Tech Downloads

Using Vacuum Furnaces to Process 3D-Printed Parts

Vacuum heat treating is a crucial step in the additive manufacturing process cycle to meet required part quality specifications.

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Minimizing Titanium Alpha Case During Vacuum Furnace Heat Treating

A presentation by Solar's Don Jordan given at the ASM's Heat Treat 2015 trade show about reducing alpha case on titanium parts when heat treating in a vacuum furnace.

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Vacuum Furnaces Were Made For Additive Manufacturing

A presentation by Solar's Bob Hill given at the ASM's Heat Treat 2015 trade show about the relationship between vacuum heat treating and additive manufacturing.

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Retiring Paper-based Maintenance Systems in Commercial Heat Treating Shops

A presentation by Solar's Roger Jones given at the ASM's Heat Treat 2015 trade show about transitioning to paperless maintenance logging.

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Dew Point Versus Oxygen Content in Vacuum Processing Part 2

Since the majority of commercial and captive heat treat facilities do not typically operate under controlled environments, the temperature and humidity swings can often be drastic.

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Dew Point Versus Oxygen Content In Vacuum Processing

It is well known that accurate measurement of any heat treating atmosphere can have a significant effect on the quality and process yield of heat treated components.  Traditionally, dew point analysis has always been the bellwether in determining our heat treating atmospheric conditions.

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Enhancing Titanium Friction & Wear Properties

For all of the known benefits of titanium alloys in all sorts of applications, from medical to aerospace to automotive, titanium is also known to exhibit poor tribological properties. That is, it has a high coefficient of friction (COF) when in moving contact with essentially all structural metals, resulting in poor sliding and adhesive wear resistance that leads to failure by galling (cold welding). Because of this, metal-to-metal applications encountering friction and wear considerations require a surface treatment for adequate serviceability. One such treatment is solution nitriding, which is performed in a vacuum furnace using partial pressure nitrogen gas at elevated temperatures in the annealing range. Solution nitriding is classified as a diffusion process where nitrogen gas dissociates and nascent nitrogen is adsorbed and diffused into the titanium matrix. Like other diffusion processes, the depth of the diffusion zone is dependent on the time of the treatment. For alloy Ti-6Al-4V with a core hardness of 30 HRC, Solar Atmospheres has generated hardnesses as high as the mid-60’s to upper-60’s HRC (converted from HV 25gf) at a depth of 0.0076mm (0.0003”), followed by a gradual decrease in hardness to the core over a distance of 0.25mm (0.01”). Shorter cycle times have produced hardnesses in the mid-50’s to high-50’s HRC and shallower total case depths.

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True Cost of Becoming Aerospace Accredited

A presentation by Solar's Bob Hill given at the FNA 2014 trade show about the True Cost of Becoming an Aerospace Accredited Heat Treater.

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