ECOLOGY IS INSCRIBED IN OUR NATURE
Eco-friendly solutions for metal heat treatment
The ECO prefix is inscribed in our name and the Group’s DNA. We don’t talk nor think differently about ecology other than Secology, because we look at environmental protection so broadly.
Secology is therefore a set of projects, ecological social initiatives, and ecological investments within the company along with the green technologies that we use or create. Secology, thus, is not a new science or religion, it is the SECO/WARWICK Group attitude visible in every aspect of our operation.
We have an ecological approach and green heat treatment inscribed in our mission in which we declare that “we create innovative products providing our customers with reliable, safe and pro-ecological solutions for heat treatment and metallurgy”.
WE’VE CHANGED THE METALLURGY AND HEAT TREATMENT COLOR TO GREEN
SECO/PEOPLE
Ecology inscribed in our DNA means involvement in green social initiatives. This is how we do it: we plant and clean forests, we give books, banners and computers a second life, we build and provide our own containers for plastic caps, we like bicycles and drink filtered water instead of water in plastic bottles, and we donate the points we earn when we fly to airlines for the purchase of sustainable fuel.
These are our S(ECO) attitudes.
SECO/COMPANY
SECO is ECO, which is why our production, buildings and activities turn green.
And so:
we water our lawns with rainwater,
we introduced energy-saving lighting (often sensor-based),
we also monitor and reduce the paper and printer toner consumption – hence the use of printing automation, central printing and electronic document circulation. We also introduced paper and cardboard shredders, thanks to which we have ecological packing material for shipments.
Our fleet becomes green, and the roof of the largest shop is decorated with photovoltaic panels.
This is ECO in SECO style.
SECO/TECHNOLOGIES
CHECK OUT OUR ENVIRONMENTAL
SOLUTIONS
We’ve changed the heat treatment and metallurgy color to green. That is why we primarily implement innovative, ecological technologies enabling our design team to make many pro-environmental changes in the energy, aviation, automotive and recycling industries. SECO/WARWICK changes technologies to green by providing solutions reducing energy consumption, increasing production efficiency, shortening the process and treatment time, and reducing process gas consumption.
These are eco-friendly furnaces under the S(ECO) brand
SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION, ECOLOGICAL SOCIAL ACTIVITIES AND GREEN TECHNOLOGIES ARE PART OF OUR LONG-TERM SECO/ECO STRATEGY
Green solutions for heat treatment and metallurgical processes
Caring for the environment is an important value for the SECO/WARWICK Group. It is understood not only as sustainable production of ecological and innovative solutions, but also as care for energy conservation, involvement in ecological social campaigns or supporting Partners who contribute to improving the natural environment. This is a part of our long-term strategy. We provide furnaces which save energy and reduce emissions in many industries. In a word, we focus on eco-friendly heat treatment technologies
Heavy industry can be ecological, and we want to prove this thesis consistently.
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What are the pro-ecological solutions for metal heat treatment?
In industry, and especially in metal and alloy heat treatment, more and more pro-ecological solutions are emerging, aimed at minimizing the impact of heat treatment on the natural environment and improving energy efficiency. What technologies are we talking about?
Vacuum – green technology for metal heat treatment
Vacuum is the ideal protective and technological atmosphere for heat treated part surfaces. Thanks to this, the need to use harmful process gases is eliminated, and thus there are no emissions into the environment.
SECO/WARWICK vacuum furnaces, used in industries such as automotive, aviation and energy, significantly protect the natural environment, because this technology is one of the most ecological solutions in metal heat treatment.
Industrial vacuum furnaces use vacuum, i.e. negative pressure obtained by air evacuation. They operate in an atmosphere devoid of air (and especially of harmful oxygen) and other gases, which excludes oxidation and cleans the part surface during heat treatment process. This not only improves the quality of the final products, but also minimizes the need for additional cleaning operations which can harm the environment and generate excessive costs. The unique feature of a vacuum furnace is the fully operational flexibility and on-demand operation. The furnace can be switched off and on at any time, does not require conditioning and is immediately ready for operation.
