Ipsen Titan H6 enables company to expand production capacity, meet increased demand

October 11, 2017
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Ipsen, Cherry Valley, Ill., announces that Rockford Heat Treaters, the original beta tester for the Ipsen Titan vacuum furnace, recently purchased a Titan H6 to expand production capacity and to meet increased demand. As commercial heat treaters, Rockford engineers know that process versatility is essential in a shop where requirements change day-to-day, or even hour-to-hour.

Part of what appeals to the company about the TItan product line is its high adaptability and part cleanliness. In fact, the first Titan furnace enabled enough flexibility to expand customer base and take jobs not previously possible. The newest furnace continues in this tradition, and it will join many other Ipsen furnaces, including a complete atmosphere line of seven integral quench furnaces with ancillary washers and tempers, more than a dozen draw furnaces, a VFS vacuum furnace, and four other vacuum furnaces.

The Titan H6 has a 36 x 36 x 48 inches all-graphite hot zone with a 3000-pound load capacity. Equipped with a diffusion pump, this furnace meets aerospace requirements and process sensitive materials that require deep vacuum levels. RHT also took advantage of several Ipsen support offerings, including on-site inspection of the installation, equipment startup, and personnel training. This support, coupled with Ipsen's inventory of speculation-based Titan furnaces, allowed RHT to begin processing customer parts within five weeks of issuing the purchase order.

With the current option to trade in an old furnace and receive a $50,000 credit toward a new Titan vacuum furnace, other companies can invest in their customers while adding the latest innovations to their facility as well. Available in several sizes and horizontal or vertical configurations, the Titan provides powerful performance for both experienced and first-time heat treaters.

www.IpsenUSA.com

Lindberg MPH ships tube heat-treating furnace for research and development

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Lindberg MPH, Riverside, Mich., has shipped a 2190°F hinged three-zone furnace to an R&D lab for heat treating process tubes and retorts made of ceramic, quartz, or metal alloys. The furnace work chamber is 36 inches long by 7 inches in diameter, and was designed for horizontal operation with the customer's existing control system.

It has a maximum temperature rating of 2190°F, and has an insulating vestibule at each end. It is equipped with a full-length hinge and a positive latch for easy observation, fast cooling, convenient placement of the process tube, and overall ease of operation. It utilizes semi-cylindrical heating units located in each half to form a long, split-cylinder heated chamber. The heated chamber is divided into three independent zones, with independent thermocouples for control reference to allow adjustable profiling of end zones.

In operation, the end zone set points can be raised to compensate for heat losses and to increase the length of the uniform temperature zone in the center of the furnace. Long-life, fast-response thermocouples are attached to six feet of compensated lead wire with a polarized plug.

"This tube furnace allows for great temperature uniformity and process repeatability, which is key for R&D applications," says Kelley Shreve, Applications Engineer

www.lindbergmph.com

Ryerson acquires Laserflex for its laser fabrication and welding capabilities

January 20, 2017
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Ryerson Holding Corp., Chicago, announces that it has acquired the Laserflex Corp., which specializes in laser fabrication and welding, and further enhances Ryerson's existing fabrication and metals processing capabilities.  Laserflex employs more than 100 at its two locations in Columbus, Ohio, and Wellford, South Carolina, and has annual revenue of approximately $25 million.

"Laserflex and Ryerson share a passion for creating great customer experiences in the advanced fabrication of metal parts for a wide variety of original equipment manufacturers," says Eddie Lehner, Ryerson's President and Chief Executive Officer. "Laserflex is an integral fit to our strategy focused around speed, scale, value-added culture, and analytics."

Ames and Oak Ridge awarded $5 million to improve metal powders for 3D printing

December 5, 2016
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Ames Laboratory, Iowa,  and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tenn., have been awarded $5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Manufacturing Office to improve the production and composition of metal alloy powders for additive manufacturing.

"A lot of intense interest is focused on additive manufacturing with metal alloys, because there are so many potential applications," says ASM Fellow Iver Anderson, who is project leader and senior metallurgist at Ames Lab, as well as adjunct professor in Materials Science and Engineering at Iowa State.  "Industry has demands for prototyping parts, design development, reducing waste of expensive materials, and efficiently producing custom and legacy components for their customers."

Because metal alloy powders are the raw materials for additive manufacturing, the ability to control the properties and quality of those powders becomes paramount to the quality of the final product. The goal is to achieve properties equal to those of cast and machined parts, or especially cast/forged and machined parts.

"Today, if engineers went to metal powder producers with a shopping list of the alloys and powder specifications needed, they very likely would not find what they want," says Prof. Anderson. "The customization capabilities are just not there, and we need to get there. That is going to be the key to commercially competitive additive manufacturing processes."

The goal of the project is to improve powder production by improving the  high-pressure gas atomization process pioneered at Ames. Engineers and scientists will design and customize alloys specifically for additive manufacturing processes. Modeling and simulation of gas atomization process stages will be based on a flow-simulation code developed by the National Energy Technology Laboratory for part of the work. 

Experimental gas atomization work and alloy design calculations/verification also will be done in the powder synthesis facilities at Ames.  Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (ORNL-MDF) will conduct the corresponding additive manufacturing experiments. 

https://www.ameslab.gov/news/