Furnace Press Releases

World's Largest Commercial Vacuum Furnaces

Solar Atmospheres specializes in vacuum furnace processing with heat treating and brazing as the primary services. Solar's two Pennsylvania facilities have over 40 vacuum furnaces and is the home of the world's largest commercial furnaces. In Western PA there are three 24 foot vacuum furnaces and a soon to be installed a 36 foot long furnace with a loading capacity of 150,000 lbs. These furnaces are built by an affiliate company, Solar Manufacturing.

A plant addition will be completed in early 2008 to house the 36-foot long furnace. This substantial investment is based on contracts established with aerospace and titanium companies. For the first time in decades, aircraft sales, "both commercial and defense increased simultaneously" (Teal Group, as cited in Modern Machine Shop). The new 36-foot furnace is designed to stress relieve titanium structural weldments for the new Boeing 787 as well as the growing demand for primary and secondary titanium material use in aerospace and other industries.

The 36 foot furnace hot zone has a working diameter up to 6 feet. Furnace capabilities include 150,000 lb work loads, processing temperatures up to 2650°F, and vacuum levels of 10-5 torr. The large furnaces are run 24/7 and are a tremendous vacuum heat treating resource for metal working and manufacturing facilitates.

Solar's vacuum furnaces range from lab sized to the 36 foot. Materials processed in the large furnaces include titanium, stainless steels, tool steels, inconel, tantalum, mu metal (magnetic) and copper. Stress relieving for weldments and tube and wire annealing are regularly performed in the large furnaces. Other specific processes include degassing, solution annealing, hardening, age hardening and hydriding and, depending on the requirement, are performed on coil, plate, sheet, pipe, billets, ingots, castings and forgings. Important value added benefits of the vacuum process is the bright, clean finish and minimal distortion. These benefits eliminate most post-process work.