Paulo combines HIP and heat treating for AM and cast products with Quintus HIP system
March 20, 2019
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Quintas Technologies, Sweden, announces that Paulo Heat Treating, St. Louis, Mo., has acquired a Quintas hot isostatic press for its Cleveland Division. The press, model QIH 122 M URC, is equipped with Quintus’ proprietary uniform rapid cooling (URC), a feature that improves material properties for products of additive manufacturing and investment casting.
"We see the market for HIP expanding, with a large part attributed to additive manufacturing," says Scott Herzing, Paulo Vice President of Engineering. "We have the leading material knowledge and process expertise to help our customers in this area. The ability to combine HIP and heat treatment will allow us to offer one-stop-shop thermal processing solutions, with faster turnaround times."
The HIP will be installed in Paulo's recently expanded Cleveland Division, in Willoughby, Ohio, which provides specialized brazing and precise vacuum heat treatment. The plant's AS9100 quality management system and Nadcap accreditation make it especially well-suited to serve the needs of the aerospace and power generation industries.
Configured as a Quintus Modularized Solution, a space- and energy-saving profile that simplifies building and civil work and reduces infrastructure investment, the press features a work zone of 26.0 inches (660 mm) in diameter and 68.9 inches (1750 mm) in height. It operates at a maximum temperature of 2,552°F (1,400°C) and maximum pressure of 30,000 psi (2,070 bar).
https://www.quintustechnologies.com
https://www.paulo.com
Quintas Technologies, Sweden, announces that Paulo Heat Treating, St. Louis, Mo., has acquired a Quintas hot isostatic press for its Cleveland Division.
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Dual-chamber heat treating furnace hardens and tempers tool steels for transportation
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L&L Special Furnace Co., Aston, Pa., announces that it has shipped a dual-chamber heat treating furnace that will harden tool steels in its upper chamber while its bottom chamber is used for tempering, stress relief, and pre-heating. The furnace was purchased by a manufacturer in the southeastern United States who processes various components used in the production of heavy machinery and transportation equipment.
The L&L model QD836 furnace’s hardening chamber has an effective work zone 16 inches wide by 16 inches high by 32 inches deep. The tempering chamber has an effective work zone 14 inches wide by 14 inches high by 32 inches deep. The top chamber has a uniformity of ±20° above 1200°F, and the bottom chamber has a uniformity of ±10°F from 300°F to 1250°F.
The furnace is controlled by Eurotherm temperature controls with overtemperature protection. Solid-state relays drive the electric heating elements and include heavy-duty, long-lasting 11 gauge thermocouples. All of L&L’s furnaces can be configured with various options and can be specifically tailored to meet thermal needs. L&L also offers furnaces equipped with pyrometry packages to meet ASM2750E and soon-to-be-certified MedAccred guidelines.
Options include a variety of control and recorder configurations. A three-day, all-inclusive startup service is available with each system within the continental United States and Canada. International startup and training service is available by factory quote.
www.llfurnace.com
L&L Special Furnace Co., Aston, Pa., announces that it has shipped a dual-chamber heat treating furnace that will harden tool steels in its upper chamber while its bottom chamber is used for tempering, stress relief, and pre-heating.
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Wisconsin Oven builds 35-foot, two-zone gas-fired oven for curing composites
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Wisconsin Oven Corp., East Troy, announces the shipment of a two-zone indirect gas-fired heavy duty walk-in oven to a global manufacturer in the composites industry. This project passed the stringent temperature uniformity requirements to meet BAC 5621 Class 1 Furnaces and Instrumentation Type D specifications.
The composite curing oven has a maximum operating temperature of 450°F and overall chamber dimensions of 12 feet wide, 35 feet long, and 9 feet high. It utilizes a horizontal air flow configuration to maximize heating rates and uniformity. Three total guaranteed temperature uniformity tests were performed to ±5°F, each at set points of 150°F, 250°F, 350°F, and 400° F to meet BAC 5621 Class 1 Furnaces and Instrumentation Type D specifications. These were verified through a 50-point profile (with center door raised), and a 25-point profile (with center door closed) performed separately. All three tests were conducted in an empty oven chamber under static operating conditions.
