Solution heat treatment facility

Transcription

1 Solution heat treatment facility for aircraft industr y HOFMANN Wär metechnik

2 Welcome to the quality of H O F M A N N W ä r m e t e c h n i k Solution heat treatment facility for aluminium par ts HOFMANN Wärmetechnik looks back on a long tradition in the range of plant designing and construction. The designing and construction of furnaces and facilities for heat treatment in various branches reaches back to the year The company was established by Mr. Herbert Hofmann. In 1974 Mr. Hermann Gründl took over the company and enlarged the location in Linz. Since 1999 the company has been led by Mr. Niederländer and his wife. In the last years Hofmann has been specialising on heat treatment for aluminium and steel parts. The new company building covering 5000 m² in Hellmonsödt (Austria) including laboratory and testing area provides enough place for further development. Furthermore, companies of automotive and aircraft industry belong to our customers. F lexible: A main focus in our thinking and working is the flexibility in association with our customers. We try to meet the requirements of the customer and search together for the best solution. C ommon: We are keen to improve together with our customers. The customer is directly involved in the designing and engineering of his facility. Only this makes it possible to meet the requirements and demands of the customer. It is assumed that the facility meets exactly the application. Made in Austria: Our furnaces and facilities are designed and built in our company in firm conviction of our Austrian quality standard. This protects also the experience and knowledge of our company and the customers. We guarantee our customers the most efficient service support by sending qualified employees which were involved in the construction and building of the facility. T he material characteristics of aluminium components used in aircraft industry are of extreme importance. Particularly the application of special alloys makes heat treatment more and more important. This pushes the requirements of process performance and reproducibility to a higher level. 1 2

3 Scheme Quenching basin: In the quenching basin the charge is quenched after the heat treatment. The basin is equipped with a recirculation pump and the glycol mixture could be cooled via an integrated heat exchanger. This ensures a reproducible process for the material. Cleaning basin: The facility is equipped with a special cleaning basin to remove the cooling fluid of the parts. With the vacuum cleaning process a high grade of cleanliness is reached. After evacuating the basin air is led in and the bubbles clean the surface. Drying basin: In order that the following process steps are not disturbed the components have to be dried. The drying is realized with a high pressure blower. To keep the noise to a low limit the basin is tightened with a cover. Handling system: The loading of the components into the facility is done with a special handling system. This system enables the operator to handle parts up to 2500 mm ergonomically and integrates the charging and discharging into the other process steps. Furnaces: The facility is equipped with 2 furnaces. The loading of the furnace is done by the furnace crane automatically. The overhead principle assures high energy efficiency. The material is heated up in a short time to the adjusted value. A new temperature control system is in use which obtains a high temperature accuracy and uniformity. By means of the full automatic charge transport short quenching times could be realized. Automatic crane: The transport of the charge inside the facility is done automatically, there is no action of the operator necessary. Using the automatic crane system shortest handling times could be obtained. The positioning is done very exactly by means of frequency converters. Automation system: The complete facility is operated and controlled by a PLC. The visualisation is state of the art and runs on a PC. The archiving and recording of all data is provided with extensive analysis software as well as the automation system is connected to the process control system. All parameters and adjustments can be set via this PC. 3 4

