Industries like aerospace and power generation, where the margin for error is virtually nonexistent, utilize heat treatment to enhance the performance, durability, and reliability of critical components. Heat treating can improve strength, wear resistance, and lifespan of commonly used parts like camshafts, crankshafts, and turbines.
Mercer Technologies™, a veteran owned and operated company in Terre Haute, Indiana, is an expert on heat treatment processes. At Mercer, they not only perform heat treatments on parts, they build full heat treatment systems that they provide to their customers, and they refurbish existing heat treatment systems, breathing new life into existing machinery to extend service life and enhance performance.
“All projects are different. Every furnace is different,” explains Cody Young, Mercer Technologies’ Controls and Automation Engineer. “There’s annealing, brazing, pre-welding, post-welding, and so on. For that reason, we wanted a platform that was flexible and scalable. Customization is a must.”
Mercer Technologies' vacuum furnace
Glowing Concerns: Heat Treatment Challenges
The heat treatment process involves heating and cooling materials, typically metals, in a controlled manner to alter their physical and mechanical properties without changing their shapes. Heating to temperatures in excess of 1000° C requires a high degree of care and precision.
Ridding the chamber of contaminants before the treatment begins is a key part of the process, and it can be accomplished in various ways. The atmospheric method, which is done by purging the furnace with an inert gas like nitrogen, is generally safer but takes longer and increases the overall cost of the process. Vacuum furnaces, on the other hand, which use vacuum pumps to decontaminate the chamber, can reach their deepest vacuum level in just a few minutes, but the operation is a bit more perilous.
“Improper valve sequencing during vacuum furnace operation can cause oxygen in the air to go where it’s not supposed to. Oxygen in the wrong place can lead to potential explosions or implosions, which is obviously a very bad situation,” explains Young.
Mercer Technologies and Opto 22: A Piping Hot Pair
Back in 1994, when Mercer Technologies was starting out, they needed a control solution that could do two things: flexibly adapt to a variety of applications and safely ensure proper sequencing of valves to prevent dangerous accidents. Young found that the modular design of Opto 22 products offered the hardware scalability that Mercer needed. And
OptoScript, a scripting language found within Opto 22’s
PAC Control flowchart-based programming software, offered the flexibility Mercer was looking for. “Back in my college days at Ivy Tech, we learned C++, so I was familiar with a similar scripting language. I can customize it however I want to,” Young recalls.
Beyond capable products, Mercer needed a platform that offered local support. Based in the USA with free product support, Opto 22 fit the bill. Young explains, “Opto 22 has competitors, but they are unmatched in support, and using products made in the USA is important to our mission. Every issue I’ve ever had with Opto 22 products was resolved quickly, usually with help from the
OptoForums [Opto 22’s factory-supported online community forum for exchanging ideas and application support].”