J. W. Mahoney, SECO/WARWICK Corporation, Meadville, PA

Summary: Short cycle heat treatment of aluminum castings has been shown to be possible in laboratory environments. But the Industry awaits a production furnace that looks and operates like a conventional mass flow convection furnace, but has the heating rate, heating rate uniformity and temperature uniformity that makes short cycle solution heat treatment possible. Temperature uniformity in mass flow furnaces has been addressed. Development in fan design and implementation of Jet Impingement heat transfer has improved heating rate. But, uniformity of heating rate, which is essential to the Time-Temperature requirements of solution heat treatment, has not been fully solved. To that end, SECO/WARWICK Corporation embarked on a development program to solve the problem of Uniformity of Heating Rate in a Conventional Mass Flow – Jet Heating Furnace for the Solution Heat Treatment of Aluminum Castings.