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Ipsen Celebrates 40 years of the TurboTreater

Black and white collage of Ipsen TurboTreater vacuum furnaces through the years with text reading "TurboTreater 40 Years"

On January 14th, NBC’s morning news program “Today” debuted with host Dave Garroway in 1952, and Elvis Presley’s record-setting concert “Aloha from Hawaii” was broadcast live via satellite in 1973. In places that use the Julian calendar, the New Year is celebrated on January 14th, and we celebrate the birthdays of Roman general Mark Antony, director Steven Soderbergh, actor Jason Bateman, and Chicago Bears running back D’Andre Swift.

Here at Ipsen on January 14th, we celebrate the birthday of the TurboTreater® vacuum furnace, the date when its trademark was first filed in 1985. Designed by Ipsen’s Chief Engineer Craig Moller, the TurboTreater is one of the most popular vacuum furnace platforms, known for its fast and uniform internal quenching system.

“I had been with the company for five years,” recalled Moller, “when I was approached with a challenge. A competitor named Abar offered a furnace with an external quench system and a round hot zone that was having success in the aerospace market. At the time, we offered a furnace (the VFC) that was an internal quench system with a rectangular hot zone. We were challenged to design a furnace incorporating an internal quench system that could also offer a round hot zone. That was the drive behind the TurboTreater.”

The first prototype of the TurboTreater was assembled in 1984, a 2-bar internal quench furnace with a round hot zone. “In the process of designing and developing the TurboTreater, Ipsen’s engineering team was able to patent four new ideas essential to making the TurboTreater a success,” Moller recalled.

These patents include:
  • US4560348A: A self-retaining gas nozzle featuring a resilient metal tube that simplifies installation by contracting for insertion through a wall hole and expanding to hold itself in place, with flared ends to guide gas flow and prevent movement.
  • US4612651A: Innovative hanger rods that simplify installation, eliminate the need for wall piercings, support spacers for radiation shields, and feature a design that minimizes heat transfer and ensures electrical insulation of the heating elements.
  • US4559631A: A hot zone design featuring rigid graphite heating elements arranged in longitudinally spaced, octagonal banks, supported by unique brackets that facilitate end-to-end connections and enable the creation of front-to-rear temperature trim zones.
  • US4906182A: A gas cooling system that uses an internal blower to recirculate inert gases through a heat exchanger and into a plenum, which allows gases to flow efficiently along a circular path, ensuring enhanced cooling performance while maintaining a sealed and heat-shielded environment.

When Abar and Ipsen merged in 1985, Moller remembered being impressed by Abar’s cooling data. “Their biggest cooling system outperformed the TurboTreater at the time, so I talked with my boss about letting me redesign the TurboTreater in 1987. I wanted to take what I learned about their wind flow and make the TurboTreater more efficient with a faster cooling process. When we were done, the TurboTreater was outperforming Abar’s largest cooler.”

By 1989, the TurboTreater started offering high-pressure quench options up to 5 bar, reaching a 10-bar quench in 1995. In 2001, convection heating was an added feature to the TurboTreater to help process parts with high-density, large cross section loads. Today, Ipsen builds TurboTreaters that can hit 16-bar quenching or higher, and recently integrated two 600 hp cooling motors for the first time in a 12-bar system. Since its inception, more than 750 TurboTreaters have been installed at customers’ facilities around the world.

The TurboTreater’s flexibility and customizability have made it the go-to choice of thermal processors looking for a solution for a wide range of heat-treating options, while also offering reliable performance for demanding processes. “The TurboTreater is one of our most in-demand offerings, thanks to its high pressures and efficient wind flow. These features enable rapid quenching solutions that meet critical cooling requirements,” Moller explained.

Customers also appreciate the TurboTreater’s ability to operate without any moving parts in and around the hot zone, and the internal quenching systems allow users to reduce the overall footprint of their thermal processing cell, saving significant floor space compared to external quenching systems.

As an internal quench furnace, the TurboTreater is capable of handling high-pressure quenching processes that go up to (and occasionally beyond) 15 bar. It can be customized for operators that need convection or partial-pressure heating solutions, and can range in size from the “TinyTurbo” (18”W x 14”H x 24”L) to the massive “SuperTurbo” (60”W x 48”H x 100”L).

Vertical TurboTreaters have been an essential tool for manufacturing jet engine turbine parts and other large form factor manufacturing processes. These furnaces can reach up to 12-bar quenching pressure in vessels that sit two- to three-stories tall, handling objects and fixtures that range from 48 inches in diameter and 54 inches tall to 120 inches in diameter and 96 inches tall

As Moller looks ahead to the next decade of the TurboTreater, he is excited to see what innovations come next. “The demand for increased operational efficiency is rising, even in the United States. We’re excited to explore ways that we can make our furnaces better at doing what they do, while also offering lower overall operational costs through more efficient designs and emerging technologies,” Moller said. “Even after 40 years, we can still see how the TurboTreater will succeed into the future.”


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