Nitrex furnace systems
From Vacuum Furnaces to Pioneering Gas Nitriding Solutions, Nitrex has the answer.
For 40 years Nitrex has served the Heat Treating and Surface Treatment Markets with Aerospace Coatings Furnaces, Vacuum Heat Treating Equipment and Nitriding and Nitrocarburizing Solutions.
Nitriding
Your Complete Solution for Gas Nitriding System Excellence
From Design to Construction, Installation, and Commissioning, Our Turnkey Systems Ensure Superior Quality, Reliability, and Cost-Efficiency for All Levels of Heat Treaters
NXHL front-loading batch furnaces support high-volume, 24/7 automated production with fast cycles and maximum utilization.
A favorite with aluminum extrusion die makers – Discover the cost-effective, reliable NXK series for small-scale processing and lab testing.
The Semi-Continuous, multi-batch solution ensures high production for brake rotors, automated flow, and other nitrocarburizing applications.
Vacuum
Furnaces for Clean Vacuum Atmosphere for the most demanding applications
Serving Aerospace, Power Generation, Energy, and Commercial Heat-Treating Industries with Expertly Crafted and Supported Furnace Solutions from G-M Enterprises, A Nitrex Company
The Horizontal Vacuum Furnace (HVF Series) offers improved temperature uniformity and volume utilization.
The 3Q™ series offers 2-bar, 6-bar, and 10-bar cooling capabilities with gas quenching in a separate chamber for superior metallurgical results.
The Vertical Vacuum Furnace (VVF Series) is designed for vertical bottom loading applications, featuring a circular hot zone for larger workloads.
Our vacuum-purge temper furnace ensures clean parts, ideal for aging, annealing, and heating up to 700°C.
The Quantum Quench™ Vacuum Furnace delivers controlled cooling without moving parts, ensuring superior results.
Coating/Retort
Premium Provider of High-Temperature Coating/Retort Furnaces
Versatile High-temp Vacuum Furnaces for Aerospace, Nuclear, Medical, and more.
Reliable for Steel, Nickel, Titanium, and Complex Alloys.
The SAR Batch Retort Bell Argon/Hydrogen Coating Furnace offers electric heating and atmosphere gas, ideal for coating applications.
Sealed Atmosphere Retort furnace optimizes turbine blade durability with vapor phase aluminide coating, enhancing performance.
The SAR/VPA series furnace, ideal for aerospace, enhances turbine blade durability with vapor phase aluminide coatings.
Process & technologies
Innovative Technology Solutions for Enhanced Manufacturing Processes
Our Deep Knowledge of Heat Treatments with our thorough understanding of the upstream and downstream manufacturing process is key to developing technology solutions that improve the design and performance of our customers’ processes and applications.
Gas Nitriding Nitreg®
Modern heat-treating process controlling compound layer thickness, ensuring uniform hardness, and minimal distortion.
Nitrocarburizing Nitreg®-C
Superior nitrocarburizing process, enhancing wear and corrosion resistance without shape distortion, with shorter cycle times.
Oxynitriding ONC®
Enhances corrosion resistance and imparts an attractive black finish, an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional processes.
Gas Nitriding Nitreg®-S
Nitriding process for stainless steel, offering controlled layer formation, excellent wear resistance, and improved fatigue strength.
Surface Hardening Nano-S™
Surface hardening process for stainless steel, improving wear and fatigue resistance without compromising corrosion resistance.
Gas Nitriding Nitreg®-TI
Gas nitriding titanium alloys increases wear resistance and provides a golden finish. Consult our engineers for best results
Super Alloys
Superalloys, like Inconels/Incolloys, operate near their melting point, containing high nickel, chromium, and cobalt.
Titanium
Titanium, a silver chemical element, finds wide industrial use in aerospace, automotive, and medical fields. It's often alloyed.
Fast Cooling
Fast cooling rapidly lowers temperature using a cooling medium like oil, water, brine, or pressurized gas.
Tool & Die
(Quench/Temper)
Tool steels undergo quenching and tempering for optimal mechanical properties, selected based on tool application and performance requirements.
