Centorr Furnaces Enable Production, Part Stress-Relief

Centorr Vacuum Industries’ two furnace lines, the Sintervac AM and Workhorse AM, are designed specifically for additive manufacturing processes.

The Sintervac AM line of vacuum and controlled atmosphere furnaces improves on the proprietary Sweepgas binder removal system, offering a furnace that can debind in both partial pressures or positive pressures of argon, nitrogen, or forming gas. The all‐graphite furnace hot zone offers a robust and inexpensive design for processing a variety of stainless steel, tool steel, mild steels and alloy materials. With a max temperature of 1600°C it is said to handle most 3D printed metals on the market today.

In order to protect the hot zone insulation and elements, the Sintervac AM furnace comes with a tight all‐graphite retort or workbox inside the hot zone which is used to compartmentalize the process offgassing (that takes place in the case of debinding), directing it out of the furnace through a delube manifold plumbed out the bottom of the chamber using our proprietary Sweepgas debinding system. The use of a graphite retort allows the binder‐laden gases to exit the hot zone without passing across the heating elements or insulation pack, resulting in longer service life of the hot zone components.

The Workhorse AM is Centorr Vacuum Industries production oriented offering specifically designed for the secondary heat treating, annealing, stress‐relieving, de‐gassing, and quench cooling of 3D printed parts. The clean vacuum environment assures no oxidation, and a shiny part surface when compared to heat treatment in common atmosphere box furnaces.

The Workhorse AM’s basic design rated for 1315°C with an optional upgrade to 1650°C for processing higher melting materials such as superalloys and Titanium. The Workhorse AM has an option for operation in positive pressure for processing specific alloys in a controlled atmosphere of pure inert gas. For quick‐quench gas cooling requirements, the furnace can be outfitted with a 2BAR gas quench cooling system.

Standard Furnace instrumentation includes a programmable controller with PLC and PC/HMI visualization interface for process control.