Service and support

Heat Treat Radio #99: 365° Look at Troubleshooting Vacuum Furnace Maintenance Issues

The following transcript has been edited for your reading enjoyment.

Doug Glenn: With us today is Don Marteeny. Don is from SECO/VACUUM Technologies LLC and is the VP of engineering. Don has a lot of experience in this industry, so his input will be valuable.

Also with us is Caleb Johnson who is the field service manager, also for SECO/VACUUM Technologies.

Gentlemen, we appreciate you joining us.

We’re just going to jump right in. We’re talking about top vacuum furnace maintenance concerns.

Trouble Reaching Vacuum Levels (01:35)

Doug Glenn: Probably the most dire concerns is: “Dang it, I can’t get this doggone vacuum furnace down to the vacuum levels that I want.” Where do we go? What do we do?

Caleb Johnson: Yes, that is probably one of the more critical problems on a vacuum furnace. There are a lot of issues that would stem from that.

One of the first checks I would ask to look at is the vacuum gauge itself. Does the trending look okay? Do we think the gauge is still functioning properly? What does your scaling look like? Since those are electronic items, they do have a life on them. It’s an easy one to rule out, right off the bat.

The next place to check would be your vacuum pumps. Are they functioning okay? Has the oil been changed recently? Is the pump still working well? Just going through some of the basic checks like this can tell us how the furnace is doing.

To listen to the entire interview, click here.



Note: This is a Heat Treat Radio episode and can be read, listened to, or watched at www.heattreattoday.com/radio.