Car Bottom Vacuum Furnace Passes Boeing Quality Certification

Solar Manufacturing has completed installation and testing of a model HCB-84144-2EQ horizontal car bottom vacuum furnace at Solar Atmospheres of Hermitage, Pennsylvania. Recently, Solar Atmospheres conducted a start-up temperature uniformity survey to demonstrate compliance to a stringent Boeing quality specification. Bob Hill, president of Solar’s Hermitage operation, stated “The survey results were outstanding for such a large furnace. We achieved an impressive ?6?F between 2000?F and 700?F”.

The new furnace has a work load size of 54? high X 54? wide x 144? long and a weight capacity of 50,000 pounds. The furnace chamber has front and rear autoclave-type locking doors with dual transfer carts and car bottoms at each entry for efficient load/unload operation.

The high efficiency graphite insulated hot zone features four (4) layers of ½? thick WDF grade graphite felt, a hot face of FlexShield, CalCarb graphite board, and thin profile curved graphite heating elements. The maximum operating temperature is 2850°F. The newly designed 2 bar gas quench system consists of a 300 HP motor rated at 5000 RPM, Robinson radial fan wheel and diffuser, HeatCraft high capacity heat exchanger and a variable speed drive to provide rapid gas quench through patent pending tapered graphite gas nozzles. The improved gas nozzles focus quench gas directly on the work load for optimum cooling.