​Last week we had a very well written article about CFC fixturing in vacuum furnace applications, the person responsible was Dr. Ing. Rolf Terjung, Managing Director of Graphite Materials of Germany https://themonty.com/cfc-fixtures-quality-fixturing-for-vacuum-heat-treating / To compliment that article we have this press release from Graphite Materials telling us about an anniversary for the company and a birthday for Rolf. Also included is a photo of Graphite Materials taken October of 2019 when we last visited the company.

“2020 is an outstanding year for Graphite Materials: For 20 years now, our team is all about Special Graphite and his versatile application options. We will proudly celebrate the company’s anniversary in October. But one anniversary is not enough for us: Our managing director Dr. Ing. Rolf Terjung celebrated his 60th birthday! In 2000 he paved the way for a successful company career by founding Graphite Materials GmbH. He has been at the top of the company for the past two decades. With his commitment and dynamic nature, he managed to establish Graphite Materials as a successful brand in the industry. Needless to say that we wanted to honour him on his special day. But what should we give to a man whose heart beats for carbon? A simple voucher and chocolates were of course no option. We would not be Graphite Materials if we did not look beyond our horizons and carry out every project with a lot of passion.

So we started a mission according to our standard – from the idea to the finished component. We wanted to make a special gift: a three-dimensional bust of our boss – of course made of his favourite material: Graphite. To do this, we first had Mr. Terjung scanned from head to toe. After extensive programming, we finally went into production. We used one of our latest achievements in the machine park: our innovative 5-axis machining center. Thanks to its highly efficient way of working, we were able to machine the workpiece from all sides at the same time. This was the key to successfully completing the project. Several weeks passed from the vision to the finished gift. We watched everyone working at full speed. The team surprised our managing director with a unique and also artistic present that once again showed what Graphite Materials is capable of. We sincerely wish Mr. Terjung all the best on his 60th birthday and thank him for his great commitment. We look forward to further cooperation and to all the exciting highlights that will follow.”

“Danbury, CT, August 13, 2020 – Linde (NYSE: LIN; FWB: LIN) today announced that its U.S. subsidiary, Praxair, Inc., will begin operating under the Linde name, effective September 1. This name change reflects the company’s evolution following the merger of Praxair, Inc. and Linde AG. Operating under the Linde brand, the company has established a vision to be the best performing global industrial gases and engineering company. The combined product and service portfolios of the new Linde offer customers more options to improve operational efficiency and plan for future growth. Linde remains committed to providing the same reliable, high-quality products and services that our U.S. customers have come to expect. With 80,000 employees in more than 100 countries, we are united behind our commitment to safety, integrity, community, inclusion, and accountability in all we do. We live our mission of making our world more productive. The primary customer contact for products and services will remain the same. Beginning September 1, information on the U.S. business may be found at www.LindeUS.com. The Customer Call Center will be available either by phone at the new 1.844.44LINDE or the new e-mail address [email protected].

About Linde; Linde is a leading global industrial gases and engineering company with 2019 sales of $28 billion (€25 billion). We live our mission of making our world more productive every day by providing high-quality gases, application technologies and services which are making our customers more successful and helping to sustain and protect our planet. The company serves a variety of end markets including aerospace, chemicals, food and beverage, electronics, energy, healthcare, manufacturing and primary metals. Linde’s industrial gases are used in countless applications, from life-saving oxygen for hospitals to high-purity & specialty gases for electronics manufacturing, hydrogen for clean fuels and much more. Linde also delivers state-of-the-art gas processing to support customer expansion, efficiency improvements and emissions reductions.”

 

We are going to start our Monday Morning Briefing with several “people” items from around the globe. First up we see that Overton Chicago Gear in Addison, Illinois, USA is looking for a Heat Treat Manager to run their captive/commercial heat treat department. Overton has a very interesting heat treat department, one that is clearly dedicated to large gears. As an example they have 3 pit carburizing furnaces capable of handling parts up to 90″ in diameter as well as one of the largest press quench systems in the USA, a system which will handle parts up to 84″ in diameter. The only one larger in the US that we can think of is located at Timken Bearings in Canton, Ohio. These two photos show part of their heat treat department.

