Seco Warwick, Meadville, Pa., introduces 4D Quench, a continuous, single-piece flow vacuum heat treatment system for quenching and distortion control. It is said to be a cost-effective alternative that cools as rapidly as oil but without the issues associated with oil. The system can reportedly replace traditional press quenching and will enable customers to achieve the same results or better as oil press quenching, but with gas cooling after vacuum heating
“The 4D Quench system utilizes a proprietary arrangement of cooling nozzles that surround the part and ensure a uniform flow of cooling gas from all sides; top, bottom, and side – 3D cooling,” says VP Maciej Korecki. “To complete the process, a table spins the part (the 4th dimension), further enhancing quench uniformity.”
The cooling nozzles pattern can be adjusted to fit the particular part size range and shape. The entire nitrogen cooling system provides powerful and uniform quenching, which results in perfect repeatability and significant reduction of distortion and finally its control. Neither oil nor helium is required.
The company featured the new system at last week’s Heat Treat 2019 in Detroit, and presented a paper on the technology: “Advanced Distortion Control for Heat Treated Components.”
