QUENCHING FURNACES

Batch Quenching Furnace Water – Polymer - Oil

Nutec Bickley manufactures and supplies quenching tanks. They are used for cooling the parts in water, oil or polymer after the quenching heat treatment processes has ended. These are typically paired with a batch style furnace. In a box furnace operation the quench would be placed directly in front of the furnace and the system is comprised of and elevator platform with a roller conveyor.

The same system can be paired with a roller hearth or pusher furnace for continuous operation. Large quench systems can be designed to be partnered with car bottom furnaces. In this arrangement the quenching furnace are offset to allow the furnace car to travel and then unloaded by overhead crane or fork transfer mechanisms. They are manufactured in a wide variety of sizes and intended for intensive use.

The size of a batch immersion quench tank depends on the dimensions of the workload, as well as the allowable temperature rise.

The temperature rise permitted is dependent on whether the quenchant is oil, water, or polymer. Care should be taken in a batch operation to ensure that a sufficient amount of quenchant covers the top of the workload.

The physical dimensions of the tank should be large enough to ensure full immersion of the quench load and fixtures, and, at the same time, should allow enough space for agitators and manipulators.

When using hot quenching oils, it is necessary to make an allowance for thermal expansion of the oil, either by making provision for an overflow system, or by manual adjustment of the fluid level.

A quench tank must contain sufficient fluid to quench the load without an excessive rise in temperature of the quenching fluid.

To obtain maximum efficiency from cooling systems, the direction of circulation should be such that hot quenchant is removed from the top of the tank and then passed through the heat exchanger.

Air Quenching Systems

Nutec Bickley also manufactures air quenching systems. This mechanism is used to limit the residual stresses as well as the brittleness that occurs during the quenching process. Rapid quenching also has a tendency to create distortions due to the stresses, especially if the cooling is non-uniform over the surface of the part, air quenching may be used to remedy this.

Air quenching is a good choice when quenching parts with dissimilar metals such as aluminum engine blocks with cast iron bore liners. Another advantage to implementing an air quench is the low distortion rate. Water quenching is very aggressive on thin walled casting such as shock towers for example. Air quenching can provide aggressive cooling rates without the side effect of distortion and eliminate the need for subsequent straightening processes.