It has sufficient capability to heat 2000 pounds of material from 70°F to 350°F at an average rate of 10°F per minute. It features three total vertical lift, electrically operated doors; the center door (when in the closed/lowered position) separates each zone into individual chambers. When in the raised position, this center door allows the customer to utilize one main large heating chamber.
Each zone’s exhaust blowers include both VFD’s and modulating dampers to allow a lowered exhaust rate during heating, and capability for accelerated cooling of product during the cooling stage. The vacuum system includes two 2 HP rotary vane vacuum pumps, one for each zone, and a Eurotherm controller for controlling the pressure of each vacuum header. This composite curing oven also features access doors within both end vertical lift doors, personnel safety interior pull cords (to automatically open both end doors), and interior lighting.
www.wisoven.com
Wisconsin Oven Corp., East Troy, announces the shipment of a two-zone indirect gas-fired heavy duty walk-in oven to a global manufacturer in the composites industry.
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Seco Warwick reports record order portfolio and 10% sales increase over 2017
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The Seco Warwick Group, Meadville, Pa., reports a record order portfolio of over $106 million after three quarters of 2018, with an operating profit for this period of $5.3 million, and net profit of $3.5 million.
The Group's sales in the first three quarters of 2018 increased by 10% compared to the same period of 2017, reaching a record $106 million. The strong market position is built not only by factories and companies on three continents, but also by stable revenues and a record order portfolio for end-to-end solutions in five product categories.
One category of note is atmosphere heat treatment technology and equipment, the product segment that provided robust sales in 2018. The final results reflect great progress for this product segment, which has prompted continuing investment in this technology and expansion into new markets.
Another product segment that recorded excellent sales results was vacuum metallurgy. A significant increase in sales of vacuum induction melting systems (VIM) in 2018 has already become the success story of the segment. At Purdue University, the Group installed and commissioned a VIM type furnace with a unique oil cooling system - a furnace for infiltrating samples with a zirconium alloy. VIM also was delivered, among other vacuum metallurgy project, to an American company serving the aviation industry.
The aerospace industry built a strong order portfolio, 70% of sales, for the Group in 2018, because equipment from the three segments of the Group are devoted to this sector. Particularly noteworthy are furnaces for vacuum heat treatment. In 2018, 65% of the total volume were designed as customized projects.
www.secowarwick.com
The Seco Warwick Group, Meadville, Pa., reports a record order portfolio of over $106 million after three quarters of 2018, with an operating profit for this period of $5.3 million, and net profit of $3.5 million.
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One Minute Mentor: Subcritical anneal to convert pearlite to ferrite
March 18, 2019
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When maximum ductility and good machinability are needed and high strength is not required, ductile iron castings generally are given a full ferritizing anneal. The microstructure thus is converted to ferrite, and the excess carbon is deposited on the existing nodules (Fig. 3a). This treatment produces ASTM grade 60-40-18. Amounts of manganese, phosphorus, and alloying elements such as chromium and molybdenum should be as low as possible for superior machinability, because these elements retard the annealing process.
For subcritial anneal, heat and hold at 705 to 720 °C (1300 to 1330 °F), for one hour per inch of section. Furnace cool at 55 °C/h (100 °F/h) to 345 °C (650 °F). Air cool. The Figure shows the influence of subcritical annealing at 705 °C (1300 °F) for various periods of time on the hardness of four ductile irons. When alloys are present, controlled cooling times through the critical temperature range down to 400 °C (750 °F) must be reduced to below 55 °C/h (100 °F/h).
https://dl.asminternational.org/books/book/9/chapter/109877/Heat-Treating-and-Properties-of-Ductile-Iron
When maximum ductility and good machinability are needed and high strength is not required, ductile iron castings generally are given a full ferritizing anneal.
