News

New double-chamber forging furnaces

Greater heating capacity
In conjunction with our investment project NEXIS, we have also been renewing and increasing the heat-ing capacity for the open-die forging press, and have invested in 2 new furnace units.

State-of-the-art technology
As the name double-chamber furnace implies, the furnaces comprise two (separate) chambers. A maxi-mum of 1.5 to of raw materials can be heated at a forming temperature of 900 - 1250°C per hour in each furnace chamber. This corresponds to an output increase of 50% per furnace unit compared to the old trolley hearth kiln! Both furnaces can be operated with a maximum temperature difference of 300°C, meaning different materials can be heated at different forging temperatures at the same time.

Double-chamber furnace in operation
An initial double-chamber furnace started up operation as early as the end of March 2008. The second furnace unit was handed over to production in early December 2008.
These new forging furnaces are operated with natural gas. Natural gas operation is cleaner compared to heating oil, less CO2 gases are emitted, and these furnaces are also more user-friendly and more easily automated.
The furnace's waste heat is used, with the help of a recuperator (heat recovery) to pre-heat the combus-tion air of the gas burners. Thanks to this energy-saving facility, up to 25% of the furnace energy costs could be saved.