Concepts where the drop-bottom furnace moves on a portal can also be implemented. This design allows especially compact plant sizes. The baskets are placed directly below the portal, which means a significant reduction in the required set-up area. The drop-bottom furnace moves to the holding position and lifts the basket with the furnace lifting system. After quenching, the basket is taken over by the unloading crane installed on the side of the furnace and is then either taken back to the holding position or is charged for the following artificial aging in the top-loading furnace.
The modular setup of our systems allows for various different plant design options and with the corresponding planning the possibility of extension at a later date.
Plants with two or more furnaces have the benefit that solution annealing and artificial aging can be carried out directly in the plant in separate furnaces. This reduces waiting times and energy losses that would otherwise occur when the working temperature in the furnace is changed. With specialized solution annealing and artificial aging furnaces it is also often practical to design all furnaces for 600 °C in order to achieve maximum flexibility. For optimum utilization of plants such as this, also with unmanned operation, such as overnight or at the weekend, more holding positions to buffer several charging baskets can be installed. These holding positions can be processed by the system one after the other without any external intervention. The Nabertherm Control Center offers many different customized options, such as aggregating reports of solution annealing and artificial aging, integrated process documentation, blocking individual furnaces or holding positions, barcode entry with allocation and checking functions, and data exchange with external systems.