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One Minute Mentor: Subcritical anneal to convert pearlite to ferrite in ductile iron
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When maximum ductility and good machinability are needed and high strength is not required, ductile iron castings generally are given a full ferritizing anneal. The microstructure thus is converted to ferrite, and the excess carbon is deposited on the existing nodules (Fig. 3a). This treatment produces ASTM grade 60-40-18. Amounts of manganese, phosphorus, and alloying elements such as chromium and molybdenum should be as low as possible for superior machinability, because these elements retard the annealing process.
For subcritial anneal, heat and hold at 705 to 720 °C (1300 to 1330 °F), for one hour per inch of section. Furnace cool at 55 °C/h (100 °F/h) to 345 °C (650 °F). Air cool. The Figure shows the influence of subcritical annealing at 705 °C (1300 °F) for various periods of time on the hardness of four ductile irons. When alloys are present, controlled cooling times through the critical temperature range down to 400 °C (750 °F) must be reduced to below 55 °C/h (100 °F/h).
https://dl.asminternational.org/books/book/9/chapter/109877/Heat-Treating-and-Properties-of-Ductile-Iron
When maximum ductility and good machinability are needed and high strength is not required, ductile iron castings generally are given a full ferritizing anneal.
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European team produces 3D printed titanium pressure vessel for space exploration
March 11, 2019
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A European aerospace production team comprising Thales Alenia Space, Cranfield University, and Glenalmond Technologies announces the completion of the first full-scale prototype of an additively manufactured titanium pressure vessel to be used in future manned missions for space exploration.
The vessel is approximately 39 inches high and weighs about 19 pounds. Made of the titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V, it was manufactured by the â€wire plus arc†additive manufacturing (WAAM) process, which Cranfield University has pioneered over the last decade. Thanks to being able to go straight from digital drawing to final structure, WAAM has integrated two individual pieces into a single part; eliminated the need for long-lead-time forgings; and substantially reduced the amount of waste material removed by machining.
If manufactured traditionally, the component would have required about 30 times more raw material than its final mass. By using the WAAM process, more than 440 pounds of Ti-6Al-4V has been saved for each component. There is room to improve this further, and Cranfield is working on innovative methods to deposit closer to the final thickness.
The WAAM shape was manufactured at Cranfield and then sent to Glenalmond Technologies, where it was stress-relieved, laser-scanned, machined, and inspected by an ultrasonic method. The final inspection was carried out by Agiometrix with a computer tomography scan for internal quality analysis and then an optical scanner, with Thales Alenia Space ensuring that the part met the mechanical requirements and specifications.
Following the checks, the project team was satisfied that the vessel fulfils the driving technical and quality requirements. The team is now proceeding to the building of a second prototype, to carry out a fine tuning of the whole manufacturing cycle, to demonstrate the repeatability and reliability of the process, and to push the implementation of the new approach into the flight hardware.
http://www.cranfield.ac.uk
A European aerospace production team comprising Thales Alenia Space, Cranfield University, and Glenalmond Technologies announces the completion of the first full-scale prototype of an additively manufactured titanium pressure vessel to be used in future manned missions for space exploration.
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Tungsten-based alloy withstands radiation in nuclear fusion devices without damage
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Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, announces that its scientists have developed a tungsten-based alloy that can withstand unprecedented amounts of radiation without damage. The material, created as a thin film, is a quaternary nanocrystalline tungsten-tantalum-vanadium-chromium alloy that has been characterized under extreme thermal conditions and after irradiation.
Essential for extreme irradiation environments such as the interiors of magnetic fusion reactors, previously explored materials have thus far been hobbled by weakness against fracture, but this new alloy seems to defeat that problem.
