Seco Warwick, Meadville, Pa., exhibited its VertiQuench aluminum solution heat treatment furnaces and aging systems at Tube 2016 in Dusseldorf. This is reportedly an optimal heat treatment technology for aluminum alloy extruded and drawn porthole or seamless tubes of 2xxx, 6xxx, and 7xxx series alloys in hard tempers, as it provides the shortest quenching time.
Solution heat treatment furnaces are followed by artificial aging ovens for precipitation hardening of products. The furnaces can be supplied in one complete system conforming to AMS 2770E and 2750E aerospace standards and their tight requirements in terms of temperature uniformity, restrictions as to time of operations, and other parameters.
For certain applications, some tubes and wires are used in soft tempers suitable for bending, forming, or other downstream operations. The company can provide a proven solution for annealing extruded and drawn tubes, as well as aluminum alloy wires in coils. It also guarantees low energy consumption and trouble-free handling of loads processed in the form of straight sections or coils. Typical applications include pre-, mid-, and end-annealing for tube and pipe that are hot or cold rolled as well as extruded.
Process applications include recrystallization and soft annealing, tempering, normalization, and bright annealing. These systems are used for a wide variety of materials from carbon steel, low-alloy and high-alloy steel, to stainless and special alloy steel. The company provides turnkey project services that integrate the thermal processing furnace, auxiliary equipment, automated material handling systems, process atmosphere, and controls.