SECO/WARWICK focuses on providing innovative and ecological solutions which not only meet customer requirements but also contribute to the protection of the planet. Thanks to advanced vacuum technology and a constant pursuit of excellence, the company sets new standards in the metal heat treatment industry.
SECO/ECO – advantages of SECO/WARWICK ecological vacuum furnaces
The main advantage of vacuum furnaces is their versatility and the capacity to execute technology traditionally carried out in atmosphere furnaces. Differences in the vacuum furnace construction, the method of conducting processes, the minimal consumption of factors and emissions to the environment make the vacuum furnace itself a SECO/ECO solution compared to traditional atmosphere furnaces. Why? First of all:
/ Vacuum furnaces are characterized by high energy efficiency – thanks to better thermal insulation and a controlled process environment. Thermal insulation reduces heat losses, which translates into lower energy consumption, additionally supported by the vacuum environment.
/ They ensure the reduction of emissions – thanks to the use of vacuum technology, emissions associated with heat treatment processes are significantly reduced. Vacuum eliminates the need to use protective atmosphere containing gases which can be harmful to the environment.
/ They utilize modern control and monitoring systems – which allow for the management of heat treatment processes. The automation and digitization of these processes leads to the optimization of energy and resource consumption, which has a direct impact on reducing the carbon footprint of industrial activities.
Ecological features of vacuum heat treatment:
/ results in perfect quality of part surfaces (no additional operations),
/ no intergranular oxidation (no additional mechanical processing),
/ no need to use protective gases (lower costs and emissions),
/ minimal consumption of process gases (cost savings),
/ minimal time for preparing and conditioning the atmosphere (saving time, costs),
/ zero start-up and shutdown time, on-demand operation (saving time, costs),
/ no open flame, no risk of fire or explosion (safety),
/ ecological and very high process purity,
/ clean process, does not require parts washing after cooling in neutral gas (reduced environmental pollution),
/ low heat and by-product emissions (limited global warming effect),
/ environmentally friendly (pollution minimization),
/ zero direct CO₂ emissions (carbon footprint reduction).
This technology has become the green standard in metal heat treatment, and as a result, is becoming increasingly common in the industry. The key task set by the European Union for this segment of the economy is to minimize CO₂ emissions into the atmosphere. For this reason, SECO/WARWICK implements ecological solutions in heat treatment systems. We are a leader in the area of creating innovative and reliable industrial furnaces that offer pro-environmental solutions for heat treatment and metallurgy.
What are the ecological solutions for vacuum metallurgy processes?
The importance of vacuum metallurgy as a metal heat treatment method is constantly growing. This is a natural consequence of the increasingly new demand for the production of gas turbine blades for the new generation of jet engines in the aviation sector. State-of-the-art jet engines use advanced single-crystalline cast blades.
An example of an ecological, and at the same time, innovative technological solution among vacuum metallurgy processes, that does not negatively affect the natural environment, is the vacuum casting system equipped with the gas crystallization method – JetCaster VIM DS/SC DGCC. JetCaster is a solution designed for the production of precise multi-variant and large-scale casting of gas turbine blades with a single crystal microstructure for the aviation industry.
Ecological features of the JetCaster furnace – green vacuum metallurgy by the numbers
/ Casting crystallization time reduction by 50%.
/ Increase in production efficiency by 82%.
/ Production energy consumption reduction by 40%.
/ Cooling water consumption reduction by 50%.
/ Production of twice as many castings with a comparable level of energy demand.
JetCaster has a positive impact on the implementation of a sustainable development policy, as the technology allows for a reduction in environmental impact to a greater extent than required by law.
