Tube, Bar, Rod and Plate Extrusions

Solution Heat treatment with Progressive Quenching for Aircraft alloys, yes we can!

Solution Heat Treating

About 85% of all aluminum products are wrought by rolling, forging or extrusion; therefore CEC has been intimately familiar with the development of Solution heat treating (T6) and aging of these products in a wide range of machines.

Hard Alloys like 2024 and 7075 that have been formed or extruded for the aerospace industry arrive at the CEC horizontal heat treatment system on the articulating right angle transfer load conveyor. Once the load bundle is compiled the load is typically charged into the solution heat treatment furnace by a roller hearth. After the heat treatment cycle is completed for the specific alloy the load is discharged into a programmable progressive flow quench that optimizes the alloy’s physical properties.

Quench Machine Features

Some typical Quench machine features include:

  • Fluid flow control
  • Conveyor speed control
  • Tank filtering
  • % Polymer control
  • Tank water temperature control
  • Engineered nozzle patterns to assure even product cooling

The end of the furnace is protected with a combination air and water curtain that minimizes water entry into the furnace. Once quenching is completed the product can proceed to water removal by an engineered air knife and then on to the stretching table or further processing.

Alternately, soft Alloys such as the 6000 series alloy 6061 can be T6 heat treated in gantry furnaces, tower drop bottom furnaces and more conventional batch drop bottom furnaces. Various load head sizes can be fitted to tower furnace hoists that allow tube, bar or extrusions to be solution heated and quenched in a vertical load to minimize distortion.

CONTACT US TODAY

If you make aluminum tube, bar, rod, plate or extrusions please give us a call today and see why great aluminum manufacturers like: Alcoa, Universal Alloy, Boeing, Norsk Hydro and Aleris rely on CEC for their difficult military and aerospace aluminum alloy heat treatment.