Recognizing the unique properties of Tenaxol quenchants, this commercial heat treater is keeping a lot of aluminum from getting bent out of shape.

    In heat treating's "good 'oi days" you could spend a lot of time looking for a furnace designed around a quenchant. Since the advent of polymer quenchants from Tenaxol, however, more and more furnaces are being expressly designed to take advantage of these unique nonflammable materials.
    In the case of Ticorm, Inc., a commercial heat treating company located in the Los Angeles suburb of Gardena, you could go a step further and come awfully close to finding a whole company designed around a quenchant.
    That's stretching things a bit. The fact remains that this three-year-old firm, with roughly 75 years of heat treating experience among its three principals, has a marketing and production thrust that would be difficult, if not impossible, without polymer quenching capability.
    Owned and managed by Bill Corcoran, Dick Otto and Bill Ruffner, all familiar names on the southern California heat treat scene, Ticorm is situated in two buildings on two acres of land with some 18,000 sq. ft. under roof, and specializes in aluminum and titanium heat treating.
    Its almost 20 employees process a workload comprised roughly of 60 percent commercial aircraft and 35 percent military, with the remainder being miscellaneous commercial business.
    The firm works with all heat treatable aluminum alloys, mostly 7000 series materials, in extruded, cast or forged forms, and offers the full range of aluminum heat treatments.

Ticorm's new gantry furnace has a heat chamber 15' high by 10' diameter. A 16,000 gallon quench tank holds polymer quenchant from Tenaxol or hot or cold water.

    Major production equipment includes a pair of 8' x 8' x 30' gas fired radiant tube units with 450°F and 950° maximum operating temperatures, plus a high temperature carbottom furnace, also gas-fired, for stress relieving and aging titanium.
    Where Ticorm expects to make its mark, however, is with a couple of special furnaces, and that's where Tenaxol's polymer quenchants come into the picture.
    What Messrs Corcoran, Otto and Ruffner have learned in their combined decades of experience, is that proper heat treat consultation, procedures and equipment can significantly reduce their customers' materials usage and manufacturing costs.
    What they are doing, is talking to their customers and prospects about heat treating before the final stamp is placed on manufacturing sequence and parts specification.
    In the words of Bill Corcoran, Ticorm president, the firm has found that the costs involved in traditional aluminum component manufacturing can be significantly reduced.
    "One of the major factors in aluminum parts manufacture," he says, "is distortion. In fact, distortion is so common that historically it has been accepted as a necessary evil. Parts designers simply designed around it. They allowed enough material for rough machining, for distortion during heat treating following rough machining, and many times for distortion during finish machining."
    As an example, adds Bill Ruffner, one aircraft manufacturer was scrapping fully 50 percent of an engine mounting component. "It was a forging," says Ruffner, "bought in heat treated condition from the mill. It measured about 20 feet long by a foot and a half wide with an average three-quarter inch cross section. It was 7075 material in a T7352 condition. The part had some thinner sections, and these distorted so badly during manufacture that fully 50 percent of the parts had to be scrapped."

    According to Dick Otto, third member of the Ticorm triumvirate, "we recommended taking the part closer to finish dimensions and using a glycol (Tenaxol's polyalkylene glycol) quench. We recommended a T411 temper and allowance of 0.050" excess material for final machining. It worked. Scrappage was practically eliminated."
    Ticorm feels strongly that if they can be brought in to aluminum component design early in the game, they can be of maximum assistance, not only in reducing manufacturing costs but in optimizing the quality of the finished part.

Photo above shows a Ticorm production furnace for heat treating aluminum. The firm has two such units 8' x 8' x 30' long. All heating equipment is gas fired.

Exterior view shows one of two Ticorm buildings. The company has 18,000 sq. ft. under roof on two acres in Gardena, California, and employs nearly 20 people.

The gantry furnace quench tank connects to three 16,000 gallon tanks holding polymer quenchant from Tenaxol, hot, cold water. Switch takes 32 minutes.

    As Otto says, "a glycol quench has characteristics tending to reduce residual stress levels through its more uniform heat extraction rate. Thermal shock is much less and therefore machining is less likely to cause further distortion."
    Key to Ticorm's approach is a new gantry furnace with work chamber 15 feet high by 10 feet in diameter utilizing a 16,000 gallon quench tank. Designed especially for intricate thin-skinned aluminum components, the unit will also be used for other semi-finished and finish machined aircraft components.
    It is tied in with three 16,000 gallon quenchant storage tanks outside the building, one containing cold water, one hot water, and the third an 18 percent to 22 percent solution of Ucon* A, a very fast polyalkylene glycol quench supplied by Tenaxol.
    The hot water quench is usually maintained between 140°F and 160°F and can be heated -- taken to boiling when needed -- in the storage tank. Pumps used to agitate the quench are also used to transfer quenchant to and from the storage tanks, and can empty and refill the quench tank in 32 minutes. The furnace was quickly approved by one of the country's major airframe manufacturers with other approvals following shortly.
    Next on Ticorm's equipment agenda is a new horizontal drop bottom furnace six feet in width and height and 24 feet long, also employing multiple quench capability, and designed for the shortest possible travel time between the heat chamber and the quench tank.
    On balance, Ticorm has structured itself to help solve a major and longstanding distortion problem among aluminum component manufacturers by taking advantage of the unique quenching characteristics of polymer quenchants from Tenaxol.
    "We're looking to help two types of people," Bill Corcoran says, "those in the process of designing aluminum parts, and those who are suffering from distortion-caused scrappage in parts already designed."
    "We'll work off prints, telephone consultation or personal visits," Otto declares."
    "And you might mention," adds Bill Ruffner, "that our phone number is 213-532-0419."
    Tenaxol's number, not so coincidentally, is 414-476-1400. When it comes to quenching, as Messrs Corcoran, Otto and Ruffner will attest, that's also a very good number to know.

*Ucon is a trademark of Union Carbide Corp.