Two custom built Carbolite furnaces with provision for protective atmospheres are providing Howmet Exeter Castings with precisely controlled facilities for heat treating industrial gas turbine blades. The company is one of the world's leading producers of complex investment cast turbine airfoils. The components, usually produced from nickel based superalloys, range in size from around 25mm to over 800mm in length and require heat treatment in order to optimise their mechanical performance. Heat treatment equipment is required to take account of the wide variety of component casting morphology now found in industrial gas turbines, with accurately controlled ramping, heating and cooling cycles a priority in order to ensure dimensional stability. The increasing use of more sophisticated alloys has also produced a need for tighter thermal tolerances during heat treatment.
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