Solar Manufacturing To Build Two New Vacuum Furnaces For Mid-West Commercial Heat Treater

Solar Manufacturing was recently asked to build two Model HFL-5748IQ Size Vacuum Furnaces for a large commercial heat treating group located in the mid-west region of the United States. These furnaces will greatly expand overall vacuum furnace capacity of the organization and provide state-of-the-art high pressure gas quenching heat treating capability for processes requiring up to 6 Bar cooling pressures.

The first furnace is a Model HFL-5748-2IQ with a work zone that measures 36” wide x 36” high x 48” deep and an internal quench system capable of cooling at up to 2 Bar gas pressures. The second furnace is a Model HFL-5748-6IQ with the same work zone size, but with quenching at 6 Bar gas pressures.

The hot zone insulation on both furnaces utilizes a one (1) inch foil-faced graphite board backed by four (4) layers of ½” graphite felt all supported in a heavy-duty stainless steel ring structure. The hearth capacity of both furnaces is designed to accept a workload of 5,000 pounds. The heating elements will be a thin, durable, curved graphite design allowing for a maximum operating temperature of 2,500○F. The vacuum pumping systems will consist of a Stokes Model 412J 300 CFM mechanical pump backed by a Stokes 615 Booster blower for vacuum operation in the low micron range. The gas cooling blower motors on the HFL-5748-2IQ will be 150 HP and on the HFL-5748-6IQ it will be 200 HP. Both furnaces will be provided with an Allen-Bradley PowerFlex variable frequency drive to control the blower motors.

The instrumentation and controls will feature the SolarVac™ 5000 system. In addition, a Solar ConserVac™ package will be incorporated on both furnaces for reduced power consumption.