Ford Lifts The Hood To Treat Castings

The Ford Motor company's Leamington plant originally used gas-fired pusher furnaces to heat treat ferrous castings for brake discs.

The Problem

The furnaces were originally employed in normalising steel castings at 950°C. When production later switched to stress relieving grey iron ventilated discs, at only 550°C, the furnaces continued to be used. They were inefficient, gave poor temperature control and lacked the capacity to treat all the output from the mould lines. A proportion of the work therefore had to be subcontracted.

The Solution

Over three phases Excel Heat installed five electric lift off hood furnaces, eight refractory brick bases and the associated instrument control panels to replace the old gas fired furnaces.

The new furnaces provide an additional 30% capacity and all heat treatment is now done in house.

The Result

The change to electric, controlled atmosphere lift off hood system despite an output increase has reduced the energy consumption by almost 70%.