Maximizing Quenching and Cooling in Vacuum Heat Treating

“Maximizing Quenching and Cooling in Vacuum Heat Treating” With its initial invention in the 50’s and until the 1970’s the primary use for vacuum furnaces was based on annealing of aerospace components. With the tool and dies heat treating in vacuum equipment in the 80’s and the realization for the ‘need of speed’ in quenching for high alloyed steels in the 90’s the battle for faster quenching in vacuum furnace equipment started with the increase of the quenching pressure with up to 20bar. Today it is known that this bolt approach does not necessarily leads to state of the art results. Modern vacuum furnace technology allows the ‘designing’ of the entire quench curve as required to fully utilize the maximum performance of the given material. This paper is showing proven heat treat results and examples of the European tool and die industry, utilizing this technology over the last 15 years.