SECO/VACUUM News

American Product Premiere: UCM – 4D Quench® a modern alternative to press quenching

SECO/WARWICK’s 4D Quench Vacuum System eliminates press quench problems and improves product quality – one part at a time!

(Meadville PA, Oct 10, 2019) – SECO/WARWICK’s 4D Quench® vacuum system will replace traditional press quenching. That’s a modern alternative to press quenching which enables customers to achieve the same results or better as oil press quenching but with gas cooling after vacuum heating. 4D Quench® is a continuous, single-piece flow vacuum heat treatment system for quenching and distortion control, a cost-effective alternative that cools as rapidly but without the issues associated with oil.

“SECO/WARWICK’S single-piece flow 4D Quench® furnace is dedicated to those who want to avoid or eliminate press quenching and significantly increase quality and process integration of gears and other mechanical transmission components,” said Maciej Korecki, VP, Business Segment Vacuum Heat Treatment Furnaces. “The 4D Quench system utilizes a proprietary arrangement of cooling nozzles that surround the part and ensures a uniform flow of cooling gas from all sides; top, bottom, and side – “3D” cooling. To complete the process, a table spins the part (the 4th Dimension), further enhancing quench uniformity.”

SECO/WARWICK Group will feature the 4D Quench single-piece flow vacuum furnace at the ASM Heat Treat Show, booth 1207-1209, and will also present a paper on this new technology at the conference.

The 4D Quench system solves the following process and product problems:

• Parts are quenched and cooled without the possibility of oxidation and without dirty oils
• SECO/WARWICK’s single-piece flow furnace with 4D Quench® moves parts automatically and eliminates labor and product variations due to manual handling of parts
• The 4D process is perfect for through hardening and for hardening previously carburized parts with extremely low distortion
• The 4D Quench eliminates washing, chemicals, waste disposal, oil vapors and all the mess associated with quench oils; it also improves worker safety

How it Works

SECO/WARWICK refers to the spinning motion as the fourth dimension, allowing the system to “4D” quench parts for the best possible uniformity. The cooling nozzles pattern can be adequately adjusted to fit the particular part size range and shape. The entire nitrogen cooling system provides powerful and uniform quenching which results in perfect repeatability and significant reduction of distortion and finally its control. Neither oil nor helium is required.

The 4D Quench System is offered to the North American market through SECO/VACUUM Technologies LLC (SVT), a fully-owned entity of SECO/WARWICK Group. To learn more about this technical achievement over press quenching, visit SECO/VACUUM Technologies at the ASM Heat Treat Show in Detroit, booth 1207-1209.