January 2012
Yes to Thermal Regeneration p.24 New Plasma Nitriding p.28 Nitriding Measurement Errors p.31 Additive Manufacturing p.34
Technology Spotlights p.37 A
Publication
The Largest And Most Preferred Industry Publication www.industrialheating.com Periodical Class
Ipsen’s ATLAS® integral quench furnaces are highly engineered, sophisticated machines that are easy to operate and maintain, all while being extremely cost effective. ATLAS delivers top quality uniformity through cutting-edge technology and design: Ê
U Intelligent controls, Carb-o-Prof®, provide you with your very own electronic metallurgist U SuperQuench with adjustable oil speed and four 40HP agitators U Muffle system for uniform temperature control U Safety – all ATLAS furnaces are water-free for maximum safety U 30% less gas consumption U Recon® burners – single ended recuperated tubes (SERT)
® The unique HybridCarb® gassing system from Ipsen is an ultra-efficient gassing system designed to replace endothermic generators and other gassing systems. Its core strength is precision gas control. Instead of burning excess gas off, the process gas is reconditioned and reused, increasing efficiency up to 90%. Other benefits of HybridCarb include: Ê UÊÊÊ+ÕVÊ>`Êi>ÃÞÊ
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SPEED UNIFORMITY EFFICIENCY
January 2012 • Vol. LXXX • No. 1
CONTENTS On the Cover:
A R T I C L E S
Olson Industries’ new regenerative heat system is installed on an in-house test furnace. The new system separates the burners from the regenerators and promises energy efficiency with lower up-front costs.
24
F E A T U R E
New Configuration May Make it Harder to Say No to Thermal Regeneration Bryan J. Kraus and Sean Barraclough – Olson Industries; Burgettstown, Pa.
This new furnace regenerative system eliminates the need to cycle from one burner to another because the preheated combustion air is joined into a single stream that feeds all of the burners, allowing them to fire simultaneously. The system also eliminates specialized regenerative burners directly attached to the regenerator boxes, resulting in a lessexpensive installation.
28
Vacuum/Surface Treating
Active Screen Plasma Nitriding – An Efficient, New Plasma Nitriding Technology Jean Georges – Plasma Metal Luxembourg; Pierre Collignon – PD2i Europe ; Christian Kunz – PD2i North America
Active screen plasma nitriding technology (ASPN) is a new industrial solution that enjoys all the advantages of traditional plasma nitriding but does not have its inconveniences. Different-size parts can be treated in the same batch. ASPN is also called “easy nitriding” because it does not require highly skilled operators.
31
4 January 2012 - IndustrialHeating.com
Heat Treating
Process Control & Instrumentation
Impact of Measurement Errors on the Results of Nitriding and Nitrocarburizing Treatments Karl-Michael Winter – PROCESS-ELECTRONIC GmbH; Heiningen, GERMANY
We have a pretty good idea of what will happen to steel parts if exposed to a defined atmosphere at a given temperature. In order to determine the process parameters, we can use the well-known Lehrer Diagram for a nitriding process, or we might use one of the various FeNC phase diagrams for a nitrocarburizing process.
34
Materials Characterization & Testing
Additive Manufacturing Enables Innovative Shock-Wave Control in Supersonic Turbine Blades Rob Snoeijs – LayerWise N.V.; Leuven, BELGIUM
Scientists at von Karman Institute in Belgium contracted LayerWise to produce a scaled turbine inlet guide vane model for a turbine research project. LayerWise, an additive-manufacturing specialist, built the metal vane specimen as a single part, complete with internal cooling cavity and fine instrumentation channels.
8
COLUMNS 8
Editorial The Next New Thing Many (not all) emerging technologies in our industry will help us to do things better, quicker or more efficiently. Improved efficiencies might help us to save money or might allow our companies to hire new people. Now that would be a good thing in this economy.
10 The Heat Treat Doctor™ Soot Soot ... the very word sends shivers down the spines of even the bravest of heat treaters. The problems this seemingly innocuous black powder creates makes all our lives miserable. So, how can we avoid creating soot in the first place and what can we do if/when it forms?
10
13 Federal Triangle E-Cat: The Future of Electricity Generation? As an update from May 2011, Barry Ashby discusses E-Cat, a low-energy nuclear reaction that is as controversial as anything considered by world scientists for the generation of electricity. Why is it controversial? For one thing, its inventor has spent time in an Italian prison.
