R. Hill, Solar Atmospheres of Western PA, Hermitage PA, PA

Summary: The indisputable need by heat treaters to save energy, boost productivity, minimize distortion and improve metallurgical properties while minimizing environmental impact should lead furnace manufactures to place an increased emphasis on enhancing gas quenching performance. The purpose of this study is to analyze the cooling performances of various inert gases that are available to the heat treater. The benchmark inert gas, and the industry standard over many years, is nitrogen. Having nitrogen gas as a baseline, this investigation concludes that helium cools 40% faster than nitrogen (at 10 bar pressure and 5000 RPM motor speed). With the ever-increasing expense of helium and the world’s reserves of helium being finite, Solar Atmospheres continued its experiments quenching with high-pressure hydrogen. Solar engineers are convinced that critical safety issues can be resolved when quenching with hydrogen. Under identical conditions, cooling rates between helium and hydrogen will be discussed. Metallurgical properties will also be analyzed.