Major Increase in Sealed Quench Furnace Capacity for MMHT - December 2008
Almor has commenced the installation and refurbishment of the first sealed quench furnace for MMHT following the conclusion of a purchase and supply agreement between MMHT and Borg Warner Gears of Port Talbot.
MMHT are buying three sealed quench furnaces, each with a nominal one tonne capacity, from Borg Warner and Almor is carrying out installation at the Meltham site. As part of the agreement, MMHT will supply Borg Warner’s carburisation heat treatment requirements associated with the furnaces.
The total capacity of the new installation exceeds Borg Warner’s requirements and it will be used to increase the service and capabilities offered by MMHT to their customers.
Low Cost Quality Improvements For Gas Carburising And Nitriding Processes - July 2008
Heat treatment quality control in the aerospace and automotive industries is being evermore driven by regulatory standards. Companies able to meet these demands and reach higher levels of accreditation can achieve a considerable competitive advantage. On the other hand the cost of meeting these higher standards can be financially demanding.
In order to help heat treaters meet these conflicting demands, Almor has developed two low cost atmosphere control solutions for gas carburising and gas nitriding.
Gas Carburising
‘Gaspro-C’ is a three gas (CO, CO2, CH4) infrared analyser, which calculates the ‘IR Cp’ based on the values of the gases and temperature to accurately determine the furnace atmosphere carbon potential. The ‘Advance’ version of the ‘Gaspro-C’ can be used in conjunction with an oxygen probe based carbon control system to automatically ‘calibrate’ the oxygen probe. In this mode the ‘Gaspro’ will continually calculate the ‘IR Cp’ and periodically update the ‘CO factor’ or ‘process factor’ used by the carbon controller. This means that the controller carbon potential now reads the same as the calculated IR carbon potential. The oxygen probe may be sooted, or even failing, and the ‘Gaspro-C’ will compensate. The absolute accuracy of the probe becomes unimportant. The ‘IRCp’ as calculated by the ‘Gaspro-C’ also eliminates many of the inherent errors in the carbon potential derived from an oxygen probe output, for example:
- Catalytic breakdown of free methane on the probe tip
- Sooting
- Contamination of reference air
- Sensor leakage
- Effect of free methane
- Variation in CO content during process cycle
The ‘Gaspro-C’ system can be applied to a range of batch type furnaces including vertical retort (pit) and sealed quench. It can be supplied as a portable unit or fixed system and retrofitted to existing carbon control systems using ‘Marathon Monitors’ or ‘Eurotherm’ carbon controllers.
A system suitable for seven pit furnaces and one sealed quench furnace was installed at a specialist sub contract heat treater three years ago. This has resulted in outstanding benefits on medium to long cycle gas carburising processes.
Gas Nitriding
Following the success of the ‘Gaspro-C’ system, Almor has recently introduced the ‘Gaspro-N’ gas nitriding control system, suitable for the programmable control of the temperature and atmosphere profile.
The system utilises a thermal conductivity hydrogen sensor in conjunction with a two-loop controller/programmer. The controller uses the % H2 content of the atmosphere to calculate the % dissociation or nitriding potential (KN).
The 'Gaspro' series of products are designed to integrate low cost atmosphere analysers into the furnace control system, to give highly repeatable results to meet the ever-increasing quality demands of modern industry.
Oil Industry - Global Orders - July 2008
The current high price of crude oil has meant that the Petrochemical Industry investment is intense at present, with the oil producers conscious of keeping their production flowing and downtime to a minimum.
ALMOR manufacture both new and refurbished flare tips and ancillary equipment. Over the last few months ALMOR has been favoured with orders from major clients around the globe; areas such as:
- Off shore North Sea - both UK and Norwegian sectors
- Off shore North West Australia and Kazakhstan
- On shore UK
ALMOR has broadened the range of equipment it produces for this market to include flare and vent stacks, flare ignition skids and propane skids.
Great Deals On Oxygen Probes - September 2007
save ££'s
see our data sheet for further details
The production of 'EndoCube' gas reforming catalyst has been successfully transferred from Heat Treat Services to the Almor site at Nottingham.
'EndoCube' Catalyst is generally available ex-stock and can be used in all types of endothermic gas generators, including Birlec, Wild Barfield, Ipsen and Wellman.
The production process has been optimised to give a consistent product with an impregnation method which allows nickel to penetrate well into the base material, minimising the effect of nickel loss during usage.
'EndoCube' Catalyst is available in 19mm cubes with an average Nickel content of 6% on an alumina/silica base and a packing density of 500kg/m3.
The low packing density (500 kg/m3) means that a 25 kg box fills more volume than competitive forms.
Email steve.cannon@almor.co.uk
or telephone +44 (0) 115 986 8773 for more details.
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