Aluminide Coating
Aluminizing diffuses aluminum into metals, creating corrosion-resistant layers, often applied to steels and superalloys.
Hardening
Metals harden through thermal, mechanical, or precipitation methods, increasing lattice defects for enhanced hardness.
Normalizing
Normalizing refines grain structure in ferrous alloys, retaining more hardness than annealing, commonly used after forging or casting.
Brazing
Vacuum brazing: strong, clean joints in an oxygen-free atmosphere. Ideal for aerospace and medical components.
Annealing
Annealing heats parts above their recrystallization temperature, increasing ductility and facilitating workability, preparing steel for subsequent heat treatment.
Precipitation Hardening
Precipitation hardening boosts yield strength in materials via heating, quenching, and aging, often applied to stainless steels and superalloys.
Tempering
Tempering reduces excess hardness after hardening, adjusting material hardness through specific temperature and duration parameters tailored to application.
Homogenization
Homogenization reduces casting-related chemical segregation via diffusion annealing, but may yield coarse grain structure, often requiring subsequent heat treatments.
Additive Manufacturing
Additive manufacturing (3D printing) creates lighter, stronger parts with CAD, enhancing performance and simplifying complex geometries.
Debinding
Debinding in MIM removes binding material before sintering, crucial for furnace cleanliness and efficient sintering.
Sintering
Sintering forms solid material from metal powders without melting, often in protective atmospheres, crucial in metal injection moulding.
Metal Injection Moulding (MIM)
Metal injection moulding (MIM) shapes metal powder into complex, high-volume parts in a single step, ideal for various industries.
Stainless Steel
Stainless steel, with chromium content above 12%, varies in properties based on alloying elements like nickel and carbon.
Download our brochures
Unlock exclusive insights
Download our brochures for a deeper dive into exceptional heat treat services and processes such as Nitreg-C, ONC and so much more.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about the products and processes.
Nitriding is a heat treatment process used to increase the surface hardness and wear resistance of metal parts by diffusing nitrogen into the surface layer of the material. This is typically done by exposing the parts to a nitrogen-rich atmosphere at elevated temperatures.
Gas nitriding involves exposing the parts to a nitrogen-rich atmosphere with ammonia at elevated temperatures in a furnace, while plasma nitriding uses a plasma discharge in a partial vacuum to generate nitrogen ions that are then diffused into the surface of the parts. Gas nitriding allows for more dense and productive loading, whereas Ion (plasma) nitriding offers good masking capability for individual parts. Load fixturing and electrical conductivity is required for each part to be successfully nitrided in plasma
Nitrocarburizing is a surface hardening process that involves diffusing nitrogen and carbon into the surface layer of metal parts to increase hardness, wear resistance, and corrosion resistance. This is typically done by exposing the parts to a nitrogen and carbon-rich atmosphere at elevated temperatures. Cycles are mainly shorter, as the goal is often to impart mainly an engineered “white layer” on the surface of the parts.
Vacuum furnaces offer several advantages over traditional atmosphere furnaces, including:
Precise control over the heating and cooling process, resulting in uniform heating and minimal distortion of parts.
– Higher process temperatures are possible with temperatures exceeding 2500F (1371C) with no or minimal degradation of the furnace interior.
-The ability to perform heat treatment processes on exotic alloys such as vacuum annealing, vacuum brazing, and vacuum sintering.
-Elimination of surface oxides and decarburization of parts due to the absence of oxygen in the furnace process atmosphere.
-Cold wall design allows for “clean” room use. Heating is always via electric power.
Vapor Phase Aluminizing (VPA) is a process that coats special nickel-based Superalloy turbine engine blades and components to help them resist high temperature oxidation corrosion. Nitrex high temperature retort systems offer the perfect environment for coating these Superalloys. The NiAl layer preferentially oxidizes in extreme service and creates a thin and dense alumina scale.
Nitriding, nitrocarburizing, and vacuum furnaces are commonly used in industries such as automotive, aerospace, tooling, injection molding, and general manufacturing. These processes are used to improve the wear resistance, fatigue strength, and corrosion resistance of metal parts used in critical applications.
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