LOW COST QUALITY IMPROVEMENTS FOR GAS CARBURISING AND NITRIDING PROCESSES

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 (K_N).

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 

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

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see our data sheet for further details

'ENDOCUBE' CATALYST PRODUCTION AT  ALMOR

IT'S VOLUME THAT MATTERS

June 2007

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.

ANNOUNCEMENT

Visit by ALMOR’s ECONWELD Partners                

ALMOR was pleased to receive Dr Francesca Colombo of the University of Genoa and Mr Tim Bosch from TNO Holland, pictured below with Claudious Kanyisei (an ALMOR Plater/Welder).

The purpose of the visit was to undertake measurements aimed at quantifying the effects of welding activities on the body. Areas of measurement included muscle activity (using surface Electromyography) and posture/flexions (using Electrogoniometry).

ECONWELD will now move on to take the same measurements in other European countries.

Please visit www.econweld.com for further information.

September 2006

ALMOR's partnership with Nigel Tucker (Heat Treat Solutions) has yielded a range of successful atmosphere control products which include the innovative Single Point 3-Gas Infra Red Analyser (Gas Pro-C) and the 'EuroSensor' Oxygen Probe.  

From August 2006 it has been agreed that the manufacture and support of these products will transfer to ALMOR's Nottingham facility, after which Nigel will further develop his career within the Eurotherm organisation.

Please contact Arthur Watson or Nigel Tucker for more information.

July 2006

ALMOR is pleased to announce its involvement with ECONWELD, a European Collective Research Project.

The main objectives are to improve working conditions and competitiveness of the European welding industry.

See data sheet for background to the project and further information on ECONWELD is available on their website www.econweld.com

May 2006

NEW PRODUCTS

December 2005

ALMOR has introduced a new range of portable infrared gas analysers, specifically designed for the heat treatment industry.

The 'GasPro-C' range can be used for monitoring, trouble shooting and optimisation of atmospheres used for carburising, carbonitriding and neutral hardening.  The 'GasPro 100-C' model is a CO₂ single gas analyser, which allows the user to input the furnace %CO, temperature and oxygen probe millivolts to calculate the %IR carbon potential and suggested 'Process Factor'/'CO Factor'.

The 'GasPro 300-C Advance' model is a portable version of the well-proven 'Ultracarb 100 Lite' automatic oxygen probe compensation system.  

The 'GasPro 300-C Advance' calculates the 'Process Factor' or 'CO Factor' based on the %IR carbon and sets this value, via a serial link in the pre-existing carbon controller. The oxygen probe may be sooted or even failing, the 'GasPro 300-C Advance' will compensate.  

The portable version allows the instrument to be moved between furnaces to control the atmosphere for critical loads.  

Alternatively, it can be used on individual furnaces, allowing it to be used as a troubleshooting tool on other equipment.

Email arthur.watson@almor.co.uk for further details

ALMOR PARTNERSHIP WITH INDUTEC GmbH

March 2005

ALMOR is pleased to announce a partnership with EMA Indutec GmbH as part of the new representation agreement with Aichelin, announced in January 2005.

EMA Indutec GmbH is based in Meckesheim, Germany and is a market leader in Induction Heating and Hardening Systems.

EMA offer a complete service including induction heating machines, induction coils, frequency converters and controls.

The machines (standard types and customised) are used extensively in automotive and other allied industries for surface hardening, hardening and tempering, annealing, forging and bonding.

A range of compact, digitally controlled frequency converters are available as stand-alone units for heating of glass baths, heating of wires and cables, energy supply for channel furnaces and drying of varnish and powder coatings in addition to the machinery applications.

Almor can offer support to existing EMA customers in the UK and Ireland and for new enquiries.

For further information please contact:

sales@almor.co.uk or telephone +44 (0)115 986 8773.  

EMA's product range can be view on their web site at www.ema-indutec.de

REPRESENTATION OF AICHELIN IN UK AND IRELAND

ALMOR is pleased to announce its appointment as the new representative for Aichelin (Austria) in the U.K. and Ireland. The appointment follows on from ALMOR’s acquisition of Aichelin’s previous UK representative (Heat Treat Services) in August last year.

AICHELIN is among the market leaders in the manufacture of heat treatment systems with a worldwide customer base.

We are confident that this partnership will enhance the range of services offered by ALMOR and will in turn broaden the support currently provided by Aichelin to its customers.

For further information please contact sales@almor.co.uk or call on +44 (0)115 986 8773. Aichelin’s product range can be viewed on their web site www.aichelin.at

ALMOR is pleased to announce the purchase of Heat Treat Services Business (as of 4 August 2004).  From this date HTS will trade as a division of ALMOR and operate from Nottingham.

This industry consolidation will further benefit customers as HTS will continue to offer the full range of heat treatment services.  

Keith Kirton (founding shareholder and Managing Director of HTS) will continue to work within the business.

August 2004

ALMOR - AN ISO 9001 2000 QUALITY COMPANY

ALMOR Limited has recently received ISO 9001 2000 accreditation for the complete range of group activities, in addition to the fabrication of high temperature alloys for Petrochemical and Thermal Processing Industry.  The certification now encompasses the design and supply of thermal process parts together with site service, refurbishment and spare parts.  These latter fields of activity were previously covered by quality accreditation for the Cannock site, which has now been relocated to Nottingham.

This certification strengthens ALMOR’s commitment to customer focused business and quality management systems to provide an unrivalled alloy fabrication and furnace engineering service.