From India we regret to mention the recent passing of Shri O.P.Sekhri of commercial heat treat Lopan Metal Treatment Pvt Ltd. Shri was involved in the heat treat industry since 1972 and his death was due to COVID-19 complications. Lopan runs a total of 18 sealed quench furnaces at 3 locations in Northern India. From Nitrex we have this announcement about a new rep; “NITREX is pleased to welcome our newest manufacturer representative, Mr. Ali Akgunes, for Romania and Turkey. Akgunes will handle the complete portfolio of G-M Enterprises (G-M) vacuum furnaces and UPC-Marathon (UPC, formerly United Process Controls) process and flow controls and automation solutions in Turkey. In Romania, he will also represent Nitrex for the sale of nitriding and nitrocarburizing systems in addition to G-M and UPC products. Ali Akgunes brings over 20 years of experience in the metal manufacturing industry working closely with aerospace, defense, and machine tool companies. A solutions provider to hundreds of fabricated metal part manufacturers, Akgunes has earned a strong reputation among his customers for helping them maximize heat-treating operations with comprehensive manufacturing solutions and after-sales support services. Having worked extensively with both manufacturing and maintenance teams has also given him a realistic understanding of the needs and services of the industry.”

Hector Ibarra who was Vice President of Operations at the ALD Thermal Treatment facility in Port Huron, Michigan recently parted ways with the company. This location is probably the largest commercial vacuum carburizing facility in North America. Commercial heat treater, HI TecMetal Group Inc., based in Cleveland, Ohio, USA recently added an experienced fellow to their sales team;  “HI TecMetal Group is pleased to announce that Ron Lozon has joined our sales team and will be serving your area. Ron brings 41 years of experience in the thermal processing field to you.” From the UK we have this item from Vacuum & Atmosphere Services (VAS); “We are delighted to announce the return of Lee Hollis, adding to our already vastly experienced furnace engineering team. Lee, joined VAS in 2001 & completed his apprenticeship in 2005. VAS are extremely proud to that Lee went on to work on both atmosphere & vacuum furnaces until 2018.Now returning after 16 months elsewhere, Lee contributes a wealth of knowledge & experience to the unrivalled furnace engineering team at VAS”.

Hot Isostatic Pressing has been in the news quite a bit this year and here is one more item about it, this from a company by the name of Kittyhawk Inc., out on the US West Coast; “Kittyhawk Inc Completes Installation of HIP Unit No. 2 at their new Oregon facility. In response to growing customer demand in the Pacific Northwest, they have installed another HIP Unit at the Canby, Oregon facility, this one with a working zone of 46” X 100”.  Kittyhawk is a small family run business that has served the HIP needs of it’s customers since 1981. We are confident in our foundation and excited about the growth.”

Precision Castparts Corp. (PCC) is an American industrial goods and metal fabrication company that manufactures investment castings, forged components, and airfoil castings for use in aerospace, industrial gas turbine, and defense industries. Since the beginning of this year the company has laid off 10,000 employees-30% of its workforce. We mention them today because this represents an enormous blow to a number of commercial and captive heat treaters mainly located on the US west coast. And to round things out we go to the UK for this item. Kepston Ltd., is a family run heat treatment company established in 1916 and based in the UK. Historically their business has been Continuous Bright Annealing and Brazing of Mild Steel, Stainless Steel and non-ferrous. Going back to 2015 the company decided to expand into new markets such as aerospace, defence and energy which resulted in them buying a TAV Furnace with a hot zone 1.2m x 1.2m x 1.2m. Just recently they achieved NADCAP accreditation for heat treating. Congratulations is all we can say.

IWT Accepts Rohde Furnace After Successfull Testing; In Bremen, Germany we find IWT (Institute fuer Werkstofforientierte Technologien) a research organization dedicted to heat treating which is jointing funded by German industry and the university.  We at ”The Monty ”have visited this facility several times over the years and have found it to be very facinating. The organization has been working with German furnace builder Rohde Schutzgasoefen GmbH to develop a new design of furnace and this is the end result.

”The bell hardening center is designed as a classic plant concept with a wide variety of applications designed to cover several different heat treat processes. Due to its modular design the system can easily be expanded to accomodate future developments. It requires a minimal amount of floor space despite the fact that it is completely automated and can handle up to three consecutive batches without manual intervention. The system is extremely efficient because of its excellent thermal insulation, innovative cooling concepts and coordinated furnace construction materials, especially at high temperatures. The main characteristics of the bell hardening center are its modular design and the possibility for expansion with additional tempering furnaces and other components such as cleaning systems and quenching tanks. In fact this hardening center can replace batch furnaces designed for low pressure carburizing. Other important features include the small footprint, due to the facts that it is loaded at different levels, faster heat-up and cool-down to hardening temperature, faster atmosphere composition and more. This system offers oil, salt and gas quenching and has a work zone of 500mm x 600mm. Gases used are nitrogen, air, methanol, ammonia, propane and acetylene.”

