Solar Atmospheres of Western Pennsylvania is awarding a $1,500 education scholarship for college sophomores or juniors studying metallurgy or materials science. This scholarship is part of the Commercial Heat Treater of the Year Award recently presented to Solar Atmospheres of Western PA by the Metal Treating Institute (MTI) in cooperation with Industrial Heating magazine.
Applicants must meet all of the following criteria:
• Applicant must be a current college or university sophomore or junior who plans to enroll in a full-time field of study at an accredited two or four-year college, university, or vocational-technical school located in the United States for the entire 2013-2014 academic year, majoring in the field of metallurgy or materials science.
• Applicant must have a minimum grade point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale or its equivalent.
• Applicant must demonstrate a desire to have a career in the field of metallurgy, materials science.
• Applicants may not be related to any Solar Atmospheres staff; this presents a conflict of interest.
An application form with complete eligibility requirements and rules is available in the news section of www.solaratm.com. The deadline for scholarship applications is April 30, 2013 at 5:00 p.m. EST. Only the first 20 applications received will be processed. The winner will be notified in June, 2013.
Vacuum heat treating and brazing services provided by Solar Atmospheres produce bright, scale-free parts with minimal distortion. The Hermitage, Pennsylvania plant, 60 miles north of Pittsburgh, specializes in vacuum thermal processing of large, mainly titanium manufacturing parts. This facility houses the world’s largest commercial vacuum furnace (5’ wide x 5’ high x 36’ long work zone – 150,000 lb. workload capacity), which uniquely benefits the aerospace industry. With a variety of furnaces processing smaller parts, Solar Atmospheres serves 18 different industries. State-of-the-art services also include carburizing, nitriding, and R&D. Additional plants are located in Fontana, California and Souderton, Pennsylvania.
In other news, Solar Manufacturing is also pleased to announce the sale of a Model HFL-5748-2EQ vacuum heat treating and brazing furnace to a commercial heat treating company located in the Mid-Atlantic region. Although this customer has several competitive brand furnaces within their facility, they chose a Solar Manufacturing furnace as their new addition due to its innovative, energy-efficient design and Solar’s reliable after-market support.
The Model HFL-5748-2EQ has work zone that measures 36 inches wide x 36 inches high x 48 inches deep with an operating temperature up to 2500○F and a work load capacity of 5,000 pounds. The hot zone insulation package will be a CFC hot face backed by (6) layers of ½ inch graphite felt all housed in a 304 stainless steel support ring. A large mechanical pump, booster pump and diffusion pump system is included for vacuum operation to the low 10-5 Torr range. In addition, the diffusion pump heaters are monitored and controlled by a Solar ConserVacTM system for minimal power consumption. The external gas cooling system incorporates a 150 HP blower motor and supporting heat exchanger for rapid cooling of the work load at 2 Bar gas pressures. Furnace control and operation is accomplished via a SolarVacTM 5000 Computerized Instrument Package incorporating a touch screen panel and Wonderware software for ease of operation. For more information, visit www.solaratm.com.
