It would be interesting to know what % of new vacuum furnaces built each year are bottom loading (vertical) as opposed to horizontal loading. It is certainly very much in the minority as they are largely relegated to the aerospace industry and seldom seen in other vacuum hardening applications such as hardening of dies or tool steels. Our guess would be 5% possibly as high as 10% of the total worldwide market but we emphasize that is just a guess on our part. Having said that we have this photo of a really impressive bottom loading vacuum furnace installation we just saw in person. What you are looking at are two bottom loading vacuum furnaces with working
dimensions of 60″ X 60″, 6 bar quenching, each with a capacity of 8,000 pounds and both installed within the past 3 years. More to come.