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Vacuum Furnace Utilizes Induction Heating
• 6’ x 5’ Footprint Fits Your Mfg. Cell
• Heats To 1900°F In Less Than 8 Minutes
• For Brazing & General Purpose Heating
• Enables Continuous Flow Manufacturing
• Water-To-Water Recirculation System
Our VF-30 Vacuum Furnace is designed to heat parts of virtually any shape in a high temperature, high vacuum environment or in partial pressure of an inert gas. The compact 6’ x 5’ system footprint fits easily into your manufacturing cell; the chamber has base vacuum of 5x10(-6) Torr with a leak-up rate of less than 1 micron per hour. The system is designed for operation at high vacuum or partial pressure of inert gas.
GE Aviation recently added the new VF-30 vacuum furnace to the company’s Lean Lab; a physical manufacturing environment used to facilitate lean enabling technology insertion. “Adding the latest version (VF-30) to the lab allows us to optimize, leverage and promote the VF-30 furnaces currently used in GE Aviation’s manufacturing shops,” said Aviation’s Jeff Wessels.
The standard hot zone of the VF-30 has a 11” ID, 12” height and is customizable according to individual process requirements. The chamber is mounted on a heavy duty stainless steel frame that houses all the required equipment for vacuum, atmospheric and system control, as well as the induction heating station.
With the Model VF-30’s quick, clean induction heating system, cycle times can be dramatically reduced in comparison to traditional resistance heating methods. The chart below plots time/temperature curves for a typical nickel brazing process. The induction heating vacuum furnace completes the process in less than one hour while the same process requires more than three hours with resistance heating. With the IA vacuum furnace, 1900°F can be reached in less than eight minutes and temperatures as high as 2300° can be achieved. Cool down to 400°F from maximum temperature can
be completed in less than 20 minutes.
The most common applications for vacuum furnaces include heating small lot sizes, brazing parts of unusual shapes, repairing “orphans” from other heating processes, and other applications which benefit from whole part heating. It’s easy to set up a continuous manufacturing flow, run various processes throughout the day and realize up to 90% improvement in overall cycle time.
To permit easy loading, the vacuum furnace’s part handling mechanism opens at the base of the system, then automatically raises the parts up into the vacuum chamber and heating coil, and finally lowers the parts back down to base level for unloading.
Real time monitoring and SPC are a snap with the optional LAN interface or digital chart recorder; data may be stored and sent directly to your desktop. The standard thermocouple controls record all chamber temperatures; individual part temperatures may be controlled and monitored with the optional optical pyrometer.
To maximize operator safety, the furnace's heating system has been fully isolated. Safety interlocks protect access to the vacuum chamber and manual controls. Other operator safety features include a light curtain, emergency stop and other warning systems built into the software and hardware.
Utility requirements for the VF-30 Vacuum Furnace include 480VAC, 3-phase, 100 Amp electrical service, water pressure of 10GPM at 40 PSI with a heat load of 40 kW and 80 psi air pressure.
