Solar Atmospheres of Western PA acquired a used VFS HL50 external quench vacuum furnace at an auction in the Philadelphia area with the intent to refurbish it.
The main objective of this purchase was to retrofit this older furnace with a newer hot zone and pumping technology that will help minimize and target the condensation of detrimental binders evaporating out of MIM injection molded parts.
Solar’s maintenance team was responsible for refurbishing the furnace to its current standard. Solar Manufacturing, led by owner and CEO William Jones, designed the technology and the apparatus needed to consolidate the binders into one central location, thus minimizing the cleaning downtime the Solar staff was experiencing. This includes a completely new hot zone, a binder pumping port, and a second vacuum pump. The collaborative effort ensured both projects came together seamlessly.
By mid-October, the high production MIM sinter job will be fully transferred from current Solar vacuum furnaces to this dedicated and refurbished vacuum furnace. After multiple sintering runs, Solar will then have the data to compare the downtime of a traditional vacuum furnace versus the newly designed debind/sinter furnace. Solar looks forward to providing the MIM world with this new, critical processing information.
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