“This material showed outstanding radiation resistance when compared to pure nanocrystalline tungsten materials and other conventional alloys,†said Osman El Atwani, the lead author of the paper and the principal investigator of the “Radiation Effects and Plasma Material Interactions in Tungsten Based Materials†project at Los Alamos. “Our investigations of the material mechanical properties under different stress states and response of the material under plasma exposure are ongoing.â€
“We have never seen before a material that can withstand the level of radiation damage that we have observed for this high-entropy [four or more principal elements] alloy,†says principal investigator Enrique Martinez Saez, a coauthor of the paper at Los Alamos. “It seems to retain outstanding mechanical properties after irradiation, as opposed to traditional counterparts, in which the mechanical properties degrade easily under irradiation.â€
www.lanl.gov
Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, announces that its scientists have developed a tungsten-based alloy that can withstand unprecedented amounts of radiation without damage.
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Mineral and organic acids extract rare earth elements from phosphate rock waste
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Researchers from Rutgers University-New Brunswick, N.J., and members of the Critical Materials Institute in Ames, Iowa, announce that they have found a possible new source of rare earth elements in phosphate rock waste, and have developed an environmentally friendly way to extract the elements. Results of their study were published in the Journal of Chemical Thermodynamics.
The research team explored using mineral and organic acids, including a bio-acid mixture, to extract six rare earth elements (yttrium, cerium, neodymium, samarium, europium, and ytterbium) from synthetic phosphogypsum. Scientists led by David Reed at Idaho National Laboratory produced the bio-acid mixture - consisting primarily of gluconic acid, found naturally in fruits and honey - by growing the bacteria Gluconobacter oxydans on glucose.
The results suggest that the bio-acid did a better job extracting rare earth elements than pure gluconic acid at the same pH (2.1), or degree of acidity. The mineral acids (sulfuric and phosphoric) failed to extract any rare earth elements in that scenario. When the four acids were tested at the same concentration, only sulfuric acid was more effective than the bio-acid.
Each year, an estimated 250 million tons of phosphate rock are mined to produce phosphoric acid for fertilizers. In the United States, approximately 28 million metric tons were mined in 2017. Rare earth elements generally amount to less than 0.1 percent in phosphate rock. But worldwide, about 100,000 tons of these elements per year end up in phosphogypsum waste. That's almost as much as the approximately 126,000 tons of rare earth oxides produced worldwide each year.
www.newbrunswick.rutgers.edu
https://cmi.ameslab.gov/
Researchers from Rutgers University-New Brunswick, N.J., and members of the Critical Materials Institute in Ames, Iowa, announce that they have found a possible new source of rare earth elements in phosphate rock waste, and have developed an environmentally friendly way to extract the elements.
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One Minute Mentor: Austenitizing ductile cast iron
March 4, 2019
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The usual objective of austenitizing is to produce an austenitic matrix with as uniform a carbon content as possible prior to thermal processing. The graph shows the 2% silicon section of the Fe-C-Si phase diagram.
For a typical hypereutectic ductile cast iron, an upper critical temperature must be exceeded so that the austenitizing temperature is in the two-phase (austenite and graphite) field. This temperature varies with alloy content. Equations to predict the location of the upper critical temperature with varying chemical compositions are found in the literature.
It also is clear from the graph that the “equilibrium†austenite carbon content in equilibrium with graphite increases with an increase in austenitizing temperature. This ability to select (within limits) the matrix austenite carbon content makes austenitizing temperature control important in processes that depend on carbon in the matrix to drive a reaction. This is true particularly in structures to be austempered, in which the hardenability (or austemperability) depends to a significant degree on matrix carbon content.
https://dl.asminternational.org/books/book/9/chapter-abstract/109877/Heat-Treating-and-Properties-of-Ductile-Iron?redirectedFrom=fulltext
The usual objective of austenitizing is to produce an austenitic matrix with as uniform a carbon content as possible prior to thermal processing. The graph shows the 2% silicon section of the Fe-C-Si phase diagram.
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