Used Large Batch IQ Furnaces North America
Over the years the most common heat treating furnace in North America the “Batch Integral Quench Furnace” (also known as a sealed quench or controlled atmosphere furnace) has grown from a slim, svelte size of 30” wide X 48” deep X 30” high to the larger 36” X 48” X 36” configuration. Ask any new furnace builder what is selling these days and they will tell you that except for certain areas such as the US west coast all heat treaters want the larger size, 3,500 pound capacity furnaces.
What this means of course is that the demand for used furnaces this size has also increased which brings us to the point of this story which is that there will be a number of this size of furnace coming on to the used market in the next little while, both gas and electrically heated. They come mainly from captive heat treaters with surplus capacity and will be sold through a few used equipment dealers. The question is will enough come on the market to depress pricing? We think not, adding 10 or 20 used furnaces to a market as large as North America will have little effect and probably none at all on the new market as most heat treaters either buy new or used with few seriously considering both options.