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Abstract

In spite of the high capital outlay for vacuum furnaces, the industrial applications of vacuum heat treatment are growing. This is due to the technical and economic benefits of the process, which include clean, smooth surfaces with improved fatigue resistance and the elimination of post heat-treatment finishing operations. Before 1960, the only significant metallurgical heat-treatment operation undertaken using vacuum equipment was the annealing of copper wire. The introduction of industrial cold-wall furnaces has increased the number of applications considerably because of the possibility to quench the charge by forced gas circulation. Since 1970, cold-wall furnaces with oil quenching equipment have also become available. The heat-treatment processes that can be carried out in vacuum furnaces are thus no longer restricted to annealing and sintering but also include all forms of hardening operation. In addition the proper control of the furnace atmosphere makes vacuum techniques suitable for thermochemical treatments such as carburizing and nitrocarburizing.

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Sub-atmospheric pressure or vacuum heat-treatment processing

Abstract

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