Lindberg/MPH announced the shipment of an electrically heated hot stamping furnace to an automotive supplier. This multiple chamber furnace system will be used to preheat steel blanks to be used for hot stamping structural automotive components. The usage of multiple independent chambers means that multiple blanks can be simultaneously preheated resulting in reduced cycle times.

The 3-chamber batch furnace has a maximum temperature rating of 1920°F and work chamber dimensions of 102" diameter x 102" depth x 14” high. The furnace features inert gas atmosphere controls on one chamber which will allow the customer to utilize a nitrogen gas atmosphere. Each chamber has three (3) zones of heat to control temperature uniformity throughout the entire workspace. A cooling blower provides airflow between the three chambers and overtemperature protection is provided for each chamber.

The parallel arm doors actuate quickly to load and unload blanks which keeps heat loss to a minimum. The refractory lining is constructed from vacuum formed ceramic fiber modules that heat up quickly and have low heat storage. Five (5) monitoring thermocouples will be supplied in each chamber to help profile the heat during the process development. A programmable logic controller performs temperature control, as well as logic and switching functions. The controller also offers Ethernet and Modbus-485 communication interfaces and is capable of archiving furnace time/temperature profiles.

Unique features of this Lindberg/MPH electric batch furnace include:

• Vacuum formed ceramic fiber modules with low heat storage for fast heat up rates

• 3 heating zones in each chamber

• Independent parallel arm doors

• Multiple heating chambers

• Multiple point uniformity test

• Inert gas atmosphere addition

• Raised pier hearth

• Programmable logic controller

• Exterior cooling blower