Drop Bottom Quench Furnace
Drop Bottom Quench Furnace
ACME FURNACE offers a comprehensive range of Solution Heat Treatment Furnaces with batch capacities of up to 25 MT, specifically designed for the heat treatment of aluminium and aluminium alloy components. These furnaces cater to aluminium industries such as automotive components, cylinder heads, aluminium sheets, aluminium ingots, conductors, and aluminium foils, among others.
The Solution Heat Treatment Furnaces are designed in a drop-bottom configuration, where the furnace is mounted on an elevated structure and a water quenching tank is positioned directly below. This arrangement ensures rapid and efficient quenching immediately after the heating cycle, in accordance with the required solution heat treatment process parameters.
Uniform temperature distribution inside the furnace is achieved through an efficient hot air circulation system, utilizing centrifugal or axial type recirculation fans. These fans can be supplied with two-speed motors or VFD-controlled drives, depending on process requirements.
The Drop Bottom Quench Furnaces feature a double-wall construction, with high-quality ceramic fiber blanket insulation placed between the inner and outer walls to minimize heat losses and maintain low external surface temperatures. ACME FURNACE is fully equipped to supply complete control and instrumentation systems, either PLC-based or through conventional hardware-based logic controls, to ensure safe, precise, and reliable operation.
These Drop Bottom Quench Furnaces are available in circular or rectangular configurations and are provided with an insulated furnace cover that moves sideways through hydraulic or electro-mechanical operation. This arrangement allows easy charging of circular or rectangular work baskets from the loading platform using a suspended wire-rope type lifting and lowering mechanism, operated hydraulically or electro-mechanically.
The loading platform and quenching tank are mounted on a hydraulically or electro-mechanically driven trolley positioned above ground level. This design enables rapid quenching, typically within 30 seconds. During operation, the trolley moves beneath the furnace, positioning the loading platform directly under the furnace opening. The charge is then lifted into the furnace for the required heating and soaking cycle.
After completion of heating and soaking, the trolley repositions the quenching tank directly below the furnace for immediate quenching. Where the permissible quenching delay is slightly longer (beyond approximately 45 seconds), the furnace can alternatively be supplied with a cemented quenching tank installed below ground level, while the loading platform remains mounted on a trolley operating above the quench tank to facilitate loading and unloading.
These Drop Bottom Quench Furnaces can be supplied in both electrically heated and fuel-fired versions. Electrically heated models are equipped with resistive strip or wire heating elements mounted on the furnace sidewalls.
The heating system is divided into multiple independently controlled heating zones, allowing precise temperature regulation. Control can be achieved using contactor-based or thyristor-based control systems, integrated with PID controllers to ensure accurate and uniform heating throughout the furnace chamber.
Quench systems utilize either straight water or varying concentrations of glycol water mixtures and are temperature controlled to match final desired end results. Air quench options are also available.
Control systems visually monitor tank loading and automatic rack hooking operations keeping the operator away from the furnace and moving equipment.
Temperature uniformities meet MIL and aerospace specifications requiring +/- 5 degrees F of maximum temperature spread.
Drop Bottom Quench Furnace meet AMS-2750E heat treat requirements for temperature uniformity and precise heating of workloads.
Data acquisition systems monitor all phases of the process and are developed to send this information to the end user’s in house network. Local monitoring and live displays of in process information give operators real time useful information.
Aerospace, Automotive and Foundry Processes