- Joined
- Jun 29, 2014
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- 4,061
I'm normally in the other subforums on HM: machining, Atlas, Taig, Sherline, etc. so I feel like I'm trespassing on hallowed ground...I'm on a quest and need some help from the knifemakers on HM...if I am knocking on the wrong door, please redirect me...
We manufacture "crown" punches for our semi-automated can opening systems. Think big cans, #10 size for food preparation. www.edlundco.com
We bevel the edges of the knives, roll and weld them to fit just inside the can. Then we heat treat the knives to give them some life after having opened hundreds of cans per day.
Our heat treat oven recently died and we replaced it with a heat treat oven that had a gas control. We used to pack and wrap our knives to prevent scaling. We were under the impression that we could avoid the pack and wrap by purging the chamber with gas and turning the gas 4-5 times per hour during the cycle to avoid scaling.
We are using argon, purging the chamber at 60 CFM and then running at about 5CFM during the cycle. We think we are turning 5 times per hour. The scaling is less, but we are still having to work hard to remove it afterwards.
Our next step is to try nitrogen and we are wondering if it makes sense to try to seal up the chamber, but I think this has safety problems written all over it...unless we were to create a vacuum chamber of some type, and then we are looking at just scrapping what we have and starting over...I'd like to work with what we have.
So, couple of pointed questions...is it possible to minimize, if not eliminate scale on 410 using the typical heat treat oven with a gas shield/purge?
If so, has anybody any experience in that sort of cycle and what can you share with me? We are sort of lost and feeling like we are missing something fundamental - any help or insight is very much appreciated!
We manufacture "crown" punches for our semi-automated can opening systems. Think big cans, #10 size for food preparation. www.edlundco.com
We bevel the edges of the knives, roll and weld them to fit just inside the can. Then we heat treat the knives to give them some life after having opened hundreds of cans per day.
Our heat treat oven recently died and we replaced it with a heat treat oven that had a gas control. We used to pack and wrap our knives to prevent scaling. We were under the impression that we could avoid the pack and wrap by purging the chamber with gas and turning the gas 4-5 times per hour during the cycle to avoid scaling.
We are using argon, purging the chamber at 60 CFM and then running at about 5CFM during the cycle. We think we are turning 5 times per hour. The scaling is less, but we are still having to work hard to remove it afterwards.
Our next step is to try nitrogen and we are wondering if it makes sense to try to seal up the chamber, but I think this has safety problems written all over it...unless we were to create a vacuum chamber of some type, and then we are looking at just scrapping what we have and starting over...I'd like to work with what we have.
So, couple of pointed questions...is it possible to minimize, if not eliminate scale on 410 using the typical heat treat oven with a gas shield/purge?
If so, has anybody any experience in that sort of cycle and what can you share with me? We are sort of lost and feeling like we are missing something fundamental - any help or insight is very much appreciated!