Heat treatment firm invests in Manchester plant to boost capacity
Wallwork Heat Treatment has invested in a new advanced vacuum carburise furnace at its Greater Manchester site.
This investment, which brings the total number of vacuum furnances across the group’s UK locations up to 29, will meet demand driven by a growing customer base of motor racing engine and transmission component suppliers, working across Formula racing including F1.
The furnace will bring total vacuum capacity to process over 40 tons of components per day.
Wallwork director, Simeon Collins, explained: “Motor racing is a punishing environment for metal components. These parts are expensive to manufacture and subject to immense forces. Speed is king but reliability is just as important. Component failure equals failure to finish and can be dangerous. The sector is characterised by rapid development cycles and relies upon equally experienced and responsive heat treatment services.”
In addition to hardening, precisely controlled heat treatment of components in the new vacuum carburise furnace will impart many improvements to the metal wear parts so they stand the stresses of continual high speed performance. In a typical process cycle, the metal surface will become free of oxide. This eliminates initial surface wear and enhances resistance to micro cracking which also increases fatigue resistance.
Equally important is the elimination of oxidation at a granular level, known as inter granular attack.
Many machined components will feature holes. Here the vacuum carburise furnace delivers excellent penetration by pulsing the gas pressure so fresh gas enters the holes frequently throughout the process cycle, ensuring more evenly applied heat treatment for the component.
Advanced machining methods make motor sport components to extremely fine tolerances. Any heat treatment process can cause component distortion, especially as the part is quenched (cooled) – but the new furnace excels at controlled cooling.
As the process takes place in a vacuum chamber, the component finish is excellent and takes less time due to the ability to apply higher carburising temperatures. Another time saving benefit is the elimination of the need for component post process cleaning.
Once the correct hardness profile for a metal part has been achieved, it can be stored and reproduced by the furnace to ensure future consistency and quality. In-house experts can even help component designers at the design stage. Discussing with the heat treater what properties they need from their component can influence the design so the gains made at the heat treating stage are even greater.
Wallwork Heat Treatment
www.wallworkht.co.uk
