A continuous furnace is one of many types of options you have for heat treatment in Gastonia, NC. Even within the category of continuous furnaces there is a lot of variance depending on the specifications you need and the design principles used by the manufacturer.
However, there are some clear advantages to using continuous (and semi-continuous) furnace systems. Here are just a few of these benefits:
- Large and convenient production rates: Continuous furnace systems are capable of delivering very large production rates in an indexed or continuous manner.
- Energy efficiency: Continuous furnace systems are much more energy efficient than other heat treating options. They provide excellent efficiency whether you’re using a gas or electrical unit.
- Cost: By using a continuous furnace system, you’re able to achieve the lowest cost per piece, especially when compared to other heat treatment methods.
- Versatility: Continuous furnace systems can be designed in such a way that they are capable of integrating some or all operations, including washing, quenching, carburizing, nitriding, neutral hardening, nitrocarburizing, cooling, tempering, storage and loading/unloading.
- Customizability: While you can purchase standardized continuous furnace systems, you also have the option to have your own custom system developed for you, depending on the amount of space you have in your factory and the type of application you’ll be using the equipment for.
Types of continuous furnaces
As we mentioned above, continuous furnaces are highly versatile. This is due in part to the wide variety of continuous furnace options available on the market. Here are just a few examples:
- Mesh belt: A mesh belt furnace delivers heat treatment results that are easily reproducible, making it an ideal piece of equipment for treating bulk goods and massive quantities of small parts while still being able to minimize energy usage and maximize production uptime.
- Rotary hearth: Rotary hearth furnaces are designed for reheating pretreated work pieces and carburizing shallow case depths. They have a high throughput, which makes them especially beneficial and suitable for treating large quantities of the same part.
- Endothermic generator: An endothermic generator features a modular design and can be purchased in a number of different sizes, depending on your heat treatment needs. Programs are preinstalled in the generator for your convenience, making it an easy-to-use solution.
- Pusher: Pusher furnaces are ideal for continuous treatment of parts under a protective gas atmosphere. The furnace has a highly stable and durable hearth structure that allows it to hold up to some especially high weights of its loads.
This is just a little bit of information that will help you in your search for a continuous furnace system. To learn more about heat treatment in Gastonia, NC, we encourage you to reach out and contact the team at J. F. Heat Treating Inc. at your convenience. We would be happy to answer any questions you have and to teach you more about the steps you must take to get the best results out of your heat treating project. We look forward to hearing from you soon!