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Castool Installs Vacuum Heat Treating and Nitriding Furnaces for Processing Dies

Castool Tooling Systems, based in Uxbridge, Canada, designs and manufactures production tooling systems for the extrusion and die casting industries. For the extrusion sector, the company pioneered the fixed dummy block, thermally stable container, single cell die heater, and other innovations.

Recently, Castoool completed the construction of a new facility, in which the company has installed of heat treat and nitriding furnaces — providing the plant with some of the largest capacity equipment in North America.

“We perceived there was a shortage of quality heat treat and nitriding sources in North America to support the Tooling Revolution we are experiencing,” said Paul Robbins, president of Castool. “Both die cast presses and extrusion presses have increased in size and pressures. We are being required to manufacture shot sleeves, stems, and liners in larger diameters and longer lengths than ever before. It is best to heat treat these items vertically and to guarantee best structure with a vacuum quench up to 12 bar.”

The new facility includes several heat treating and tempering furances from Ipsen, which is capable of vertically heat treating dies up to 90 inches tall or 20,000 lbs. This includes:

  • An Ipsen 6 bar heat treating furnace capable of processing pieces up to 36 x 36 x 48 inches in size, or a 3,000 lb load
  • An Ipsen 12 bar heat treating furnace capable of processing pieces up to 48 x 48 x 72 inches in size, or a 6,000 lb load
  • An Ipsen 12 bar heat treating furnace capable of processing pieces up to 60 inches in diameter x 90 inches tall, or a 20,000 lb load
  • An Ipsen tempering furnace capable of processing pieces up to 36 x 36 x 48 inches in size, or a 3,000 lb load
  • An Ipsen tempering furnace capable of processing pieces up to 48 x 48 x 72 inches in size, or a 6,000 lb load

The nitriding equipment was supplied by Nitrex. The new vacuum nitriding furnace includes nitrocarburizing capabilities and can nitride pieces up to 61 inches in diameter and 98.5 inches high, with a load capacity of 14,000 lbs.

Castool’s ISO 9001 certified heat treating and nitriding facility operates according to most automotive standards. The company’s in-house laboratory capable of microstructure and chemical analysis, strength and reliability testing, and nitride layer evaluation.

Inside Castool’s heat treatment facility.

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