R. M. Huckins, R. Muto, G-M Enterprises, Corona, CA
In today’s fiercely competitive heat treating market it is critical to harvest every dollar or form of profit from your vacuum furnaces. The furnace must be able to run at maximum efficiency and availability. The furnace must limit the utility use and need as little maintenance as possible to maximize furnace profitability.
High-performance vacuum furnace configurations must be designed for the processes run and have continuous effective maintenance and cleaning to maintain their high performance capabilities. Additionally high-performance vacuum furnace must be designed with easy accessible maintenance points and procedures designed into the furnace's components Design, maintenance, operator training, process and parts quality issues will be discussed throughout the presentation showing how cost savings and improved furnace throughput can be generated.
Optimizing profitability of a vacuum furnace requires the review of some of the following issues: design, utility costs, maintenance, parts quality, and operator training.
Design: insulation, hot zone hot face, vessel, pumping systems, component accessibility, cooling systems, heat transfer methods, quench gases and quench gas flow.
Utility Costs: Do not heat or cool too fast, shorten cycles with faster cooling under 1000F, use lower cost quench gas.
Maintenance: Proper vessel and hot zone cleaning, pumping system inspection & service, cooling system cleaning, maintenance & inspection – daily, weekly, monthly and annually.
Parts Quality: Proper fixturing with eutectic considerations, manage parts distortion by considering parts weight and cross section thickness (directional cooling)
Operator Training: Proper parts inspection before and after cycle, parts cleaning, fixturing & fixture cleanliness, O-ring care and vessel wipe down, burnout cycles, visual inspection of hot zone and pumping system, emergency shutdown procedures & minor hot zone repairs.
Summary: In today’s fiercely competitive heat treating market it is critical to harvest every dollar or form of profit from each and every piece of production equipment operating in your plant. A vacuum furnace is a capital intensive piece of production equipment that must be able to maximize the quality and quantity of parts run in a given day, week, month or year. The furnace must be able to run at maximum efficiency and availability so little time is lost to maintenance or other non-productive time. The furnace must limit the use of power and quench gases and need as little maintenance as is possible to maximize furnace profitability.
High-performance vacuum furnace configurations must be designed for the processes run and have continuous effective maintenance and cleaning to maintain their high performance capabilities. Additionally high-performance vacuum furnace must be designed with easy accessable maintenance points and procedures designed into the furnace's components.
Design, maintenance and operator training issues will be discussed throughout the presentation showing how cost savings and improved furnace throughput can be generated. Reduced costs along with improved quality and throughput all contribute to maximization of furnace profitability.
Optimizing profitability of a vacuum furnace requires the review of some of the following design, maintenance and operator training issues:
Design: insulation, hot zone hot face, vessel, pumping systems, component accessibility, cooling systems, heat transfer methods, quench gases and quench gas flow.
Utility Costs: Do not heat or cool too fast, shorten cycles with faster cooling under 1000F, use lower cost quench gas.
Maintenance: Proper vessel and hot zone cleaning, pumping system inspection & service, cooling system cleaning, maintenance & inspection – daily, weekly, monthly and annually.
Parts Quality: Proper fixturing with eutectic considerations, manage parts distortion by considering parts weight and cross section thickness (directional cooling)
Operator Training: Proper parts inspection before and after cycle, parts cleaning, fixturing & fixture cleanliness, O-ring care and vessel wipe down, burnout cycles, visual inspection of hot zone and pumping system, emergency shutdown procedures & minor hot zone repairs.
