Ipsen, a company that designs and manufactures thermal processing systems, has announced that a vacuum oil quench (VOQ) furnace has been delivered to an Aerospace company located in the Pacific Rim.
Vacuum Oil Quench Furnace
Landing gear components and airframe used in the medium to huge civilian aircraft will be heat treated with the help of this VOQ furnace.
The load size of this VOQ furnace is 36” W x 36” H x 48” D. This furnace has a gross load weight potential of 2,200 lbs. Temperature uniformity and the maximum operating temperature of the furnace are +/- 10ºF and 2200ºF respectively and the quench oil capability is 180ºF. The DIGITRIM Temperature Uniformity Software package and CompuVac Control System from Ipsen are integrated into this new furnace for excellent precision and control.
An internal workload transfer system is also deployed in this VOQ furnace, wherein a 15 second transfer will be carried out from the hot to the quench zone. The 4,000-gal oil quench chamber comprises electric heat, directional flow baffles and agitation.
Perfect quality and flexibility are offered by these VOQ furnaces in order to meet the uptime demands in the aerospace industry. The VOQ with a two-chamber design can possibly meet process constraints and other application demands.
The hot zone can be kept at an optimum temperature and under vacuum with the help of a vacuum-tight inner door. Migration of vapor between the two chambers can be eliminated, so that the versatile VOQ furnace can control a huge number of thermal processes for various materials. Following are the thermal processes handled by the VOQ:
- Annealing
- Aging or stress relieving
- Brazing
- Carbonitriding with oil quench
- Hardening with gas or oil quench
- Low Pressure Vacuum Carburizing (AvaC) with gas or oil quench
- Solution annealing
- Tempering