Can-Eng Furnaces commissions continuous mesh belt heat treat system for auto fasteners
February 5, 2019
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Can-Eng Furnaces International Ltd., Niagara Falls, Ontario, recently commissioned a state-of-the-art continuous mesh belt heat treat system for the production of high quality automotive fasteners in the Piedmont Region of Italy. This Italian project was one of four installation locations for a global producer of specialty automotive fasteners.
The company chose Can-Eng based on proven reliability, efficiency, and soft part-handling features that are hallmarks of its mesh belt furnace systems. The high-volume fastener system features energy-efficient combustion and waste heat recovery systems, atmosphere-controlled mesh belt hardening system, oil quench, post wash system, temper furnace, soluble oil system, bi-directional conveyor discharge, and its Level 2 SCADA system.
The PET system provides the user with access to vital Industry 4.0 features, such as product traceability, detailed process data for continuous process improvements, comprehensive equipment diagnostics, cost analysis, and inventory management. It also integrates Can-Eng’s energy reduction system, which significantly lowers energy requirements. The system was commissioned in the fourth quarter of 2018, and has met and exceeded the client’s performance expectations.
www.can-eng.com
Can-Eng Furnaces International Ltd., Niagara Falls, Ontario, recently commissioned a state-of-the-art continuous mesh belt heat treat system for the production of high quality automotive fasteners in the Piedmont Region of Italy.
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Seco Warwick vacuum heat treating/brazing system includes high-pressure gas quench
Source: ASM International
Seco Warwick, Meadville, Pa., announces that is has provided a vacuum heat treatment and brazing system equipped with high-pressure gas quench to Grupo TTT for its facility in Bergara, Spain.
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Lindberg’s Treet-All box furnace is modular, stackable, with 2050°F maximum temperature
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Lindberg MPH, Riverside, Mich., reports that its Treet-All light industrial box furnace is suited for multiple applications, including annealing, ashing, austempering, brazing, preheating, and solution treating. The company recently shipped a Treet All to a customer in the technology industry.
The maximum temperature rating is 2050°F, with work chamber dimensions of 12x24x12 inches. This furnace is part of Lindberg’s modular, stackable, and space-saving line of box furnaces, and it meets and exceeds industry standards for heat-up rates and outer-shell temperatures. It is ideal for tool rooms, plant maintenance, and production applications that require maximum heat-treating, hardening, and tempering capabilities in a minimum amount of space.
The Treet-All furnaces are designed to minimize heat loss and save space. They also offer quick, consistent heat up rates, full access to the work chamber, minimum heating of the outer skin, product load protection, and precise control with long life and reliability.
www.lindbergmph.com
Lindberg MPH, Riverside, Mich., reports that its Treet-All light industrial box furnace is suited for multiple applications, including annealing, ashing, austempering, brazing, preheating, and solution treating.
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Bodycote plans to build new facility in Illinois for advanced heat treating technologies
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Bodycote, U.K., the world’s largest provider of heat treatment and specialist thermal processing services, announces plans to open a new heat treating facility by late 2019 in Elgin, Illinois. The plant will support the automotive, agricultural, mining, construction, and various other manufacturing supply chains in the Upper Midwest region.
The new facility will include advanced heat treating technologies such as low-pressure carburizing and carbonitriding, vacuum nitriding and ferritic nitrocarburizing, Bodycote’s proprietary Corr-I-Dur process, and traditional carburizing of large parts.
According to Dan McCurdy, President Automotive & General Industrial, North America & Asia division, “This investment demonstrates Bodycote’s commitment to serving the Midwest with the services our customers ask for and require.â€
www.bodycote.com
Bodycote, U.K., the world’s largest provider of heat treatment and specialist thermal processing services, announces plans to open a new heat treating facility by late 2019 in Elgin, Illinois.
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Department of Energy to award $38 million for projects to advance coal-fired power plants
January 29, 2019
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The U.S. Department of Energy, Washington, announces up to $38 million in federal funding for cost-shared R&D projects enhancing technologies that improve the overall performance, reliability, and flexibility of the nation’s existing coal-fired power plant fleet.
Coal is vital to the Nation’s energy security and provides around 30 percent of U.S. electricity. DOE is funding research to modernize the grid and improve the existing coal-fired power plant fleet under the Office of Fossil Energy’s (FE) funding opportunity announcement Improving Efficiency, Reliability, and Flexibility of Existing Coal-Based Power Plants.
