By Rod Rees – Installation Manager for Ipsen USA
Whether you’ve just ordered your first vacuum furnace, your first furnace for a new location, or your first furnace for a new application, planning for delivery and installation will put you in a position to get it into production quickly. The sooner you can have the furnace operational and built into your workflow, the sooner you’ll start to see a return on your investment.
When installing a new vacuum furnace, each individual model will have its own specific set of infrastructure demands. Within the process of quoting the furnace and at the time of sale, the furnace you select will have detailed instructions on most of your infrastructure requirements. Always work with your Ipsen Sales Engineer and the Ipsen Field Service Team to review these requirements as you begin to build your infrastructure plan. Then, when you’ve placed your order, the Ipsen Installation Team is your best resource for ensuring that you’ll be ready on delivery day.
Building an Infrastructure Timeline
The most common resources you’ll need to ensure are available include electric power, inert and process gas lines, and a water-cooling system. Other considerations you’ll need to account for prior to delivery include foundation infrastructure, adequate floor space for unloading the equipment and moving it onto its designated footprint, as well as sufficient room for parts loading and unloading, and room for operators and maintenance staff to access the controls and service points once the furnace is operational.
Putting together your infrastructure timeline is going to be dependent on which of these things will have the longest lead-time and which of the resources are already available on site. Lead times are dependent on how long it would take for a vendor or supplier to deliver, install, design, build, or construct the elements not currently accessible in the space where the furnace will be operating. Let’s review each of these elements and discuss the areas where planning ahead can make a big difference.
Site Planning for Moving Day
Vacuum furnaces come in a wide variety of sizes and styles. From a standard TITAN H2 to a gigantic vertical MetalMaster, each furnace will have its own footprint, height requirements, service access requirements, and — of course — it will need to be able to get inside your building somehow.
Ipsen Sales Engineers can talk with you about the size of each component that will be delivered to your shop, and the Ipsen Installation Team can work with you on finding out how the largest component — typically the pressure vessel — will be able to get inside your building. Once it’s inside the building, your Ipsen Installation Team or local rigger will work with you on setting up a staging area for the different components that will combine to form your new vacuum furnace once installation is completed.
Larger furnaces, and specifically vertical furnaces, may require a review of the foundation. Is the concrete pad strong enough not to crack under the weight of the furnace? Vertical furnaces typically have four points of contact with the floor — the steel legs that keep the pressure vessel aloft. When your furnace has a heavy load, will the concrete withstand its weight? Ipsen’s team can review your architectural drawings and make recommendations if this issue may be of concern.
Room for Activities
Once your furnace is installed, do you have adequate space for maintenance? Three feet of space around each component of your furnace is recommended so that your maintenance team can gain access to each part of the furnace that needs regular service. You’ll want at least 42 inches in front of any power and control cabinets.
Do you have a loading system? Will it live in front of your new furnace, or will you be using it for multiple furnaces? Are you using baskets or fixtures? Where do the empty baskets and fixtures go when loading, unloading, or between processes? When you plan for spaces that you can use to optimize your workflow, you’ll get the most value out of your heat-treating department and your new furnace.
Vertical furnace operators may also want catwalk access to the pressure vessel or hot zone, as these furnaces stand two or more stories tall. Much of the upper-story access ladders and walkways will likely be built into the furnace, but you may also want to have access to that second level from your existing building infrastructure. The drawings will include dimensions both at floor level and furnace level for recommended clearance. Planning with your installation team can ensure that your new equipment and existing infrastructure work well together.
Power Up
You’ve identified your footprint where your furnace will land, now it’s time to make sure you have a place to plug it in.
Heat-treating cells may be the one area of your production floor that requires the most power to operate. Each vacuum furnace will have a recommended power service rated in amps. I strongly advise customers to choose to be more robust in their electricity installations, typically recommending a service that provides 125 percent of the amperage that a furnace draws at the maximum consumption rate. Be sure also to account for any loading systems or automation when calculating your service and round up every time. Even if you don’t use every last amp, it’s important to remain below maximum capacity for the service when everything is running optimally.
There are two additional things to consider when you’re drawing power: the energy at the breaker panel, and the length of the run from the panel. Short runs may make for negligible loss to resistance, but longer runs may require more robust wires and a higher amperage at the panel. Whenever possible, having a panel close to your heat-treating department will save your company a significant number of headaches, and make for tidier wiring solutions. Ask your electrician or Ipsen installation technician for optimal power solutions.
Water Works
Water cooling systems are essential for the water-cooled jacket around the hot zone as well as certain quenching processes in a heat-treating furnace. Some systems require an investment in an external water-cooling system to deliver rapid quenching solutions.
For thermal processors looking at purchasing a furnace system that needs either an air-cooled heat-exchanger or a thermal water loop that uses evaporative towers, having a plan for the plumbing is as important as planning for electrical requirements.
Where would you want your tower located? What is the distance the water will need to travel from the cooling tower to the furnace? If it’s at ground level, will it be protected from traffic that shares the space with the tower?
Mounting the system on the roof may be space efficient, but it also requires having a maintenance monitoring plan. Periodic checks for system leaks and outside temperature variance need to be considered when locating evaporative towers, while chemical treatment plans and safety protocols should be included in the tower maintenance plan.
It’s a Gas
Your regional supplier of industrial gas will be an important part of building out your infrastructure. As you review your thermal process recipes, your metallurgist can inform you about which gases you’ll need your furnace to have access to for processing and quenching. Will you be operating a partial pressure heat-treating process? Do you need argon for quenching your materials, or will nitrogen suffice? Will you need a different gas source for hardening or to remove oxides from your materials?
Identifying the gases you require will help your gas vendor build a site plan for your facility and be an ongoing resource for safety training as well as when you need to replenish the consumed gas products.
But Wait, There’s More!
We’ve covered a number of common resources that help companies be prepared for new heat-treating furnaces, but every customer has a unique location, process, and resources. The benefits of working with Ipsen are that we have the institutional knowledge and resources to help your delivery and installation process run smoothly.
Count on Ipsen’s team of installers and service technicians to help you get your new furnace up and running quickly and keep it operating at peak efficiency throughout its lifespan.