Furnace Seal / Purge 

This device design effort was part of an overall project to design an annealing line for a medical device wire manufacturer that would provide cleaning, annealing, quenching and gauging capabilities. This was as a result of growing product demand, for which the company had a need to scale up from their prototype manufacturing line with one that would yield higher throughput and tighter process control.

Challenge

In order to prevent oxidation of a nickel-titanium alloy during the high-temperature annealing step, an inert atmosphere was required within a quartz tube furnace through which the wire would continuously pass. Though tube furnaces are readily available, custom purge/sealing devices were needed to control the furnace atmosphere and minimize gas losses yet tailored to the scale and geometry of the furnace.

Solution

•  developed an approach for the end-mounted furnace purge-seals
•  created a 2-D CAD model of the proposed hardware
•  presented the approach, then CAD modeled the components
•  obtained quotations and identified vendors to machine and build the stations

Services/Skills

•  3-D CAD modeling
•  Mechanical Engineering
•  Mechanical Design

Results

The design of this device was delivered along with a cost basis and manufacturing recommendations which enabled the client to proceed with manufacturing expansion plan.