“Utilizing all of our energy resources to ensure the reliability and resiliency of our nation’s electricity is a top priority for the Department of Energy,†said Under Secretary of Energy Mark Menezes. “Modernizing and advancing the existing coal fleet is imperative to this mission. By improving the efficiency of our baseload generation, we are strengthening the reliability of all our electricity generation.â€
“Along with the Department’s Coal FIRST initiative, modernizing the existing coal-fired fleet is critical to our effort to allow existing coal plants to load, follow and operate more efficiently. This research and development will lower emissions and foster new technologies beneficial to our electric grid,†said Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy Steven Winberg.
This FOA will develop advanced technologies that improve the overall performance, reliability, and flexibility of the nation’s existing coal-fired power plant fleet. Projects will support DOE’s Transformative Power Generation Program and Crosscutting Research Program. R&D funded under this FOA will also benefit FE’s efforts to advance the coal-fired plant of the future as part of the Coal FIRST initiative. The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) will manage these projects. Read more details of the FOA here.
https://www.energy.gov/fe/office-fossil-energy
The U.S. Department of Energy, Washington, announces up to $38 million in federal funding for cost-shared R&D projects enhancing technologies that improve the overall performance, reliability, and flexibility of the nation’s existing coal-fired power plant fleet.
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Supersonic Spray repairs 1937 vintage aluminum oil pan with its cold spray technology
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Supersonic Spray Technologies, a division of Centerline, Windsor, Ontario, announces that its engineers have restored an aluminum casting oil pan on a 1937 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Touring Berlinetta with its cold spray technology. RX Autoworks, a classic car restoration company, contacted SST for assistance in restoring the oil pan. The SST job shop team prepped the parts and applied cold spray to repair the damage, restoring the original oil pan to full mechanical functionality and aesthetically to its original appearance. This enabled RX Autoworks to salvage and restore the irreplaceable oil pan almost back to its original state. (Photo shows the untreated oil pan above, finished oil pan below.)
Wear/tear and corrosion over the years had a severe impact on the aesthetics and functionality of the oil pan. There were visible cracks on the inside that were causing leaks. The outside of the pan did not look aesthetically pleasing. Replacing components on vintage vehicles is undoubtedly not an option as they are long out of production. Additionally, aluminum casting alloys used to fabricate components like this are heat treated and are sensitive to procedures such as welding or conventional thermal spray techniques. Therefore, selecting a repair technique that did not compromise the integrity of this one-of-a-kind component was paramount.
The SST cold spray process enables metal consolidation that can dimensionally restore heat-sensitive components with minimal or no thermal effects. Therefore, SST manual cold spray technology, operating at low pressures and temperatures, was considered a reliable and effective solution for this challenge.
https://www.supersonicspray.com/uploadshttps://www.asminternational.org/documents/SST%20RX%20Autoworks%20Rev%202.pdf
Supersonic Spray Technologies, a division of Centerline, Windsor, Ontario, announces that its engineers have restored an aluminum casting oil pan on a 1937 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Touring Berlinetta with its cold spray technology.
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Titanium carbide nanoparticles infused into aluminum alloy 7075 enable strong welds
January 27, 2019
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Engineers at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering announce that they have developed a way to weld aluminum alloy AA 7075 by infusing titanium carbide nanoparticles into welding wires, which results in welded joints with a tensile strength up to 392 MPa. (By comparison, AA 6061 has a tensile strength of 186 MPa in welded joints.) According to the study, post-welding heat treatments could further increase the strength of AA 7075 joints up to 551 MPa, which is comparable to steel.
"The new technique is just a simple twist, but it could allow widespread use of this high-strength aluminum alloy in mass-produced products such as cars or bicycles, where parts are often assembled together," said Xiaochun Li, UCLA's Raytheon Professor of Manufacturing and the study's principal investigator. "Companies could use the same processes and equipment they already have to incorporate this super-strong aluminum alloy into their manufacturing processes, and their products could be lighter and more energy efficient, while still retaining their strength."
The researchers already are working with a bicycle manufacturer on prototype bike frames that would use the alloy; and the new study suggests that nanoparticle-infused filler wires could also make it easier to join other hard-to-weld metals and metal alloys.
“Nanoparticle-enabled phase control for arc welding of unweldable aluminum alloy 7075,†was published in the January 9 issue of Nature Communications.
Engineers at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering announce that they have developed a way to weld aluminum alloy AA 7075 by infusing titanium carbide nanoparticles into welding wires, which results in welded joints with a tensile strength up to 392 MPa.