The solution, as mentioned, allows for shortening the crystallization time and increases production efficiency. Due to the reduction in crystallization time, the production energy consumption is reduced by 40%, and the cooling water consumption by 50%. Thanks to this technology, the entire process efficiency has increased – from shortening the production cycle to reducing the cost of casting gas turbine blades. Shortening the production cycle means lower consumption of factors — the basic ecological parameter of the solution. It is worth adding that producing about twice as many castings with a comparable level of energy demand is a solution consistent with sustainable development policy.
JetCaster construction
The furnace is characterized by a modular structure and easy adaptation to various geometries of casting molds thanks to solutions such as the automatic replacement of the thermal baffle, replaceable melt boxes adapted to different sizes of batches, and the gas blowing system’s easy configuration.
Features and advantages of JetCaster
/ Metal casting under vacuum or in a controlled inert gas atmosphere
/ One touch vacuum system startup and shutdown
/ Industrial touchscreen operator interface with selectable languages
/ All electric and pneumatic actuators, no hydraulics
/ Horizontal and vertical feed systems for bulk feed, ingots, and/or liners.
/ Teachable one or two-axis precision pouring systems with manual and automated profile pouring
/ Door mounted melt box for fast change-out and easy overhead access
/ Precision melt temperature measurement with combination Opto/TC calibration independent of crucible fill ratio
/ Single or multi-zone mold heaters
/ Closed loop DS/SC solidification control temperature and withdrawal position
/ Partial pressure control melting and inert gas mold cooling
/ Safe and environmentally friendly technology
/ Ability to achieve Directional Solidified (DS) and Single Crystal castings (SC) through the Bridgman method or/and the Developed Gas Cooling Crystallization method.
/ Obtaining fragmentation of the casting microstructure determined by the PDAS parameter, which significantly shortens the time for the heat treatment of castings.
/ Specifically designed for the aerospace, energy, and defense industries.
/ Low percentage of casting defects, both macro and microstructural.
/ Significant shortening of the monocrystalline casting process compared to the classic process due to the increased speed of mold withdrawal.
What is the innovative and ecological JetCaster technology?
The innovative vacuum casting system using the gas crystallization method JetCaster® VIM DS/SC DGCC technology opens up several new possibilities in the field of the monocrystalline casting of nickel and cobalt base superalloys.
How does this innovative technology work and how does it differ from the Bridgman method, which is widespread in the world? The crystallization method is enriched with a cooling gas injection, which improves the casting structure and shortens the total process time. Years of work by our R&D engineers on the development of a new technology for monocrystalline castings has allowed us to create a solution equipped with a casting cooling system with a supersonic argon stream.
The new solution used in JetCaster stands out primarily because the speed of superalloy crystallization has increased compared to the Bridgman method. And all this thanks to the inert gas jets, which are generated using ejectors equipped with adjustable nozzles, directed at the ceramic casting mold. This innovative solution in the field of directional crystallization process and furnace design has been patented by SECO/WARWICK.
The JetCaster vacuum metallurgy furnace was developed and manufactured for casting gas turbine blades from nickel or cobalt superalloys with a microstructure with directional grain arrangement or single crystal, used in the new generation of turbine engines.
Green profit
The JetCaster allows users to obtain high-quality turbine blade castings – without casting defects and with the required perfection of the single crystal casting structure – with increased efficiency of the process itself.
In addition, the JetCaster vacuum induction melting furnace offers lower energy consumption and lower emissions of harmful substances, which directly affects the implementation of a sustainable development policy. This is an ecological technology in metallurgy, because it reduces the impact on the environment to a greater extent than required by legal regulations.
Why is LPC technology considered the most ecological?
Industrial furnaces using LPC (Low Pressure Carburizing) technology are considered the most environmentally friendly.
Why is this happening?
What is green heat treatment?
Here are the most important advantages of low-pressure vacuum carburizing, which changes the color of heat treatment to green.
In the global automotive, aviation, machinery and many other industries, carburizing is still one of the most common types of thermo-chemical treatment. Current European Union guidelines on climate change force companies, especially those in the field of metal heat treatment, to take steps to reduce the impact of production on the climate by limiting greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.
