current Wilson DiaMet software addresses all relevant national and international hardness testing standards requirements.

"DiaMet users in global organizations can now share and compare results worldwide – regardless of where the measurements were made," says Marcel van Banning, Product Manager Hardness, Buehler ITW Test & Measurement GmbH. "With this new release, we are providing test engineers with a tool enabling them to supply detailed and reliable results, even when work assignments are time sensitive. In addition, the high degree of automation enables even less trained staff to conduct comprehensive test series and produce highly accurate results." 

The new design of the DiaMet testing software substantially facilitates the process of meeting ISO 9015 and ISO 15614 hardness testing of welds.  The software guides the operator through the setup process by adapting a fixed test pattern to the sample in hand with only a few clicks – strictly in accordance with the standards. The software produces a graphical image of the complete weld, including indent positions and associated measurement values, which can be used in a test report.

ISO 9015 and ISO 15614 describe the test loads, number of indents in the parent material, heat affected zone (HAZ) , distances between each indent and the depth below the surface of the welded joint. Fulfilling these test requirements traditionally requires a time-consuming setup and an experienced operator, not least due to the fact that no two weld samples are completely identical. DiaMet saves time and improves accuracy.

www.buehler.com

Hardness testers feature high accuracy and deadweight loads from 10 g to 2 kg

Source:

Buehler, Lake Bluff, Ill., introduces two universal hardness testers: the Wilson VH1102 and VH1202, both equipped with the extensively upgraded version of DiaMet software. They offer cost-efficient and reliable solutions for Knoop and Vickers micro-hardness testing in accordance with ISO 6507, 9385, and 4546, or ASTM E384 and E92.

The instruments meet the highest standards in terms of accuracy, and can be used both in quality control and research and development. They feature deadweight loads from 10 g up to 2 kg, and nine different, automatically selectable loading stages. Both models feature an ergonomic, adjustable 7-inch color touchscreen for rapid test method selection and data collection.

The system is highly intuitive and can be operated by less extensively trained staff after a brief period of training. The wide load range with test scales from HV/HK0.01 to HV/HK2 is the same for both models. The usual knob for manual selection of test weights has been replaced by a durable, software-controlled electric motor to automatically change test weights, thereby providing a level of operator convenience that is normally found only on higher-end instruments.

The two models differ with regard to the electrically driven, high-speed, low-noise turret. The VH1102 model is equipped with a turret providing four positions, including an indenter for Knoop or Vickers, and two standard objectives for 10x and 50x magnification at normal working distance.  

The VH1202 model is equipped with a six-position turret, including two indenters for both Knoop and Vickers, and an additional objective with 5x magnification at long working distance. For both models, the turret can be set to the magnification selected on the touch screen by simply pushing the Start button. They can be configured to meet a wide range of requirements, from a stand-alone version for laboratories with a relatively low sample volume, up to a fully equipped system for high sample volumes in an industrial environment.

The system includes the extensively upgraded version of its DiaMet software. Designed for operation by mouse or touchscreen, the system offers expert users the required flexibility and broad feature set for planning, running, analyzing, documenting, and archiving of individual measurements and measurement series. At the same time, the new software enables less extensively trained operators to work quickly and efficiently. The new version contains features designed to facilitate and accelerate specific applications, such as the documentation of the hardness distribution in welds, or the depth of hardening in induction-hardened workpieces, or parts treated with conventional hardening processes.

www.buehler.com

One Minute Mentor: Metallurgy of Austenitic Stainless Steels

July 29, 2016
Source:

The metallurgy of austenitic stainless steels is based on alloying that enlarges the austenite loop, as shown in the graphs. Additions of carbon expand the austenite loop, as shown in (a). Other elements that expand the loop include nickel, manganese, and nitrogen; while silicon, molybdenum, and titanium have an opposite effect. The actions of these elements shown in (b) form the basis for the microstructure of stainless steels.

Volume 4D, Heat Treating of Irons and Steels â‡’ Heat Treated High-Alloy Steels â‡’ Heat Treating of Austenitic and Duplex Stainless Steels â‡’ Metallurgy