4 Description of the facility I t took a few months of designing and constructing to meet the needs of the customer. A main challenge was the handling system of the facility. Due to the high level of automation it was necessary to include the new solution heat treatment facility in the complete process of the customer. This results in a very flexible but easy to manage system which ensures the operator to handle parts up to 2500 mm ergonomically. The charging is carried out into charging frames which are then put into the charging basket. From charging and discharging the baskets all process steps are achieved and controlled automatically by the PLC. This automation ensures a reproducible process inside the facility. Process steps: Loading of the charging frames with the components. Charging the frames into the charging baskets. Transferring the charge to the facility. The charging basket is transported into the furnace by means of the automatic crane and the crane inside the furnace. Automatic start of the heat treatment. The execution of the heat treatment is controlled and archived by the PLC. Quenching the material in the quenching basin. The handling time out of the furnace into the quenching basin was limited with 7 seconds. This short time was reached with many optimizations due to the door and the crane of the furnace. Transport of the charge into the cleaning basin. Transport of the charge into the drying basin. Transport of the charge to the discharging place where the operator picks out the parts At the end a protocol of the complete cycle is prepared and the file is sent to the process control system T he furnaces were designed and built to obtain optimum temperature accuracy and high energy efficiency. The heating up time was limited with 15 minutes; the time reached effectively was between 10 and 12 minutes, this is a time saving of about 25%. The furnace is equipped with 24 thermocouples. These temperature values are used in the PLC for a special maximum and average control. The thermocouples are checked on plausibility and in the case of a mistake the thermocouples can be deactivated separately. With this temperature controlling an excessive temperature on the aluminium parts is prevented during the complete heat treatment. During the soaking time the allowed temperature tolerance can be improved by the average control. The periodical adjustment of the thermocouples has become easier by a new feed through. The short transport time of 7 seconds from the furnace into the quenching basin was only possible with a special construction of the furnace door and the furnace crane. This transport system and the temperature range of the furnace make this facility also applicable for future alloys. Caused by the glycol mixture during quenching the aluminium parts are contaminated and have to be cleaned, not to disturb the following process steps. By the use of the vacuum cleaning basin this point could be reached. This basin is closed with a tight cover and then evacuated. Afterwards air is injected. The air bubbles cause a very efficient cleaning of the surface and a recirculation of the glycol mixture. Another positive effect is the delay of the organic action in the fluid. This provides a longer availability and minimizes a bad smell. Furthermore, the charge is transported to the drying basin where the parts are dried with a high pressure blower. To avoid too much noise a cover seals this basin. The special charging in the frames prevents a damage of the parts in the air flow. The design and construction of the frames were another challenge due to the thermal and dimensional stability. This was realized by a comb-shaped design. The light weight construction has also advantages relating to mass which has to be heated up and cooled down. The automation system is developed on the latest state of the art. A connection to the process control system and a complete archiving of the process was required as well as an easy to operate and maintainable facility. HOFMANN Wärmetechnik has reached the goal to satisfy the customer s specifications in a brilliant way. Initiated by this development other facilities for aircraft industry in Germany, Austria and India could be realized. This concept was further engineered for automotive industry. In this industry as well as in aircraft industry the accurate heat treatment becomes more important and is a decisive factor in competition. In conclusion, it has to be mentioned that such a heat treatment facility with that high level of automation and process availability is another mile stone in the deployment of HOFMANN Wärmetechnik. Innovations Save time and money. Turn our innovations into your profit. Details We especially pay attention to small details with great effects. 5 6

5 Heat treatment facylities for aircraft industr y Spheroidize annealing heat treatment facility for aircraft industry 3 furnaces hanging basket principle optimized temperature distribution integrated cooling system aircraft industry alu parts, alu sheets temperature: 100 C to 600 C accuracy: +/- 3 K charge dimensions: 1250 x 2500 mm charge weight: up to 400 kg Ageing facility for aircraft supply industry 2 furnaces charging wagon cooling station aircraft supply industry aluminium plates temperature: 100 C to 220 C accuracy: +/- 2 C charge dimensions: x x mm charge weight: up to kg Solution heat treatment facility for aircraft industry 2 furnaces automatic crane glycol basin, cleaning basin, drying basin aircraft industry alu parts, alu sheets temperature: 100 C to 600 C charge dimensions: x mm charge weight: up to 400 kg Experience HOFMANN industrial furnaces have been produced since In developing our products we focus intensely on the experience of our customers. Reliability We know about the problems of many users in heat treatment and offer innovative solutions. Today HOFMANN furnaces are well known for their reliability in more than 40 countries. 7 8

6 Heat treatment facilities made by HOFMANN Wär metechnik Furnace line plant for automotive supply industry 12 furnaces overhead principle 12 buffer places inert gas operation automotive industry steel parts temperature: 100 C to 800 C charge dimension: up to x mm charge weight: up to kg Die heater battery for aluminium industry 7 furnaces overhead principle 4 buffer places inertgas operation aluminium industry dies temperature: 100 C to 550 C accuracy: +/- 5 K charge dimension: 550 x 285 mm charge weight: 2 x 600 kg Solution and ageing facility for automotive supply industry 4 furnaces handling equipment 2 water basins automotive industry cylinder heads temperature: 200 C to 540 C charge dimension: x 800 x mm charge weight: up to 400 kg Ageing facility for aluminium industry 16 furnaces overhead principle charging wagon aluminium industry aluminium profiles temperature: 100 C to 250 C charge dimension: x x mm charge weight: up to kg 9 10

7 HOFMANN Wärmetechnik GmbH Gewerbezeile 7; 4202 Hellmonsödt / Austria Tel.: +43 (0) 7215/3601; Fax.: +43 (0) 7215/ [email protected]; Hofmann Wärmetechnik GmbH; by T. Seidl; Druck: H+S Druck; Alle Rechte vorbehalten; Technische Änderungen und Druckfehler vorbehalten.