Tempering heat-treatment costs: General Industry Coverage

—————-

END USER: LMC Industries Inc., (636) 282-8080, www.lmcindustries.com. CHALLENGE: Heat treat tooling components in-house to reduce costs and turnaround times. SOLUTION: A dual-chamber heat-treatment furnace. SOLUTION PROVIDER: Lucifer Furnaces Inc., (800) 378-0095, www.luciferfurnances.com

—————-

Outsourcing heat treatment of parts can be costly and require lengthy turnaround times—which are especially problematic in emergency and weekend situations. Therefore, LMC Industries Inc. recently added a dual-chamber furnace for heat treating tool steels to its cadre of equipment. LMC, Arnold, Mo., is a metal stamping and plastic injection-molding company that serves the automotive industry.

According to Toolroom Manager Max Vogl, LMC wanted a furnace for its tooling facility, which supports its stamping and molding operations, to reign in the cost of outsourcing heat treatment and improve heat-treatment turnaround time.

After searching the Web and talking to various furnace manufacturers, LMC determined the Model HL82-H24 from Lucifer Furnaces Inc., Warrington, Pa., was the best fit as far as versatility and price. In addition, both a tool shop and steel supplier highly recommended the furnace.

Courtesy of LMC Industries

LMC’s dual-chamber heat-treatment furnace from Lucifer Furnaces has a high-temperature upper chamber and a lower tempering chamber.

“We needed a furnace that heats up high enough to handle all our tool steels, including powder metals such as CPM (Crucible Particle Metal),” Vogl said. “Regular tool steel requires a temperature around 1,800° F whereas CPM requires temperatures in the 2,150° F to 2,200° F range.”