Solar Atmospheres’ furnace donation to advance AM at Lehigh University
Solar Atmospheres, a commercial heat treating company headquartered in Souderton, Pennsylvania, USA, reports that in conjunction with the Souderton-based William and Myrtle Jones Foundation, it has donated and installed a laboratory furnace at Lehigh University’s Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA.
According to the company, the furnace, called The Mentor®, was designed and built by Solar Manufacturing, an affiliated company of Solar Atmospheres. The furnace is equipped with a SolarVac® Polaris control system, a hot zone with the capacity to hold up to 113.4 kg (250 lbs) and a maximum temperature of 1537°C (2800°F). It was installed at Lehigh University’s Whitaker Lab, along with the Solar-built transformer and water cooling system specifically designed for the installation.
Wojciech Misiolek, Professor and Chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University, stated, “This is a very powerful, advanced piece of equipment that will allow us to conduct important experiments in our metallurgy teaching and research, especially around Additive Manufacturing.”
“The need for a pre-production size vacuum furnace for heat-treating of additive manufactured printed parts and other metallurgical heat treating became apparent for Lehigh University and their teaching and experimental research,” commented William R Jones, Solar Atmospheres’ founder and CEO. “As a result, Solar Atmospheres, Inc. has donated a Mentor vacuum furnace to Lehigh University.”
