Vacuum Heat Treat for Lean Environments

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Vacuum Heat Treat for Lean Environments

• Jeff Michael
• 4/8/05

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Vision Statement

• Create a solution for a low cost small batch
  Vacuum Heat Treat unit to improve the speed and
  economics of the process

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Goal and Objective

• Create an economical Vacuum furnace that can
  internalize the heat treat process of small lot
  manufacturers
• Create commercial furnace designs that use energy
  more effectively
• Small localized furnace eliminating queue time
  build up as the typical large furnaces do

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Todays Situation

• Todays typical Small Vacuum furnace has a size
  of 3 meters cube with working zone of 0.8 meters
  cube
• Many small parts will fit into one load
• Forces large queues and wait time for small lot
  manufactures
• Many small manufacturers sublet H.T. further
  increasing lead time and transportation costs

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Todays Situation

• Furnace loads are not full and the NRG (energy)
  is wasted
• Much of the NRG goes into the furnace not the
  parts
• Part Quality suffers quenches are not consistent
  shadowing effects or lot size effects

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Todays Situation at Star

• Small self built hardening vacuum furnaces are
  now 15 years old
• Still have the best distortion control available
• Tempering takes 20 hours queues build total
  time is 72 hours

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How Did Star Get Here?

• Vacuum Furnaces are environment friendly
• Customers are demanding shorter lead times
• Energy prices are going up

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Available Options

• Build our own
• Advantage Keep Technology confidentialBuild
  another business opportunity
• Disadvantage Research issues manpower issues
  expensive
• Wait for industry solution
• DisadvTime to solution
• Alliance with partners

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Recommendation

• Build an Alliance of technology providers assess
  DoD needs Design, build and implement
  economical units
• Lets take advantage Vacuum Technology at low
  investment costs with the best Distortion control
  
• What to do next
• Identify partners and start relationships

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Wear coatings

• Coatings designed for wear require
• Hardness
• Non-reactivity to workpiece or mating surface,
  achieved by
• Inertness at operating temps
• Lubricity
• Coating choice must be appropriate for tool
  system and customer

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Hard Chrome coatings

• Electroplated Chromium (Ep Cr)
• Generally thick, 0.001 - 0.020 inch or more
• Micro-cracked
• Cu strike, Ni underlayer, then Cr
• Low deposition temps

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Commercial PVD coatings

• Vacuum, line-of-sight process
• Normal deposition temps 450 deg C
• Typical thickness 2 - 10 microns (0.0001 - 0.0004
  inch)
• Very hard (4x Ep Cr), very dense
• Designed for cutting, forming applications

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Typical PVD properties
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Experience at Star

• Paul Rudnik (Gold Star)
• BIRL/Northwestern University
• Projects dating back to 1992
• DARPA
• TACOM
• EPA