Heat Treatment
Vacuum pumps and systems for heat treatment processes such as: annealing, soldering, nitriding, brazing, carburizing, sintering and hardening.
Vacuum solutions for heat treatment furnaces
If metals need to be heat treated in a clean environment, vacuum heat treatment furnaces are the best choice. The absence of air or other reactive gases in the vacuum environment prevents surface oxidation and contamination of the material, resulting in a cleaner and more uniform surface finish. Depending on the specific application, the vacuum pumps are challenged by the outgassing coming from the furnace. Next to air, these could contain water vapor, organic vapors, oils, flux vapors, process gases as hydrogen or Argon, particles, isolation fibers and sometimes also cracked polymer vapors. The correct choice of the vacuum pump is therefore essential to ensure a trouble-free and low maintenance furnace operation with the highest uptime. Modern vacuum pumps do also allow significant energy savings compared to old-tech pumps.
There is a wide variety of applications for which vacuum heat treatment furnaces are used in today’s industry:
- Vacuum Annealing
- Vacuum Brazing
- Vacuum Nitriding
- Vacuum Carburizing
- Vacuum Sintering
- Vacuum Hardening
Vacuum Annealing
Vacuum Annealing
Vacuum annealing is a heat treatment process that involves heating a material in a vacuum environment to improve its properties such as strength, hardness, ductility, and corrosion resistance. Vacuum annealing is commonly used in the production of semiconductors, metal alloys, and other high-performance materials.
Vacuum annealing does not add significant application challenges towards the vacuum system. Standard products as oil-sealed rotary vane pumps SOGEVAC or TRIVAC, combined with RUVAC Roots blower’s pumps work trouble-free without enhanced maintenance demand.
Vacuum Brazing
Vacuum Brazing
Vacuum brazing is a joining process that uses a filler metal alloy to bond two or more materials together in a vacuum environment. The filler metal is molten and flows into the joint by capillary action, forming a strong, permanent bond when it solidifies. Vacuum brazing is commonly used in the aerospace, automotive, and electronics industries for applications that require high strength, durability, and hermetic sealing.
During vacuum brazing the metal surfaces are often cleaned with an acidic “flux” material. Excess flux does evaporate and can enter the vacuum system, where it could attack the oil of oil-sealed vacuum pumps. For this reason Leybold proposes to use dry compressing, screw-type vacuum pumps of our VARODRY or DRYVAC lines which can handle such challenge without problems.
Vacuum Nitriding
Vacuum Nitriding
Vacuum nitriding is a surface treatment process that involves introducing nitrogen into the surface of a material in a vacuum environment. The process is typically performed at high temperatures, which allows nitrogen atoms to diffuse into the material's surface, forming a nitride layer. The nitride layer provides improved surface hardness, wear resistance, and corrosion resistance, and can also increase the material's fatigue strength.
Nitriding also called “plasma nitriding” requires robust vacuum pumps which can work 24/7 with high gas loads. Our dry screw pumps DRYVAC and SOGEVAC oil-sealed rotary vane pumps can work on this application with high uptime and reliable operation cost
Vacuum Carburizing
Vacuum Carburizing
Vacuum carburizing is a heat treatment process that involves adding carbon to the surface of a metal component in a vacuum environment. The process is typically performed at high temperatures, which allows carbon atoms to diffuse into the surface of the material, forming a thin, hard layer of carbides. Vacuum carburizing is a clean and controlled process that can produce precise and uniform case depths and hardness, resulting in improved wear resistance, fatigue strength, and overall performance of the component.
Carburizing is a challenging application for vacuum pumps due to all process gases. These gases contain high levels of carbon and by-products, which can easily condense inside the compression stage of the vacuum pump. DRYVAC with combination of RUVAC WH and WSU family can work at this application without significant loss of pumping performance using special purge system. Our SCREWLINE family offers trouble-free operation and easy-to-clean pumps.
Vacuum Sintering
Vacuum Sintering
Vacuum sintering is a heat treatment process that involves heating a metal or ceramic powder compact in a vacuum environment to a temperature below its melting point, causing the particles to bond together by diffusion. The process is typically performed at high temperatures and pressures, which allows the powder particles to densify and form a solid, compacted material with improved mechanical properties.
DRYVAC with combination of RUVAC WH and WSU family can work at this application without significant loss of pumping performance using special purge system. Our SCREWLINE family offers trouble-free operation and easy-to-clean pumps.
