Wall Colmonoy installs a high-temperature vacuum furnace at Los Lunas, New Mexico facility

Wall Colmonoy announced today it has installed a Centorr Workhorse® Vacuum Brazing Furnace at the Los Lunas, New Mexico facility. The new furnace, customized for Wall Colmonoy's specific needs, is able to process material under high-vacuum and partial pressures with excellent process control. The furnace's Yokogawa Process Control System with an HMI interface will help technicians maintain effective operation and control of the furnace as well as provide data with which to make operational decisions. It has an effective Hot Zone size of 12" X 12" X 12", an operating range of 10-6 torr – 1 atm, and a maximum temperature of 1315° C (2400°F). The model includes a Varian VHS – 6 diffusion pumping system, Leybold rotary vane roughing pump and a water cooled diffusion pump baffle allowing for processing of materials at very low vacuum levels. The unit also includes digital water flow switches and dedicated load thermocouples.

Brazing parts and components for the aerospace, automotive, defense and energy industries where braze quality is critical to the longevity, safety and efficient function of jet engines, turbine blades, missiles, heat exchangers and nuclear reactor components outside the core, Wall Colmonoy's experienced engineers and technicians will use the new vacuum furnace to continually test braze quality.

Mike Weinstein, metallurgical engineer and Technical Service Manager at the Los Lunas plant, indicates "The new high-temperature vacuum furnace, with its inert gas cooling system, is expected to increase throughput by a factor of two. Used for product development, application development and research testing, this increased capacity will allow us to keep pace with the requirements of our growing business."