What the Heck is a “Raptor” Vacuum Furnace and Who Makes it?

Floating around on the internet recently have been two or three mentions of “Raptor” vacuum furnaces which is an unknown vacuum furnace name to the team at “The Monty Heat Treat News”. A little bit of research told us who is behind this new entry into the North American vacuum furnace industry-here is the story.

It appears the furnaces are being built by “ProTech Thermal Services” of California, USA, a company which has been involved in the heat treat industry for some time, however to our knowledge this is their first entry into new vacuum furnaces. The firm was founded a number of years back and has always been heavily involved in vacuum furnaces offering hot zones, repairs, installs, vacuum pump services and a number of other related services. The company was founded by Mr. Keith Grier and his son Brian (it is worth noting that Keith was co founder of vacuum furnace builder “GM Enterprises” for a number of years-GM is now part of the Aichelin Group).

All we know about the “Raptor” Vacuum furnace is that it is a skid mounted, self-contained, 2 bar quenching system similar to the “Ipsen Titan” line of furnaces; they appear so far to be relatively small in size and that 2 or 3 have been installed to date. We will update you on this story as we learn more.

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