FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

VAC AERO’s Coatings Plant Receives its AS9100B Standard Accreditation Boucherville, Quebec (November 21, 2007) – After conducting an assessment of VAC AERO’s management system to the requirements of the AS 9100B standard, Intertek Testing Services NA, Ltd. has recommended VAC AERO for the AS9100 certification which was delivered to the Boucherville facility last week.

Building a Lean Supply Chain

Lean shouldn’t stop with your company; to be truly lean, you must reach beyond your shop floor.

Companies of all sizes, shapes, and descriptions are attempting to implement lean manufacturing. As a company becomes lean, however, it inevitably runs into constraints imposed by its suppliers and customers, the adjacent nodes of the supply chain in which it operates. The logical next step to becoming lean internally is to try to spread the lean philosophy outward to those immediate trading partners. Sometimes doing so can bring significant improvements, especially when a large company is influencing one or more of its smaller suppliers. At other times it doesn’t work so well, such as when a small machine shop attempts to influence a much larger raw-material supplier.

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VAC AERO Operates three of the Largest Oil Quench Furnaces  OAKVILLE, Ontario (November 21, 2007) – VAC AERO’s vacuum oil quench technique allows manufacturers of aircraft landing gear and structural components to finish machine critical surfaces on these components prior to heat treating thereby reducing final machining costs when the part is in the hardened condition.

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VAC AERO Receives Six New and Repeat Vacuum Furnace Orders

OAKVILLE, Ontario (November 14, 2007) – VAC AERO’s North American furnace manufacturing operations have recently received new furnace orders from six different customers, four of which are repeat orders from customers already operating VAC AERO furnaces. Deliveries will be completed within the next six months to various sites in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, India and Korea. Some contracts involve new products developed by VAC AERO, including an ultra-clean, all-stainless steel high vacuum system with cryo-pump to achieve operating vacuum levels in the 10-7 torr range. Another order involves a top-loading vertical vacuum furnace with a working depth of more than 270” and +/- 5°C temperature uniformity. VAC AERO is also building two high pressure quench vacuum furnaces for tool and die processing and three vacuum brazing furnaces for various aerospace manufacturers.

Since 2001, VAC AERO has been a proud supporter of the University of Toronto’s Mechanical Engineering Department by heat treating chassis for their Formula SAE racing cars.

The competition group of thirty students designs, builds and races formula-style race cars against other universities in an international collegiate competition and has enjoyed much success winning three British races in the past five years. The Formula SAE chassis are made of tubular low alloy steel and designed to reduce weight. They are welded, stress-relieved then fully hardened and tempered using VAC AERO’s vacuum oil quench process.

Hydrogen partial pressures are recommended when processing some alloys (like copper) and vacuum brazing with some filler metals (ie. silver or copper). A hydrogen partial pressure also improves the cleaning action during a vacuum furnace bake-out cycle. When properly design and constructed, a hydrogen partial pressure system is perfectly safe. The VAC AERO hydrogen partial…

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VAC AERO offers both all-metal and graphite-based insulation packages in our vacuum furnace hot zones. Some furnace manufacturers and heat treaters will tell you that vacuum brazing can only be performed in furnaces with all-metal hot zones. VAC AERO has proven this to be entirely false. For more than 10 years, our own heat treating…

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The cooling performance required by a vacuum furnace is dictated by the type of alloy to be hardened. Most air hardening tool steels such as the A and D series can be hardened by gas quenching at pressures of 2 bar or less. Furnaces with gas quench pressure ratings of 6 bar and higher can…

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VAC AERO Press Release

AerMet® 100, produced by Carpenter Technology Corporation, is a precipitation hardening alloy based on an iron-cobalt nickel mixture strengthened with carbon, chromium and molybdenum. The alloy is equal in strength to 300M high strength steel but with better fracture toughness and stress corrosion cracking resistance. This makes it ideal for use in aircraft components where weight-savings and reliability in severe environments are critical, such as the landing gear for carrier-based military aircraft.

There are a lot of factors to consider in this decision and every situation will be unique. A vacuum furnace is a large capital investment and there are other costs associated with setting up in-house that must be taken into account (see our Articles page). You also gain improved turn-around-time and important intangibles such as…

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