Designed for flexibility, AICHELIN’s roller hearth furnace for Isothermal Annealing supports a broad range of heat treatment processes under nitrogen atmosphere with optional natural gas enrichment. This approach effectively prevents surface scaling, eliminating the need for labor-intensive descaling methods such as sandblasting. The furnace can also be customized for alternative process atmospheres on request. Key process options include:
- Isothermal annealing with rapid cooling
- Normalizing
- Tempering (with direct transfer to the tempering furnace)
- Hardening (quenching in oil) and tempering
Optional configurations are available without hardening or without transfer prior to tempering, further enhancing process flexibility.
Environmental Benefits
AICHELIN’s roller hearth furnace takes a leading role in sustainable heat treatment.
- Vacuum lock chamber: Reduces protective gas consumption, minimizing resource use and operational costs
- Radiant tube heating: Maximizes thermal efficiency by utilizing burner waste heat, and is easily convertible to electric heating
- No need for separate degreasing systems: Components move directly from oil quenching to the tempering furnace, where oil is vaporized and residual fumes are treated in a post-combustion unit
- Multifunctional system design: Consolidates multiple processes into a single system, reducing the energy waste and space requirements of underutilized standalone units
Economic Advantages
In addition to its ecological performance, the AICHELIN roller hearth furnace delivers strong economic value:
- Simple inline integration into production lines
- High throughput capability: Handles batch weights up to 1,200 kg (gross) and achieves throughput rates of up to 4,000 kg/h
- Efficient rapid cooling in protective atmosphere: Dual cooling circuits (main and bypass) ensure optimal thermal management
- Flexible process control: Supports ejection after hardening for hardness inspection, and re-entry for tempering-only operations
- Comprehensive tracking: Fully integrated with the FOCOS 4.0 process control system for complete batch and fault documentation
Conclusion: Profit Through Efficiency
By combining modern furnace technology with exceptional operational flexibility, AICHELIN’s roller hearth furnace delivers both environmental and economic advantages. The integration of multiple heat treatment processes into one system promotes efficient resource utilization and significantly reduces operating costs. It’s the ideal solution for companies focused on sustainable and cost-effective production.