In the picture from left to right: Ingo Bunjes IWT Bremen, Dr.-Ing. Matthias Steinbacher IWT Bremen, Raphael Nees, Natasha Rohde, Konstantin Rohde, Jörn Rohde, Vincent Rohde.

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In Spain commercial heat treater Grupo TTT is making a large investment in the form of a refurbished Ipsen VVFC 60 × 60 bottom loading vacuum furnace. Vacuum & Atmosphere Services (VAS) in the UK originally advertised the furnace for sale and was also responsible for decommissioning the furnace and moving it to Spain. When travel restrictions are lifted the company will be reinstalling/building up & commissioning. https://www.vacat.co.uk/

Grupo TTT is a very large commercial heat treater with facilities in Spain and also a large plant in Querétaro, Mexico which operates under the name Aeroprocess TTT-as a matter of fact we had a news item about   Aeroprocess earlier this year. This is how the company describes themselves; “Grupo TTT is a full service technical solutions provider, serving clients in aerospace, automotive, machine tool, capital goods, paper, and the oil & gas markets, each market has specific requirements and quality standards.” The company has also made our news section over the years owing to several press releases from SECO/WARWICK who have sold them a total of 4 horizontal vacuums over the years.

Industrial Heating Equipment Association (IHEA) is a US based organization which does a very good job of tracking the US economy in general and the heating portion of manufacturing in particular. 

“There is one positive aspect when it comes to a dramatic drop as experienced in March and April of this year. When one has fallen that far there is nowhere to go but up! Since then there has been a steady improvement in almost every category. This month there was progress in all but one measure and even this showed only a very slight decline from the month prior. The overall economy has been showing signs of resilience and that is certainly a good thing, but the fact remains that much of this progress is tenuous. The assumption all along was that there would be a significant bounce back once the restrictions on the economy were lifted and in June and July that assumption proved accurate.

The progress that has been made thus far has been contingent on several factors. The first is that many businesses have engaged in rebuilding their inventories in anticipation of an eventual economic recovery. The hope was that this rebound would come in May of this year or at least this summer. That has not been the case and now hopes lie in a rebound by the fourth quarter. The second major motivator for recovery has been the willingness of the consumer to return to old habits as far as consumption. This has been a mixed experience as there has been some return to those old habits but there have also been many new habits formed and these have all had their impact on business.

Of the twelve index readings tracked, all but one trended positively and in some cases the numbers registered this month were better than they have been in over a year. The only reading that did not trend positively was steel consumption and that reading was stable and looked very similar to the last few months. Of those that trend positively, the majority remain distant from the readings that dominated at the start of last year. The data is showing a solid recovery in many areas but there remains a long way to go. For example, capacity utilization staged a nice rebound from 65.1 to 68.6 but that is still a very long way from the bottom of normal at 80. Sales of new vehicles jumped back from the depths but is still very far from the levels at the start of the year.

The more interesting data was found in those categories that seemed to have fully recovered and even exceeded levels seen earlier this year and at the end of 2019. The New Orders Index from the Purchasing Managers’ Index was back to the 60s and that is a level that has not been seen in over a year. Given that the new orders sub-index is the forward looking part of the overall PMI, it bodes well for the recovery at the end of the year. There was also a nice jump in the transportation index and that also provides some confidence about the future. It also indicates there has been a significant change in everything from the traditional supply chain to the habits of consumers. The parcel delivery sector of transportation is booming but those sectors that are tied to exports and imports are struggling. The movement in the metals markets has been interesting as well. The hike in the prices of metal commodities such as copper or aluminum have more to do with the interest of investors than industrial demand. These commodities have started to regain their popularity as a hedge against future inflation.

The production indicators such as durable goods and factory orders have shown progress as business tries to rebuild inventory levels but there is ongoing concern regarding new demand. If the inventory levels get back to normal and there is no corresponding demand these levels will be a burden to the companies carrying them. The bottom line is that there is resilience in the economy despite the trials of the last few months. It now all depends on whether the pandemic necessitates a wider crackdown and a resumption of the conditions that collapsed the economy in the first place.”

