The double-chamber vacuum furnace, type DualTherm® ideally combine heating and quenching processes. This furnace has been especially developed for case hardening in vacuum.

in large view	in large view
1. Gear shafts treated in DualTherm® furnace, 2. DualTherm® furnace

This two-chamber system operates according to the in/out principle and its design is similar to conventional sealed quench furnaces. At the beginning of the process, the fore chamber of the furnace serves as the loading chamber and after heat treatment as the gas quenching and unloading chamber. After placing the charge into the fore chamber, it is transported to the treatment chamber via an internal transport system.

The design of the treatment chamber is based on a conventional vacuum heat treatment furnace and it is kept constantly under vacuum and at temperature during furnace operation. The furnace is equipped with a convective heating system to guarantee uniform and rapid heating of the parts. This double chamber vacuum furnace may be equipped with a vacuum carburizing system for heat treating of all case hardening steels. In addition to case hardening, vacuum heat treatment processes up to 1,250 °C may be conducted in the treatment chamber. The "cold quenching chamber" may be operated with a quenching pressure up to 20 bar.