It goes without saying that 2020 was an atypical year, but hey, that is worth as a context to tell you that in this scenario of 'new normality', 'reinvention' and 'reshoring', a Peruvian manufacturing company asked us: "Can you tune up my old induction furnace and program it with a specific sintering recipe for specialty mining bits?
In the ION HEAT Product Portfolio we have GlowFit, a specific retrofit kit for plasma nitriding furnaces, not for induction infiltration furnaces. But you already know us: We asked ourselves the question: Are we capable of making a new heart for our client's system? The answer was obviously: Of course!
So we got down to work and today we are completing a Retrofit tailored to the needs of our client.
Julián Góez, Programmer Engineer, and Kerliton Londoño, Maintenance Technician, both from ION HEAT, tell us more about this unit:
1. It is a generic retrofit that updates the electrical, electronic and human machine interface, and works in sync with the mechanical mechanisms of the existing furnace, controlling the induction heating system.
2. Upgrading equipment is not ‘putting it up and running’, because it is important to optimize it with its specific process recipe. "This retrofit is accurate in all the steps required by the process: pressure, temperature, gas flow and cooling," says Julián.
3. Additionally, it has a data pack, a software that collects the variables of the processes, to make traceability to the production orders of each piece. Development is key to quality assurance.