St. Mary’s, PA: Abbott Furnace Company has recently installed and commissioned a roller hearth tube annealing furnace at an aerospace and defense products manufacturer that fabricates the most critical precision tubular products. The high temperature roller hearth furnace quench anneals superalloy tubing for their drawing operation. The electrically heated furnace is atmosphere tight and is operated with an argon protective atmosphere. The high-speed roll drive quickly transfers the tubing from the furnace to the water-spray quench.

The new furnace removes a bottleneck in production, with the increased number of tubes processed between tubing draws, and Mr. George Ray, Chairman of the Board, indicates that with the +/- 5 F furnace temperature uniformity, and the uniform water spray, the new furnace also provides much better uniformity of hardness than an older, retired furnace.  According to Mr. Ray, “On a daily production basis the Abbott Furnace is 300% more efficient than the previous furnace. We really appreciate the Abbott Team’s knowledge and attention to detail in the design engineering and manufacture of a specialized furnace.”

Abbott Furnace is an industrial furnace manufacturer with 35 years of experience designing and producing some of the industry’s most reliable and high performing industrial continuous process furnaces.  Abbott is a leading producer of industrial sintering furnaces, annealing furnaces, tempering furnaces, brazing furnaces, heat treat furnaces, steam treat furnaces, industrial ovens, CAB furnaces, High-Temperature Furnaces and other specialty furnace products. Abbott Furnace is a privately owned company located in St. Marys, Pennsylvania.  Abbott furnaces are proudly manufactured in the USA.

Generally when we hear about a fire in the heat treating industry we do not hear about the cause. In the case of the recent fire in St. Marys, PA we do know what the cause is and it is right in line with what we previously reported;

The owner of a St. Marys heat treating plant recently reached out to The Daily Press in an effort to clarify the cause of a fire which occurred at the facility on Thursday afternoon. Ben Vrobel, owner of Elk County Heat Treaters, explained a contractor working inside the building accidentally drilled into a line which carries oil from the quench tank to the oil cooling station. This caused the oil to spray out, with the spray catching a pilot light on the furnace thus igniting the fire. The spray reached the roof and in turn burned off the rubber roof. “The interior damage was minimal compared to the exterior, effectively burning the roof off the building,” Vrobel said. Vrobel was quick to credit the prompt response and hard work of local firefighters. “The firefighters did an outstanding job. They were exceptional and I am proud to have them in our community,” he stated. Vrobel, who has owned the business since 2014, noted the professionalism shown by the firefighters and specifically how they helped protect some of the company’s product thus saving many people’s jobs.

Written by Rolf Terjung. Furnace fixturing made of CFC (carbon fibre reinforced carbon) are the state-of-the-art standard in vacuum heat treating these days. A significant quality feature of the vacuum heat treating process is the shape and dimensional stability of heat treated components. This article focuses on the impact of CFC fixtures and how they help to reduce the distortion of case hardened parts in Low Pressure Carburizing (LPC) applications with High Pressure Gas Quenching (HPGQ). These results provide evidence that distortion of heat treated components can be minimized and controlled by the use of individually designed fixtures made of CFC material.

In various studies [1], the vacuum heat treatment technology known as low pressure carburising (LPC) followed by high pressure gas quenching (HPGQ) for case hardening components has shown that shape and dimensional changes in heat treated components can now be controlled to the extent that the subsequent hard machining steps can be reduced or even eliminated entirely. This is a key factor in reducing throughput times and the costs of component manufacture. The advantages of the method [2] can be used in particular for large surface gear parts requiring complex machining. Due to the high quality requirements (shape and dimensional tolerances, hardness parameters), case hardening using LPC and HPGQ technology was selected for the internal ring gear that will be used in the manufacture of a new 6 speed automatic transmission. The tests were performed in a ModulTherm system (ModulTherm is a brandname of ALD Vacuum Technologies GmbH).