Hence the need to propose an ecological alternative to traditional atmospheric carburizing. Such a solution is the LPC (Low Pressure Carburizing) technology. It deserves special attention because it not only replaces traditional carburizing methods, it enables effective carburizing, eliminating direct emissions of carbon dioxide from process gases into the atmosphere.
This is because the carbon-bearing atmosphere in the low-pressure carburizing process is hydrocarbons, which do not emit carbon dioxide.
The carbon-bearing atmosphere in the low-pressure carburizing process is hydrocarbons or their mixtures with inert gases (most often acetylene, propane, ethylene, possibly with the addition of nitrogen or hydrogen). Due to the way it decomposes in the chamber under process conditions, the most advantageous is the use of acetylene (C2H2) as a carbon source – it decomposes catalytically on the part’s surface and produces a much smaller amount of reaction by-products compared to others.
However, the atmosphere does not contain oxygen or any compounds with oxygen (which is why the processed parts are free from near-surface oxidation at grain boundaries), and the exhaust gases are gases which were introduced into the furnace and did not react, and their decomposition products (mainly hydrogen). Therefore, there is no direct emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from the process gases.
LPC (Low Pressure Carburizing) technology, or vacuum carburizing, as the name suggests, takes place at reduced pressure, more than 100 times below atmospheric pressure. It is a modern and ecological alternative to atmospheric carburizing. The key advantage of LPC technology is the ability to perform efficient carburizing in a much shorter time than in atmospheric furnaces, thanks to the use of higher temperatures, e.g.: 980 or 1050oC and minimal consumption of process gases (several dozen times lower compared to traditional carburizing). This solution can more than double the productivity, which reduces the process costs, and pays off investment quickly. LPC technology is much safer for users because it eliminates contact with toxic, flammable and explosive gases.
Advantages of LPC technology
/ Highest quality and uniformity of carburized layers
/ No oxidation effect along grain boundaries (IGO)
/ Necessary factor reduction to a minimum = savings
/ Fast, high-temperature process
/ Minimum consumption of process gases
/ Fast process initiation not requiring furnace conditioning = time savings
/ Safety => no toxic, flammable and explosive atmosphere
/ Environmental friendliness => low heat emission and no pollution (CO & CO₂)
LPC – a green alternative to atmospheric carburizing – get to know its properties
Vacuum technologies ensure minimization of the process gas consumption during carburizing. Because of the use of higher process temperatures, the process time is reduced. These systems also enable the use of high-performance quenching in high-pressure gas instead of oil.
Benefits of low-pressure vacuum carburizing:
/ significant (up to 5x) reduction of carburizing time, resulting in reduced costs and energy consumption,
/ zero CO₂ emissions,
/ no intergranular oxidation (IGO),
/ low heat losses saving electrical energy,
/ safe operation, no flammable and explosive atmosphere,
/ operational flexibility, on-demand operation, no idle operation,
/ minimal consumption of carburizing gases,
/ low heat and by-products emissions.
Pit-LPC vacuum furnace – with the advantages of LPC technology
Pit-LPC is a pit furnace for the vacuum carburizing of thick layers for massive or elongated parts, such as gear wheels and shafts, bearing rings or drilling tools.
Pit-LPC meets strict ecological standards. It also ensures greater operational safety because it eliminates the use of toxic, flammable and explosive atmospheres. Pit-LPC allows users to reduce costs and increase production while taking care of the environment.
A unique advantage of this furnace is the ability to open the furnace to the air at process temperature at the end of carburizing, in order to unload the part, usually for hardening in oil. The product solves the problem of high energy and process gas consumption, and also shortens the carburizing process, which significantly improves efficiency and reduces production costs.
Pit-LPC allows users to reduce costs and increase production while taking care of the environment.
Advantages:
/ effective carburizing,
/ saving time, energy and space,
/ greater safety of use.
LPC technology eliminates direct CO₂, emissions from the carburizing atmosphere, which is why it is a “green” process, ensuring the highest quality of machined surfaces.