Vacuum Hardening
Vacuum Hardening
Vacuum hardening is a heat treatment process that involves heating a material, typically steel, to a high temperature in a vacuum environment, followed by rapid quenching in a cooling medium such as oil or gas. The rapid cooling rate "freezes" the atomic structure in a highly stressed state, resulting in a hard, brittle structure.
We recommend our dry screw pumps DRYVAC and SOGEVAC for this application, as they provde high uptime and reliable operation costs.
Vacuum Annealing
Vacuum annealing is a heat treatment process that involves heating a material in a vacuum environment to improve its properties such as strength, hardness, ductility, and corrosion resistance. Vacuum annealing is commonly used in the production of semiconductors, metal alloys, and other high-performance materials.
Vacuum annealing does not add significant application challenges towards the vacuum system. Standard products as oil-sealed rotary vane pumps SOGEVAC or TRIVAC, combined with RUVAC Roots blower’s pumps work trouble-free without enhanced maintenance demand.
Vacuum Brazing
Vacuum brazing is a joining process that uses a filler metal alloy to bond two or more materials together in a vacuum environment. The filler metal is molten and flows into the joint by capillary action, forming a strong, permanent bond when it solidifies. Vacuum brazing is commonly used in the aerospace, automotive, and electronics industries for applications that require high strength, durability, and hermetic sealing.
During vacuum brazing the metal surfaces are often cleaned with an acidic “flux” material. Excess flux does evaporate and can enter the vacuum system, where it could attack the oil of oil-sealed vacuum pumps. For this reason Leybold proposes to use dry compressing, screw-type vacuum pumps of our VARODRY or DRYVAC lines which can handle such challenge without problems.
Vacuum Nitriding
Vacuum nitriding is a surface treatment process that involves introducing nitrogen into the surface of a material in a vacuum environment. The process is typically performed at high temperatures, which allows nitrogen atoms to diffuse into the material's surface, forming a nitride layer. The nitride layer provides improved surface hardness, wear resistance, and corrosion resistance, and can also increase the material's fatigue strength.
Nitriding also called “plasma nitriding” requires robust vacuum pumps which can work 24/7 with high gas loads. Our dry screw pumps DRYVAC and SOGEVAC oil-sealed rotary vane pumps can work on this application with high uptime and reliable operation cost
Vacuum Carburizing
Vacuum carburizing is a heat treatment process that involves adding carbon to the surface of a metal component in a vacuum environment. The process is typically performed at high temperatures, which allows carbon atoms to diffuse into the surface of the material, forming a thin, hard layer of carbides. Vacuum carburizing is a clean and controlled process that can produce precise and uniform case depths and hardness, resulting in improved wear resistance, fatigue strength, and overall performance of the component.
Carburizing is a challenging application for vacuum pumps due to all process gases. These gases contain high levels of carbon and by-products, which can easily condense inside the compression stage of the vacuum pump. DRYVAC with combination of RUVAC WH and WSU family can work at this application without significant loss of pumping performance using special purge system. Our SCREWLINE family offers trouble-free operation and easy-to-clean pumps.
Vacuum Sintering
Vacuum sintering is a heat treatment process that involves heating a metal or ceramic powder compact in a vacuum environment to a temperature below its melting point, causing the particles to bond together by diffusion. The process is typically performed at high temperatures and pressures, which allows the powder particles to densify and form a solid, compacted material with improved mechanical properties.
DRYVAC with combination of RUVAC WH and WSU family can work at this application without significant loss of pumping performance using special purge system. Our SCREWLINE family offers trouble-free operation and easy-to-clean pumps.
Vacuum Hardening
Vacuum hardening is a heat treatment process that involves heating a material, typically steel, to a high temperature in a vacuum environment, followed by rapid quenching in a cooling medium such as oil or gas. The rapid cooling rate "freezes" the atomic structure in a highly stressed state, resulting in a hard, brittle structure.
We recommend our dry screw pumps DRYVAC and SOGEVAC for this application, as they provde high uptime and reliable operation costs.
Vacuum solutions – optimized by experience
Leybold offers a broad line of vacuum pumps and accessories, enabling the selection of optimum pump systems for all heat-treatment applications.
A vacuum solution for vacuum heat treatment applications must be capable of delivering a reliable vacuum level. Vacuum pumps should be robust enough to operate without unexpected breakage or unscheduled stops. Leybold, the market leader in the vacuum heat treatment industry, achieves this through customer partnerships with OEMs and end-users. Leybold offers a comprehensive and versatile portfolio of vacuum solutions that focus on innovative dry technologies.
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