Application of customized nitrogen vacuum furnace in the metal manufacturing industry

Customized nitrogen vacuum furnaces have important applications in the metal manufacturing industry, mainly reflected in improving material performance, optimizing process quality, ensuring production safety, and promoting green manufacturing. The following is a specific analysis:

Improve material performance and reduce losses
In metal heat treatment, traditional air heating under high temperature environment can cause the formation of 100-200 μ m thick oxide scale on the surface of carbon steel, resulting in a material loss rate of over 3%. Customized nitrogen vacuum furnaces use nitrogen as an inert gas to maintain chemical stability above 1000 ℃. By replacing oxygen in the furnace, the thickness of the oxide layer can be controlled below 5 μ m, and the material utilization rate can be increased to over 99%. For example, in the aerospace field, the melting and processing of high-temperature alloy materials have extremely strict environmental requirements. Customized nitrogen vacuum furnaces can be melted under vacuum or inert gas protection, effectively removing gas impurities and harmful elements from metals, improving the purity and performance of alloys, and ensuring the quality and reliability of key components such as aircraft engine parts.

Optimize process quality and enhance performance
Customized nitrogen vacuum furnaces can accurately control the type, flow rate, and pressure of gases inside the furnace, achieving precise control of the atmosphere composition. In carburizing and quenching, mixing nitrogen and propane in a ratio of 9:1 can control the fluctuation of carbon potential in the furnace within ± 0.05%, solving the problem of hardness difference caused by uneven carbon concentration in traditional processes. During vacuum quenching, sufficient nitrogen gas is injected back into the vacuum furnace, and during high-pressure gas quenching, nitrogen gas with a pressure higher than one atmosphere is rapidly injected into the vacuum furnace. At a pressure of 10 bar, a cooling rate of 600 ℃/minute can be achieved, which is three times faster than traditional oil quenching. This significantly improves the hardenability of precision parts such as gears and reduces deformation to the lowest level.

Ensure production safety and reduce risks
The customized nitrogen vacuum furnace performs well in terms of safety protection. For example, when a certain automobile parts factory is shut down for maintenance, it continuously supplies nitrogen gas through a nitrogen generator to maintain the oxygen content in the furnace below 0.5%, avoiding the risk of explosion caused by residual gas. In the vacuum quenching process of oil quenching with vacuum heating, sometimes in order to ensure or improve the cooling capacity of the quenching oil, sufficient nitrogen gas needs to be refilled into the vacuum furnace before the workpiece cools down. At the same time, nitrogen protection can prevent metal surface oxidation and reduce the generation of slag.

Promote green manufacturing and reduce costs
Customizing a nitrogen vacuum furnace can help achieve green manufacturing. By using photovoltaic power to drive nitrogen generators, carbon footprint can be reduced by 45%, which meets the requirements of EU CE certification. From an economic perspective, taking the 1000m ³/h PSA nitrogen generator as an example, the equipment investment is about 2 million yuan, and the annual cost savings can reach 2.16 million yuan (bottled nitrogen cost 2.8 million – on-site nitrogen production cost 640000 yuan), with a payback period of about 0.92 years. For example, a certain aluminum company adopts a nitrogen protected aging furnace, which is kept at 200 ℃ for 8 hours, with a hardness of HB85 and an oxide film thickness of<2 μ m, saving an annual electricity cost of 1.2 million yuan.