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Desktop Metal’s single-pass jetting is four times faster than other binder jet 3D printers
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Desktop Metal, Burlington, Mass., announces several major advances and expanded capabilities to its Production System, the world’s fastest metal printer, delivering the lowest cost per part with the highest capacity of any metal 3D printing system available. Low-cost MIM powder, high throughput, and simple post-processing deliver per-part costs that are competitive with traditional manufacturing processes—and up to 20x lower than today’s metal 3D printing systems.
The installation of the first Production System is scheduled for Q1 2019 to a Fortune 500 company among Desktop Metal’s early Pioneer customers. Additional customer installations at major automotive, heavy duty, and leading metal parts manufacturers will follow throughout 2019, with broad availability in 2020.
Powered by Single Pass Jetting technology, the Production System is the first and only metal 3D printing system for mass production that delivers the speed, quality, and cost-per-part needed to compete with traditional manufacturing processes. It is more than four times faster than any binder jet competitor and offers a 100 times speed improvement over any laser-based system. Since it was first introduced, advancements to the technology and capacity of the Production System have expanded to include:
â–º Accelerated printing speeds to 12,000 cm3 per hour, making it the fastest metal 3D printer in the world with the highest capacity;
► The company’s flagship configuration now features an expanded build volume of 750 x 330 x 250 mm, a 225 percent improvement, designed for higher throughput and efficiency;
â–º Two full-width print bars, advanced powder spreaders, and anti-ballistic system that work to spread powder and print in a single quick pass across the build area - making it the most sophisticated single pass inkjet print head ever installed in a binder jet system;
â–º 32,768 piezo inkjet nozzles that enables the broadest range of binder chemistries to print an array of metals - including tool steels, low alloy steels, titanium, and aluminum - at a rate of 3 billion drops per second;
â–º First and only binder jet system with an industrial inert environment, including gas recycling and solvent recovery, to safely print reactive metals in mass production; and
â–º Capability to print more than 60 kilograms of metal parts per hour.
www.desktopmetal.com
Desktop Metal, Burlington, Mass., announces several major advances and expanded capabilities to its Production System, the world’s fastest metal printer, delivering the lowest cost per part with the highest capacity of any metal 3D printing system available.
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Wisconsin Oven dual-chamber heat treating furnace preheats up to 4000 pounds of steel
January 24, 2019
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Wisconsin Oven Corp., East Troy, has shipped a natural gas-fired Heavy Duty Batch Series furnace for preheating dies to a customer in the automotive industry. The dual-chamber die heating furnace has a maximum operating temperature of 1250°F and work chamber dimensions of 6 x 4 x 6 feet. Guaranteed temperature uniformity of ±15°F at 800°F and 1100°F was verified through a nine-point profile test conducted in an empty furnace chamber under static operating conditions.
The dual chamber furnace has sufficient capability to heat 4000 pounds of steel from 70°F to 1100°F within four hours when loaded into a preheated furnace, with guaranteed temperature uniformity of ±15°F at 800°F and 1100°F. Each chamber features a carbon steel die support structural frame to accommodate two dies, one above the other. Each structural frame is designed to support a 2000-pound load.
“This furnace was sold to a repeat customer in the automotive industry,†says Jim Lucas, Senior Sales Engineer. “A majority of the equipment we ship is to our repeat customer base, which is a testament to our customer service. We look forward to continuing to do business with this customer for years to come.â€
www.wisoven.com
Wisconsin Oven Corp., East Troy, has shipped a natural gas-fired Heavy Duty Batch Series furnace for preheating dies to a customer in the automotive industry.
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One Minute Mentor: Tensile properties of austempered ductile iron
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It is obvious from the graph that austempered ductile iron (ADI) is a unique cast iron material with tensile properties attributable to γH with the fine dispersion of ferrite.
Austempering is accomplished by first heating the casting to a temperature in the austenite-phase range (usually 815 to 925°C, or 1500 to 1700°F). The next step is holding for the time required to saturate the austenite with carbon, then cooling to a temperature above the Ms temperature at a rate sufficient to avoid the formation of pearlite or other mixed structures. The final step is holding at that austempering temperature for the time required to produce the optimal structure of acicular ferrite and carbon-enriched austenite. In some instances, austenitizing is completed in an intercritical region.
Austempered ductile iron is a unique cast iron material with tensile properties attributable to ?H with the fine dispersion of ferrite.
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