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Vacuum Heat Treatment Furnace

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How to Update your heat treatment

The development trend of modern metal heat treatment technology is to achieve the goal of 3S (Sure, Safety, Saving) under the conditions of 3C (Cool, Clean, Calm), which is the so-called “3C-3S” system. Therefore, energy saving and consumption reduction has become one of its most important sustainable development technical goals. With the rise of energy prices, the cost of traditional high-energy-consuming heat treatment technology is gradually becoming unacceptable, and the reduction of mature industrial workers has further aggravated the cost of employment. Therefore, we must pay great attention to advanced high-quality, clean, energy-saving, precise and efficient heat treatment technology. At present, the research and application of energy-saving technology for metal heat treatment is developing continuously.

The metal heat treatment industry is developing rapidly in my country and the demand is huge. However, due to a variety of factors, the overall level of heat treatment of metal materials is relatively low, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, where rough technology, low management level, and outdated equipment are the main status quo. The heat treatment efficiency of some small factories is low, wastes a lot of energy, and causes serious pollution to the environment. It is specifically manifested in the following aspects:

First, the technical level of heat treatment is limited and the equipment is outdated. Metal materials consume a lot of energy in the traditional heat treatment process such as salt bath, and cause environmental pollution, which requires higher skills and experience of workers. There is still a gap between my country’s heat treatment and developed countries, and the energy consumption of heat treatment is more than ten times higher than that of the United States and Japan. Insufficient capital investment and slow technological development have caused quality problems after heat treatment. New heat treatment technology has only been proposed in recent years, and its application and promotion time is short, and the energy saving effect is average.

Second, the traditional heat treatment method has high energy consumption and low success rate. Since the technology of the previous heat treatment process is relatively backward, it requires a lot of electricity and other energy consumption. The slow update of the metal heat treatment process is one of the important reasons for its high energy consumption. Although there are many heat treatment factories, they lack large-scale and unified heat treatment technology. They all rely on the experience of some skilled workers and the repetition of backward processes to perform low-end heat treatment operations. The heat treatment products of some small factories cannot meet the relevant national standards, and import and export traders are affected a lot. Outdated processes lead to a very high rate of heat-treated metals returning to the factory, wasting a lot of human and financial resources, especially in terms of energy consumption, and re-heating will inevitably lead to energy consumption.

Third, there is a lack of professionals in heat treatment technology for metal materials. Metal heat treatment plays an important role in industrial development, and my country’s heat treatment technology is in the process of development. The training mechanism of talents is one of the main problems. The factory staff are not very aware of the energy-saving concept of heat treatment. In fact, this is directly related to school education and the training of employees in factories. The rapid development of the tertiary industry has led to a decrease in the enrollment of heat treatment professionals in colleges and universities. As an unpopular major, many unreasonable curriculum settings have resulted in the reduction of heat treatment talents and reduced the ability of heat treatment, which makes it difficult to achieve energy saving in heat treatment. And the reduction of high-skilled workers has aggravated the labor cost of heat treatment enterprises.

The new direction of heat treatment development:

(1) Induction heat treatment

Induction heat treatment IHT (Induction Heat Treatment) technology uses the principle of electromagnetic induction to generate eddy currents on the surface of the workpiece to be heated. It is characterized by high power density, fast heating speed, high heating efficiency (55% to 90%), and good energy saving effect. When it is used to replace the general pit furnace for heating and quenching, it can reduce energy consumption by 70% to 80%; at the same time, the quality of heat treatment Easy to control, less oxidation and decarburization of workpiece surface, and less pollution.

However, induction heat treatment also has some disadvantages. Compared with flame quenching, induction heating equipment is more complex and less adaptable, making it difficult to guarantee the quality of some workpieces with complex shapes.

Due to heating and quenching in a conventional atmosphere, induction heat treatment tends to cause surface discoloration and peeling. And induction heating can easily lead to deformation of the workpiece due to induction stress, and the pressure in the process will produce a “dish-shaped” or “potato chip” in the center. After the induction process, the shaft may “bend” or “twist” and the size of the part may “grow” or “shrink”.

