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May – Vacuum furnaces
From surgical instruments to 15-tonne die-casting moulds: vacuum chamber furnaces are capable of far more than most people realise
Hardening, tempering, annealing — it sounds routine. But modern vacuum furnace technology goes well beyond that: it brazzes plate heat exchangers in high-volume production, deep-cools tools to sub-zero temperatures, enriches surfaces with carbon — all without surface oxidation, with a bright metallic finish, and fully automated. Björn Eric Zieger of IVA Schmetz GmbH breaks down the furnace designs, vacuum systems, heating concepts, and quenching mechanisms that make this versatility possible — and explains why choosing the right system is decisive when it comes to distortion, hardness variation, and energy costs. A comprehensive overview well worth reading in full.
Hydrogen as a quenching medium? What seemed long forgotten could fundamentally reshape heat treatment
Nitrogen is standard, oil is tried and tested — but hydrogen? Aichelin ST Vacuum GmbH makes the case for why the lightest element in the periodic table is experiencing a genuine revival as a quenching gas: superior heat transfer coefficients, economically viable pressures up to 20 bar, reduced component distortion, and even the option to use lower-alloy steel grades. Combined with low-pressure carburising, where higher process temperatures dramatically cut treatment times while also shrinking the CO₂ footprint, the result is an approach that meets both economic and environmental demands head-on. Anyone looking to understand how vacuum technology, hydrogen quenching, and case hardening come together into a future-proof overall concept should not miss this article.
50 times less wear — with no open flames, toxic emissions, or fire hazard
That may sound ambitious, but it's the outcome of rigorous real-world testing: SECO/WARWICK, in collaboration with Polish heat treatment company Hart-TECH, systematically investigated what low-pressure carbonitriding in a vacuum furnace can actually deliver — and the results are striking. For certain free-cutting steels, the process increased surface hardness by 150 HV, boosted effective case depth by 13%, and reduced component wear to less than a fiftieth of what conventional low-pressure carburising achieved. On top of that, the process runs fully automated, with complete reproducibility, and without the CO₂, CO, and NOₓ emissions of traditional atmosphere furnaces. For anyone wanting to know which steel grades genuinely benefit from this technology — and where its limits lie — this research report is essential reading.
