Hi-Tek Manufacturing receives Nadcap accreditation for heat treating and more

January 14, 2015
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Hi-Tek Manufacturing, Mason, Ohio, which serves the gas turbine industry, announces that it has received Nadcap accreditation for heat treating and for brazing, hardness testing for heat treating, and pyrometry capabilities.  "This completes our major investment to provide full service to our OEM Turbine Engine customers," stated Barry Nehls, Sales and Marketing Manager.  "Process timing is critical for our customers, and the addition of in-house heat treating greatly enhances our ability to produce made complete components. The timing and logistics cost reductions represent a huge savings to our customers."

"Companies such as Hi-Tek Manufacturing work hard to obtain this status and they should be justifiably proud of it," said Joe Pinto, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at the Performance Review Institute. "PRI is proud to support continual improvement in the aerospace industry by helping companies such as Hi-Tek be successful and we look forward to continuing to assist the industry moving forward."

www.hitekmfg.com

Solar Atmospheres heat treats titanium manifold for Orion spacecraft

January 7, 2015
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Solar Atmospheres of Western Pennsylvania, Hermitage, Pa., announces that it vacuum heat-treated the titanium manifold in the Launch Abort System of the NASA Orion spacecraft launched in December.  The large manifold housing, made of Ti6AI4V, is designed to rapidly propel astronauts away from the main rocket in case of a catastrophic explosion or any other unexpected event.  Once fired, the LAS will accelerate the astronauts away from the main rocket at forces up to 10 to 15 g's.

"The welded component needed to be homogenously treated to ensure peak performance in the event the LAS would be needed," says Michael Johnson, Sales Manager. "Precise temperature monitoring of the part and uniformity of the furnace was the easy part. The challenging part was avoiding a eutectic reaction with the furnace tooling, while minimizing distortion. At the end of the day, both Solar and its customer had a process that proved to be successful on the prototype and the three additional manifolds that followed."

www.solaratm.com

Vac Aero high-pressure quench vacuum furnace has high heating rates, tight uniformity

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Vac Aero, Burlington, Ontario, has sold a VAH4848 HV-6 high-pressure quench vacuum furnace to a manufacturer and integrator of high performance aerospace systems and components. The furnace is designed to have rapid heating rates while maintaining tight uniformity at high vacuum levels, and is equipped with a gas-quench system capable of quench pressures up to six bar. An external recirculating inert gas quenching system distributes quench gas through circumferentially located internal nozzles for rapid, uniform cooling of the work load.

The furnace features a 36 x 30 x 48-inch carbon hot zone, with a heavy duty hearth designed to support a uniformly distributed load of 2500 lb. Bottom-loading or front-loading vacuum brazing and heat treating furnaces are designed to have rapid heating rates to very uniform temperatures at high vacuum levels. They are equipped with a gas quench system capable of quickly cooling the workload from processing temperatures, at quench pressures from 1.5, 2, 6, to 10 bar, depending on the specifications of each individual furnace.

Furnaces are designed for operating between 1000°F and 2400°F, depending on the specifications of each individual furnace. Hot zone heating Elements are made of curved graphite, lanthanated molybdenum (MoLa) strip, or molybdenum strip, depending on the specifications of each individual furnace.

Hot zones feature unitized construction for easy removal and maintenance. The lightweight design's low thermal mass enables faster quenching and longer life. The heat shield package consists of one layer of 0.020-in. thick lanthanated molybdenum sheet backed by one layer of 0.010-in. thick molybdenum sheet, and three layers of 0.014-in. stainless steel sheet. The heat shield package is supported by a 14 gauge stainless steel assembly that uniformly distributes the quenching gas to the workload.

www.vacaero.com

Solar Atmospheres wins Bell Helicopter “approved supplier” status

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Solar Atmospheres of Western PA (SAWPA), Hermitage, Pa., announces that it has attained an approved supplier status for Bell Helicopter Textron Inc.  SAWPA has received approval for the heat treatment of steel and titanium alloy components used in the production of Bell Helicopters. Solar's extensive and flexible capabilities include over 40 furnaces for vacuum heat treating services, including the country's largest commercial vacuum furnace (36 feet long, 150,000 pound capacity), shown in the photo.

Through precise temperature and atmosphere controls, customer specifications can be met with minimal distortion and bright, scale-free results.

"Solar Atmospheres of Western PA is extremely honored to provide precise, thermally vacuum processed parts for the world's premier provider of vertical lift aircraft – Bell Helicopter," says Bob Hill, president of Solar Atmospheres of Western PA. "This rotary-wing approval complements the multiple fixed-wing approvals that currently exist."

www.solaratm.com