Benefits of Multi-Chamber Vacuum Heat Treatment with High Pressure Gas and Oil Quenching

Traditional heat treatment in an atmosphere type furnaces presents challenges for aerospace grade material processing due to the presence of oxygen in the furnace environment during heating and quenching. These process challenges are overcome by the use of vacuum heat treatment since oxygen is removed from the furnace with vacuum pumps before heating the material takes place. Traditional single-chamber vacuum furnaces are an excellent choice when selecting a furnace for sensitive aerospace grade material heat treatment, however they have their limitations when referring to their quenching speed/power. Single-chamber vacuum furnaces require not only the components and work holding to be quenched, they also require the internal hot zone to be cooled in addition to the product. Multi-chamber vacuum furnaces with separate quenching chambers do have the same restrictions as a single-chamber furnace regarding quenching. The dedicated quenching chamber allows a heated charge to be transferred from the heating chamber to the quenching chamber and quenched by itself while the heating chamber can remain at temperature. Providing a dedicated quenching chamber will allow for much faster quenching rates that are not be achievable in a single-chamber design. An additional benefit to a multi-chamber vacuum furnace is that it can be equipped with an oil quenching chamber, a high-pressure gas quenching chamber, and in some cases can be equipped with both. Other benefits to multi-chamber vacuum furnaces include lower process costs, higher productivity, flexibility in its configuration, among many others. Processes that a multi-chamber vacuum furnace include low pressure carburizing, through hardening, annealing and brazing to name a few.