SECO/VACUUM News

SECO/VACUUM 2019: Better tools for a changing world

Both products update legacy processes in widespread use in industries such as automotive, aerospace and other high volume, high value markets, and their contribution to these industries will be immeasurable.

(Meadville PA, Dec 20, 2019) – SECO/VACUUM (SVT) in a single year launched two products that will have significant long-term impact for in-house heat treatment departments and commercial heat treaters alike. Both products update legacy processes in widespread use in industries such as automotive, aerospace and other high volume, high value markets, and their contribution to these industries will be immeasurable.

Super IQ® is a revolutionary gas carburizing furnace that will replace the traditional integral quench furnace in common use for nearly 40 years. It delivers cleaner parts with no flames and no endogas, it can accelerate production capacities and offer greater process flexibility with higher temperatures, and it can be easily adopted into current IQ process lines using existing loaders.

UCM® 4D Quench® is a unique single-piece flow vacuum furnace and quench system that will eliminate the hot and dangerous manual process conditions that are in common use today. Perfect for transmission product manufacturing, such as large gears, the 4D Quench system moves each part, automatically, one at a time, from a vacuum heating chamber to a quench chamber, cooling with no distortion using nitrogen jets directed at the spinning the part (the 4th dimension), resulting in perfectly uniform parts with no manual handling.

As a baseline, these two new technologies will improve reliability, repeatability, and quality, while at the same time, reduce operator risk and manufacturing liability.

However, according to Piotr Zawistowski, managing director or SECO/VACUUM, “SECO/WARWICK Group is on a trajectory to help companies do more than simply survive and compete using ordinary tools. We are making available a new set of advanced tools in these furnaces that will allow our customers to break new boundaries in efficiency, safety and productivity. And this is just the beginning.

“We are proud of our accomplishments throughout 2019 to be able to bring these products to market,” continued Zawistowski, “and we look forward to introducing them to companies throughout North America who will use them to advance their own fortunes and futures in the years to come.”

Also during 2019, SECO/VACUUM introduced SECOVISORY, the company’s heat treat advisory council, comprised of a team of vacuum furnace consultants who apply their professional counsel, process knowledge and supervision to help their customers navigate difficult thermal processing decisions. According to Zawistowski, “SECOVISORY’s mission is to be available to listen, solve and support your specific heat treat challenges.”