14 Environmental & Safety Issues Outrageously Unsafe Each year, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announce their “top-ten” list of the most frequent safety violations in the nation. We are reprinting the 2011 list here for your benefit. Some are tragically funny. Enjoy!
14
15 Web Resources Thermal-Processing Tools & Tips on the Web
16 MTI Profile – AFC-Holcroft 17 IHEA Profile – 2012 Annual Meeting Set
SPECIAL SECTION 37 Technology Spotlights
DEPARTMENTS 18 Industry News
85 Products
22 Industry Events
86 Aftermarket
22 IH Economic Indicators
88 Classified Marketplace
84 Literature Showcase
94 Advertiser Index
INDUSTRIAL HEATING (ISSN 0019-8374) is published 12 times annually, monthly, by BNP Media, 2401 W. Big Beaver Rd., Suite 700, Troy, MI 48084-3333. Telephone: (248) 362-3700, Fax: (248) 362-0317. No charge for subscriptions to qualified individuals. Annual rate for subscriptions to nonqualified individuals in the U.S.A.: $115.00 USD. Annual rate for subscriptions to nonqualified individuals in Canada: $149.00 USD (includes GST & postage); all other countries: $165.00 (int’l mail) payable in U.S. funds. Printed in the U.S.A. Copyright 2012, by BNP Media. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the consent of the publisher. The publisher is not responsible for product claims and representations. Periodicals Postage Paid at Troy, MI and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: INDUSTRIAL HEATING, P.O. Box 2147, Skokie, IL 60076. Canada Post: Publications Mail Agreement #40612608. GST account: 131263923. Send returns (Canada) to Pitney Bowes, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON, N6C 6B2. Change of address: Send old address label along with new address to INDUSTRIAL HEATING, P.O. Box 2147, Skokie, IL 60076. For single copies or back issues: contact Ann Kalb at (248) 244-6499 or
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January advertisers present their products and/or technologies. g
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Industrial Heating is the official publication of ASM’s Heat Treating Society and official media partner of ASM’s HT Expo & Conference.
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Nanotechnology involves work with nanoparticles, which are about 100 nanometers in size. size. A nanoparticle is about one-thousandth the width dth dt h of of a human hair – many are even smaller. The practical application of this technology is often called molecular manufacturing. Transitioning from laboratory-scale to o full-scale production and manufacturing is a challenge faccing the industry.
Product of the Month Ipsen Inc. The new HybridCarb® is an ultra-efficient gassing system designed to replace endothermic generators and other gassing systems. Its core strength is precision gas control. Instead of burning excess gas off, the process gas is reconditioned and reused, increasing efficiency up to 90%. HybridCarb allows for the reduction of more than 40 tons of CO2 per year – the equivalent of planting 220 trees. Other benefits of HybridCarb include: • Quick and easy hookup • Increased carburizing efficiency • Improved hardness uniformity • Significantly less expensive to operate than endogenerators • Consumes significantly less gas • Environmentally friendly and cost-efficient
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Editorial Reed Miller, Associate Publisher/Editor | 412-306-4360 |
[email protected] The Next New Thing
H
appy New Year! A recently released book argues that emerging technologies hold the power to elevate humankind. The focus of the book has nothing to do with thermal processing, so I won’t promote it here. But its thesis is hard to argue. Many (not all) emerging technologies in our industry will help us to do things better, quicker or more efficiently. Improved efficiencies might help us to save money or might allow our companies to hire new people. Now that would be a good thing in this economy. The next new thing is always difficult to put a finger on. Government believes they are able to pick the next new thing, but often even they (in all of their wisdom?) get it wrong. Here are a few things with ties to our industry that just might impact us in the months and years ahead.
