Oetzbach Edelstahl, a hardening plant that has been providing metal heat-treatment services for almost one hundred years, has purchased another furnace from Seco/Warwick.
The system on order is a Vector® vacuum furnace with 15 bar abs high-pressure gas hardening and the option of low-pressure carburizing, low-pressure nitriding and cryogenic freezing. It is the third Seco/Warwick vacuum furnace to be delivered to the German Oetzbach Edelstahl plant.
The furnace ordered by Oetzbach Edelstahl is a standard medium-sized vacuum solution with numerous options. The Vector technology allows the user to produce a wide range of processes, from hardening through carburizing, nitriding, and cryogenic freezing. A vacuum furnace with a heating chamber size of 600x600x900 mm enables the efficient heat treatment of tool and machine parts. It is a proven design with a large number of options including FineCarb® vacuum carburizing, PreNitLPC® pre-carburizing prior to nitriding, LPN low-pressure nitriding, and LPCN low-pressure carbonitriding.
“Vacuum furnaces of this type are very often chosen by service hardening plants because with relatively small dimensions, they provide a wide range of processes,” said Maciej Korecki, vice president of the Seco/Warwick Vacuum Business Segment. “We specialize in providing equipment for the specific needs of service hardening plants. We work for the largest companies in this industry. We are trusted by such highly regarded companies, including Härtewerk Chemnitz GmbH, the Slovenian MIHEU hardening plant, the Austrian R&W Härtetechnik, Aalberts Surface Technologies, Kuchma, and the Brazilian Tecnovacum.”
The Vector vacuum heat-treatment furnace is a proven solution for the industry, trusted by both manufacturers who perform heat treatment on their own products, and service hardening plants. The furnace enables a wide range of processes, including hardening, tempering, annealing, solutionizing, brazing and sintering, as well as low-pressure carburizing. The furnace produces clean, homogeneous parts of high quality with repeatable accuracy that do not oxidize. Its versatility is matched only by its reliability.
The furnace ordered by the Oetzbach Edelstahl hardening plant is the third solution in the vacuum segment, which will go to the German company’s machine park. The furnace is distinguished by directional cooling, which allows for dynamic hardening. The furnace is equipped with options for carburizing and vacuum nitriding, which allows the system to carry out precise processes that increase the steel surface hardness during the thermal and chemical treatment processes. Finally, an additional function is the liquid nitrogen cryogenic freezing system, which improves the part dimensional accuracy and increases the part hardness with the potential to cool the load down to -80°C.
Oetzbach Edelstahl is a hardening plant founded by Albert Ewald Oetzbach in 1927 and has been in the Oetzbach family for almost 100 years. Oetzbach Edelstahl offers its customers a wide range of heat-treatment processes for many steel grades. Experience and an extensive machine park enable them to be a leader in their region among companies providing comprehensive services in the field of steel heat treatment.
“We needed to increase the current hardening plant’s processing capacity and expand the range of steel vacuum heat treatment processes,” said Robin Oetzbach. “The Seco/Warwick vacuum furnace will increase our efficiency. This is a relevant improvement in the process efficiency when taking into account the energy savings, the graphite chamber productivity, the minimization of part deformation and reduced cycle time. The additional options which we ordered, FineCarb®, PreNitLPC®, LPN, and LPCN represent the latest technology and will help us to grow our business. Seco/Warwick is a reliable partner in the field of metal heat treatment, and it is undoubtedly the first choice on the market in the field of vacuum equipment.”
MORE INFO: www.secowarwick.com
