This spring, Solar Manufacturing will install a large Solar Manufacturing Model HCB-120180-2IQ car-bottom type vacuum furnace at a major aviation facility in Shenyang, People's Republic of China. This new, purpose-built furnace will be used by the customer for the annealing and degassing of titanium alloys as well as for processing other steel alloy parts for aircraft applications.

The one-of-a-kind furnace has a 120" diameter heating element to accommodate a work zone that measures 99" (2519 mm) wide x 48" (1219 mm) high by 180" (4572 mm) deep and has a hearth designed to accommodate up to a 15,000 pound workload. The system is a single chamber, internal gas quench, batch-type design featuring an all-metal hot zone and dual 35" diffusion pump systems for high vacuum (10-5 Torr range) performance. The internal quench design incorporates a 200 HP motor/heat exchanger system for rapid gas cooling at 2 Bar pressure. Solar accommodated the customer's request to fit the furnace and all its components into the smallest footprint arrangement possible by designing a unique, powered loading system.

Supervision of the installation and commissioning of the furnace will be a co-operative effort between Solar Manufacturing and their Chinese representative, Beijing Waves Corporation. It is expected that the furnace will be in full operation by mid-summer 2012.