Heat treaters are adopting more and more Industry 4.0 techniques and solution packages to improve production processes and product quality. Proper specification, measurement, and control of heat-treating atmospheres are always critical to achieving the desired metallurgical and microstructural results. The combination of atmosphere measurements and other furnace operating parameters (e.g., furnace temperature and pressure) can provide a better view of the whole production. Thermodynamic calculations and field experiences can be integrated into the smart solution to provide process engineers more capabilities to manage and optimize production. In this article, our recent research and development work on smart solutions for the heat-treating industry will be presented and discussed.

This paper presents four case studies documenting the time and money that heat treaters have saved with the help of predictive maintenance tools. In one case, a heat treater avoided potential catastrophic melting of a heating element and several hangers when predictive maintenance software guided the operator to a broken ceramic in a specific heating zone. In another case, a commercial heat treater was alerted to a low kW reading, indicating a heater failure on a diffusion pump, which would have led to the contamination of a vacuum furnace if not addressed in a timely manner. Situations involving a failing motor on a quench tank and the degradation of furnace insulation are also discussed. Cost comparisons, with and without predictive maintenance, are included in three of the four studies.

This paper discusses the growing use of automation in heat treating and some of the benefits that have been realized in early applications. It provides examples showing how articulated robots are used to load and unload parts on fixtures, how inline 3D cameras facilitate dimensional and distortion control, and how test coupons placed by robots at strategic locations throughout a load are weighed before and after heat treatment to determine if parts in different areas of the load are likely to be carburized to the same degree. It also includes an example of an automatically generated report and explains how binary codes on base trays can be used to automatically upload recipes for specific heat treatments.