DARPA A good place to look for new ideas is research for defense or space applications. The technology is typically cutting-edge. The Defense Sciences Office (DSO) of DARPA is one place doing this type of work. The DSO Materials program “seeks to advance material science on many technology fronts.” One of these fronts is to “innovate processing methods that dramatically reduce the cost of producing titanium metal and its alloys.” They state their objective as follows: “This focus area includes new materials concepts for lowering the weight and increasing the performance of aircraft, ground vehicles and spacecraft structures.” The goal of DARPA’s Titanium Initiative (DTI) is to reduce production costs of titanium – a material with excellent corrosion resistance and good ballistic properties – to improve its usability for defense applications. The initiative research seeks to produce titanium ore at less than $4 per pound in unmelted billet form. They are also trying to develop a “meltless consolidation technique” to provide low-cost billet, rod, sheet and plate products that match the properties of traditional wrought titanium material. In the Multifunctional Materials and Material Systems area, projects include revolutionary new armor systems utilizing unique high-strength steel and polymer composite hybrid configurations for military vehicles. It doesn’t take much imagination to see the usage of this type of material for weight reduction in commercial vehicles. Reducing vehicle weight is a key fuel-saving measure in automotive design. The goal of DARPA’s Advanced Structural Fiber (ASF) program is to develop and produce a fiber with at least a 50% increase in strength and 8 January 2012 - IndustrialHeating.com
stiffness. It’s not hard to see that research of this type might make some heat treatments obsolete in the future. DARPA’s Structural Amorphous Metals (SAM) program is developing a new class of bulk metallic alloys that exhibit unique combinations of mechanical properties. Amorphous metals are noncrystalline with a “glassy” microstructure in the solid phase. Work on amorphous-composite hybrid materials with the stiffness of beryllium and twice the strength will be demonstrated in space applications. Bulk amorphous alloys that exceed the strength, fatigue and corrosion properties of titanium will be demonstrated in turbine applications. ASM Vision 2020 Heat-Treat Technology Roadmap Revisiting some of the goals of Vision 2020 helps us to see where technology developments have come in our industry and where future technology might be needed. Energy efficiency continues to be an area of development and interest. Advanced materials (as discussed above) will continue to drive our industry to proactively meet the thermal-processing needs of new materials. Heat-treat modeling has been the topic of a few recent articles in Industrial Heating. The goal of outcome prediction for certain processes is already reality. As mentioned in our April Anniversary article, sensor development along with control technologies, particularly wireless, has been a key industry development of the past decade. You can use the Mobile Tag at the end of the article to take a quick tour of thermal processing’s past 100 years or so. Alternative Energy Alternative energy offers our industry the potential for growth and development. Since much of it is tied to government funding, be cautious of putting too many of your eggs in this basket. Even wind-turbines, currently providing heat-treating work for many, will be changing in the future as permanent-magnet generators with a direct-drive design replace many of the gears and bearings used in most of today’s turbines. The photo on this page shows a 2.3-MW example of one of these next-generation wind turbines. 2012 promises to offer opportunities and challenges as every year before it has. Being ready to quickly and efficiently adapt to the changes will keep our industry, and your company, on technology’s cutting edge. IH
Use this Mobile Tag to take a quick tour of thermal processing's past century. northernpower.com
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The Heat Treat Doctor Daniel H. Herring | 630-834-3017 |
[email protected] Soot
S
o ... the very word sends shivers down the spines oot of o even the bravest of heat treaters. The problems this t seemingly innocuous black powder creates cause management to bemoan lost productivity, maintem nance men to vow to seek out those responsible and, until a permanent solution is found, makes all our lives miserable. So, how can we avoid creating soot in the first place and what can we do if/ when it forms? Let’s learn more. Carbon Penetration The presence of soot raises many red flags, one of them being that carbon from unstable furnace atmospheres is rapidly absorbed into refractory linings, which are incredibly porous. Infrequent or improper burnouts (so-called flash burnouts) give a false sense of security, as they address only the refractories near surface layer. Once absorbed, carbon will continue to diffuse deeper and deeper into the refractory (Fig. 1). The penetration halts in the temperature range of approximately 900-1300°F (480-705°C). As more and more carbon is absorbed, the refractory loses its thermal properties and becomes conductive. The result can be damage or melting of alloy components that extend into or through these conductive layers. Heating elements, terminal ends and support hangers in electric furnaces are particularly vulnerable as are atmosphere inlets, sample tubes and even oxygen probes (Fig. 2). Gas-fired furnaces are not immune because radiant tubes are also susceptible to carbon attack and metal dusting (Fig. 3). Many heat treaters believe box and integral-quench furnaces are only vulnerable to the effects of soot if they are performing deep-case carburizing cycles. This is not true. Furnaces running
Fig. 1. Carbon-rich subsurface layer inside a refractory wall
10 January 2012 - IndustrialHeating.com
shallow case depths or even atmospheres neutral to medium and high-carbon steels (e.g., 0.60-0.80%C) are at risk. The use of low-iron brick (