METAL VERSUS CFC FIXTURE. Due to the component geometry and small cross-section, shape and dimensional changes are to be expected in the ring gear. In an optimisation process, the furnace manufacturer and the customer defined the heat treatment parameters in order to minimise heat treat distortion [1]. Heat treatment cannot influence distortions caused by residual stress released during the production chain, ranging from the metal and the blank to the soft machining of the internal ring gear. Full furnace loads comprising multi-layer (3D batch) batches (Fig. 1) are heated to the treatment temperature by convection (N2) and vacuum. In order to achieve a penetration depth of 0.3 – 0.5 mm, carburisation using acetylene took place in vacuum at approx. 900 °C. The workpieces were then cooled to the austenising temperature and quenched with helium [1]. Extensive preliminary experiments had shown that the distortion results were better for helium than for nitrogen although, due to its relatively high carbon content and the small component cross-section, steel grade AISI 5130 would be suitable for nitrogen. The process cycle is described in [2]. High alloy metal and CFC fixtures (graphite fixturing) were used. The distortion criterion is the lead average variation and the concentricity deviation. Distortion was investigated in 15 parts that were positioned at various points in a charging level and that were taken from different layers. The results of the dimensional lead changes are shown in Fig. 2. Fig. 2 illustrates the mean values and the scatter of the lead average after heat treatment with different parameters with reference to the untreated “green” values. After charging on a metal fixture with standard gas quenching, the average value increases compared with the “green” state, however, scatter increases significantly and exceeds the lower and upper limit of the specification. When changing to the CFC fixture, scatter falls significantly by 50 %. If the quenching process is also optimised by means of gas pressure and/or gas speed (dynamic quenching) while retaining the CFC fixture, the average values can be reduced and scatter confined so that it lies within the specification [1]. In addition, studies have shown that the distortion of the parts was independent of their position on the fixture level and layer. The heat treatment process became ready for series production in June 2006. Since autumn 2008, distortion values have only been checked on a random basis. As a result of continuous optimisations to the quenching process and CFC fixtures, these ring gears are today fitted straight into the transmission without hard machining.

INFLUENCE OF CFC MATERIAL PROPERTIES ON SHAPE AND DIMENSIONAL CHANGES

The reduction in scatter for both distortion criteria when switching from metal to CFC is notable. Due to the higher strength and lower density, the weight of the CFC fixture is only about 10 % of the comparable metal system with the same load bearing capacity. For the quenching process, the lower fixture mass means quicker and more uniform cooling. The lean design reduces the component’s contact areas and support points and minimises shadow effects during carburisation. At the same time, due to the reduced surface resistance (cW value), the flow-through of the cooling gas increases. At junction points and other thickenings of the material, no significant residual heat is stored that can be returned to the workpieces. Due to the reduced, “non-value-adding mass” of the fixture material, distortions (heat induced stress) are minimised even during the convective heating phase (1). Components are heated more uniformly and quickly. A CFC workpiece fixture only consumes about 20 % of the energy compared with an equivalent metal frame (Fig. 3). Taking into account the expansion coefficients of the two materials at 1.000 °C (CFC: 1*10-6/K, metal: 12*10-6/K), the CFC fixtures retain their shape. Deformations of the workpiece fixture, which are transferred directly to the components, can be disregarded. An extensive presentation of the CFC material properties and how they can be used for CFC workpiece carriers is described in (4). Some of the key material properties that make CFC suitable for vacuum heat treatment are given below:

■ Low density ranging from 1.3 up to 1.7 g/cm³
■ Increasing flexural strength with raising temperature (1.000 °C +15 %; 2.000 °C +30 %)
■ Very high thermal shock resistance: R ≈ 1.000 °C
■ No changes in dimensional stability (CTE for CFC-Fixtures approx. 1*10-6/K)

