J.L. Becker, a Gasbarre Furnace Group Company, Plymouth, Mich., recently manufactured, shipped, and commissioned a complete IQ furnace line at the East Carolina Metal Treating facility in Raleigh, N.C. The system is configured to process 36x48x36-inch workloads that weigh up to 4000 pounds. It includes an integral quench furnace, two temper furnaces, a spray and dunk washer, a powered load transfer cart, a scissors lift table and two stationary load tables.
According to Jamie Ramm, President of ECMT, the new line reflects the company’s long tradition of continuously improving its ability to provide excellent service to its customers.
The IQ furnace features a highly energy-efficient recuperative radiant tube heating system, nitrogen/methanol panel, and a double deck elevator that enables multi-load processing. To ease maintenance, the circulating fan assembly is bung-mounted, and a catwalk provides access to components on the top of the heating chamber. The temper furnaces are both electrically heated and are lined with ceramic fiber insulation. A high convection, bung-mounted squirrel cage achieves excellent temperature uniformity throughout the workload area in the temper furnaces.
Dunking, oscillating, and spraying sequences remove quench oil, machine lubricants, and other contaminants from workloads in the washer. An oil separation system removes contaminants from the wash solution. A powered double-ended cart transfers workloads throughout the system. To meet AMS 2750 requirements, the equipment is configured to tie into ECMT’s existing SCADA system for data logging.
