A Czech manufacturer of industrial knives, mulching knives and chippers placed an order with SECO/WARWICK for a vacuum furnace with 10-bar high-pressure gas quenching. The furnace, which has been customized to enable the processing of long and straight items, will be used for tool-steel hardening and tempering. SECO/WARWICK engineers designed a nonstandard workspace measuring 600 x 600 x 1,800 mm. The modification was implemented to fit the characteristic shape of the workpieces. Apart from the nonstandard dimensions of the chamber, the unit was fitted with a directional cooling option to effectively cool long and thin knives that are prone to distortion during the hardening process.
The Vector vacuum furnace was designed to synchronize its operation to the dedicated thermal process for knives and chippers. The application for the device required an inverter that enables complete control over temperature at every stage of the hardening process to reduce distortion. Together with the additional option of directional cooling and the convection system, the system design helps reduce distortion.