WORKPIECE FIXTURE DESIGN REDUCES COMPONENT DISTORTION

Example 1: Input shaft In recent years, the continual demand for high precision components with minimum distortion and reduced manufacturing costs has led to an optimisation of the plant technology for low pressure carburising with high pressure gas quenching. Directly integrating heat treatment in the soft and hard machining production line has reduced the throughput times of the parts and so made the manufacturing process both more effective and more economical. The target of integration is the so-called one piece flow [5]. The workpieces are now only charged in a single layer (2-dimensional) and synchronised with the up- and downstream process [3]. The components are heated and quenched more quickly and uniformly than 3-dimensional batches. The mass of the workpiece fixture is greatly reduced so the thermal energy can be transferred directly to the components. During cooling, the cooling gas flows past the component in such a way that the heat is extracted directly and uniformly. This enables part-specific heat treatment that, on the one hand, leads to a reduction in the process time and, on the other hand, to an increase in quality in the form of reduced shape and dimensional changes [5]. In order to make best possible use of the advantages of the technology, a CFC fixture was used and fully loaded with 30 shafts. The distortion criteria were axial runout and concentricity for carburising temperatures 960 °C, 1.000 °C and 1.050 °C. In order to obtain the smallest possible distortions, two different ways of part orientation were tested: hanging and standing. The distortion results for axial runout, as the critical dimensional deviation for use of the shafts, are summarised in Fig. 4. The maximum values, the average deviation and the standard deviation are shown. The best results are obtained with “standing” positioning and the specification of 40µm met for all three treatment temperatures. This example also shows how, due to the low fixture mass and good flow properties, the CFC workpiece fixture supports the low standard deviation values [6] and so makes a considerable contribution to process reliability. The common element in the studies to reduce form and dimensional changes as cited in this article is that both a quick and uniform heat supply and the targeted flow of the cooling gas to the components are essential for minimum component distortion. In addition to the structural design of the quench chamber, the way in which components are loaded in the CFC fixture is extremely important. When the “standing” batch loading of this input shaft had been found to be optimum, the workpiece fixture was modified in accordance with the following design criteria:

■ Cross-section of component (bulkiness)
■ Distortion criteria
■ Contact areas component – fixture (shadow)
■ Gas flow (heat transfer)
■ Loading density (efficiency)
■ Carrying capacity (Load)
■ Positioning accuracy
■ Loading (automated, manual)
■ Process temperature (contact reaction: eutectic)

The result is shown in Fig. 5. In series production, loading of the components and also batch loading in the treatment chamber are performed automatically by a robot. Example 2: Thin-walled ring The thin walled ring was case hardened in vacuum on a single layer CFC fixture. The circularity achieved was insufficient for series production. The component was repositioned using a fixture that had been optimised for the ring, taking account of defined criteria (Fig. 6). 700 rings from different batches were measured and evaluated after heat treatment on the optimised fixture. The results of the circularity deviations are summarised in Fig. 7. With part-specific fixture design, it was possible to reduce the maximum circularity deviation by 25 % to 0.3 mm and the average deviation by 50 % to 0.12 mm. The deviation values measured for the 700 parts were within the lower (UG) and upper limit (OG). No rings were rejected. The new fixture design was released for series production and implemented as a new standard.

SUMMARY

Controlling heat treat distortion is of key importance in order to reduce production costs for complex components, e.g. in gear manufacture. Heat treat distortion of gear components with a high amount of machining and thin-walled cross sections can be controlled by low pressure carburising combined with high pressure gas quenching. By using CFC workpiece fixtures together with various process variants (e.g. dynamic quenching), shape and dimensional changes can be reduced to such an extent that, in individual cases, hard machining can be eliminated completely. The standard deviation of the average distortion values, as an indicator for controllable, reproducible shape deviations, is supported significantly by CFC fixtures. The further refinement of the method from 3D to 2D loading shows how process innovations and part specific CFC workpiece fixtures can lead to a further reduction in distortion. Process reliability is increased and production costs are reduced. Micro-alloyed steels have recently been developed that prevent grain growth even at high carburising temperatures of up to 1.050 °C. This development is only possible on CFC fixtures that ensure uniform workpiece heating and cooling.

“The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted every industry and business across the globe. Solar Atmospheres of Western PA (SAWPA) is no exception. “We have had to think on our feet, find innovative solutions and pivot quickly, to change protocols to protect our employees and to safeguard our business” states Bob Hill, President of SAWPA. “At first, it seemed almost necessary to pause our business, take time to figure out every minute detail to play it safe. However, that philosophy was not how we built this business after the 2001 recession, nor would that have supported our employees, their families and our customers today” responded Hill.

Solar views this period as a way to set new paths of transformation and growth for the company. We have encouraged the adoption of the newest technology, such as Vacuum Oil Quenching (VOQ). The latest VOQ quench line, including a hardening furnace, tempers, washer, and charge car, will be installed and fully operational by the end of 2020. To make room for this brand-new innovation, SAWPA continues to progress in the construction of its 15,000 square foot addition. Solar could not be more excited for this expansion. This is a time for all business to look at strategic ventures and new diversified offerings with a new lens to better serve this ever-changing environment.

For additional information about Solar Atmospheres of Western PA, contact Bob Hill at 866.982.0660, ext. 2224, or bob@solaratm.com, and visit www.solaratm.com.”