Heat Treatment Systems for Forgings

The loaded trays are placed in a baseframe by the customer's loading system. This baseframe is positioned on the charging car. Once the car has been loaded by the customer's equipment, all subsequent steps are automatically executed by the control system in line with the specific recipe. The loaded car moves under the furnace and the furnace's winching mechanism lowers the receiving fixture, then engages the baseframe at the predetermined points to pull the charge into the furnace.

For the entire treatment time, the charge remains suspended in the furnace. At the end of the programmed cycle duration the furnace bottom is opened rapidly and the charge is lowered into the water bath for quenching. After the programmed quench time, the charge is pulled out of the water again and allowed to drip-dry for a defined period of time. The charging car then moves under the charge, takes it over and delivers it to the customer's unloading system.

Consistent with aircraft industry requirements for the production of safety parts, all of the above systems meet all Aerospace Material Specifications (AMS) and thereby ensure absolute process management repeatability. This is achieved through the following furnace characteristics:

• high temperature uniformity and very precise temperature control throughout the furnace chamber;
• minimum pre-cooling of parts between opening of the furnace door and start of quenching, achieved through rapid part transfer;
• high degree of automation, avoiding manual intervention if at all possible.

All process and handling sequences are controlled at plant level by PLC-equipped switchgear. Man/machine interfacing is based on a master visualization system. Various annealing parameters are stored in the form of recipes. Current charge data are written to memory and recorded at the end of the process.

Drop-bottom furnace systems for solution annealing large forgings for the aircraft industry. Direct electric heating, stationary water quench in a pit, charging car serving as load and unload station and for charging the furnace.