Heat treatment furnace facilities for the aluminum industry
HICON batch-type furnaces for plate and sheet.
By controlling aging temperature and treatment time it is possible to manipulate metallurgical processes to improve material properties such as tensile strength, elongation and hardness.
This type of furnace needs to be fitted with an extremely precise temperature control system in order to achieve extremely tight temperature tolerances at relatively low aging temperatures.
Depending on the application, the furnace facility can be equipped with a system to cool the charge with air.
Batches of plates, stacks or single plates (aircraft wing components for example) are loaded into the furnace using automatic chargers.
HICON batch-type furnaces are distinguished by the following features:
- Highest possible temperature uniformity in the plate stack, due to the specially-designed baffle system with heating systems in the roof and floor of the furnace
- Highest possible temperature uniformity across the width of plates, due to regular changes in the direction of airflow between the plates
- Multiple controlled heating and cooling stages
- Inclusion of a plunge cooling system for plate
- Use of nitrogen instead of air in the workload space
- Higher processing temperatures, up to 500 °C
The facility is implemented to comply with the standards required by the automotive and aerospace industry. These standards are primarily AMS 2750 (SAE Aerospace) in the aircraft industry and CQI-9 (AIAG) for the automotive industry.