(2) Laser heat treatment

Laser Heat Treatment LHT (LaserHeat Treatment) is an emerging high-energy beam processing technology, and its scale will eventually be larger than all other laser processing (such as welding, forming) combined, representing the future of surface engineering. With extremely high heating rate (≥10³℃/s) and cooling rate (≥104℃/s), various surface heat treatments can be performed on the material surface by adjusting the power density, defocus amount, scanning time or speed. It does not require quenching and cooling medium, and can precisely control the penetration depth of the laser beam. With the help of the optical system, almost any shape can be scanned and heated, which not only can obtain excellent surface properties, but also saves the machining process after heat treatment, saving energy. The effect is particularly pronounced.

However, laser heat treatment has high requirements on the processed parts, and its surface must have a good laser reception rate, so it must be clean and tidy. Usually other heat treatment technologies are required for pretreatment to function, and there are also high requirements for the size of parts, and the current scope of use is not wide.

(3) Ion osmosis technology

The ion infiltration technology includes ion nitriding and ion carburizing. Under the action of glow discharge, charged particles bombard the surface of the workpiece placed in a low-pressure container to increase the temperature and achieve the desired atom infiltration into the surface layer. Chemical heat treatment method. Compared with conventional chemical heat treatment, it is characterized by fast infiltration rate, small deformation of workpiece, easy control, high thermal efficiency, energy saving, and no smoke and waste gas pollution.

(4) Vacuum heat treatment technology

Vacuum heating is a heating method that places the workpiece in a negative pressure space (below normal atmospheric pressure). The maximum vacuum degree of heat treatment heating generally does not exceed 10°Pa. Vacuum heating can not only prevent the oxidation, decarburization and element depletion of the workpiece, but also has the characteristics of degreasing, degassing, surface purification and less deformation. In addition, the workpiece can also be subjected to low-pressure carburizing, nitriding and other surface treatments in vacuum, and high-pressure gas quenching after vacuum carburizing or carbonitriding can not only shorten the construction period, but also obtain excellent performance, which is an ideal automation. , flexible and clean heat treatment technology, can replace the controlled atmosphere heat treatment technology. It has been widely used in the heat treatment of molds, auto parts, etc. The vacuum heat treatment equipment in advanced industrial countries accounts for about 15% to 20% of the total heat treatment equipment, while my country is less than 5%. There is a big gap between the technical level of the existing domestic vacuum equipment manufacturers and the international advanced technology, and the international advanced equipment is expensive, so the production of high-quality, low-cost heat treatment vacuum equipment is a top priority.

At present, vacuum heat treatment has changed from early vacuum annealing, vacuum degassing to vacuum pressurized gas quenching, vacuum carburizing, vacuum functional heat treatment (vacuum degreasing sintering molding + heat treatment, vacuum hydrogen heat treatment, vacuum brazing and heat treatment combination) and other new processes develop. Towards the direction of environmental protection, energy saving and automatic processing.

The development of vacuum heat treatment technology is quite mature, and there are no high requirements for the parts it is adapted to. The existing vacuum heat treatment furnace has completed the whole process of PLC control, and the highly automated operation can save a lot of personnel costs. Although the process of radiant heating requires more energy consumption, due to the high quality of vacuum heat treatment, small deformation and smooth surface, a lot of post-processing processes can be saved, so as to achieve more energy saving and environmental protection, and effectively save the cost of water and electricity. In the foreseeable future, vacuum heat treatment is an efficient, energy-saving and cost-effective option.

The vacuum heat treatment furnace produced by SIMUWU is a high-quality product for vacuum heat treatment. SIMUWU specializes in the manufacture of vacuum furnaces, has more than ten years of relevant experience, and has a good reputation in the field of vacuum furnace manufacturing. The product line includes vacuum air quenching furnace, vacuum oil quenching furnace, vacuum brazing furnace, etc, which are widely sold in developed and developing countries.