With a 60% larger heating zone than its predecessor, the new VF-30 is ideal for brazing or heat treating parts of unusual shapes and repairing "orphan" parts from other heating processes. To facilitate continuous flow, lean manufacturing, the VF-30 packs the latest advances in quick, clean solid state induction heating technology into a compact 6 foot x 5 foot footprint easy to install in a typical manufacturing work cell.
"Our newest vacuum furnace heats larger parts or bigger batches of smaller parts," said IA President Steve Skewes. "We've added more thermocouple ports and enhanced the software package, cooling capacity and data recording/networking capability. Our objective was to build a system which would allow our customers to easily meet AMS 2750D."
GE Aviation recently added the new VF-30 furnace to the company’s Lean Lab; a physical manufacturing environment used to facilitate lean enabling technology insertion. "Adding the latest version (VF-30) to the lab allows us to optimize, leverage and promote the VF-30 furnaces currently used in GE Aviation’s manufacturing shops," said Aviation’s Jeff Wessels.
The furnace requires less than eight minutes to reach 1900°F; cool down time to 400°F is less than 20 minutes. Typical nickel brazing cycles are less than 40 minutes door to door compared to over 4 hours for traditional vacuum furnaces. The furnace operates at high vacuum or partial pressure of an inert gas. The chamber has base vacuum of 5x10(-6) Torr with a leak-up rate of less than 1 micron per hour and a 12" high, 11" diameter heating zone.
Founded in 2002, Induction Atmospheres is an independently-
