Replacement of old pit furnaces ZEZ Praha by LPC from ECM Technologies

ZEZ Praha, when I look back, was a very successful company. Not only did it know how to make any furnace, but it also significantly contributed to the creation of the now almost forgotten plasma nitriding ZEZ, the two-chamber vacuum furnace with oil quenching RDVA, or even PVD with TiN deposition using planar magnetrons DAM 300.

However, everything comes to an end, and so the glory of this company is slowly fading from our memory. Only relics remain. One of them is many pit furnaces, intended primarily for carburizing. What to do with them? Can they be refurbished or do they have to be replaced?

ECM Technologies brings an idea worth considering. Its ICBP Vertical device, with various dimensions, offers a full replacement for shaft furnaces for oil hardening, including carburizing and carbonitriding. Typical dimensions of the working space are dia 600 mm, height 1,100 mm, charge weight 700 kg.

This is a vacuum 3-chamber furnace in a vertical design. In the upper part there is a heating chamber with the possibility of carburizing (LPC) or carbonitriding (LPCN), with a vacuum-tight bottom door, in the middle there is a transport chamber for loading and unloading the charge, again vacuum-able, and in the lower part there is an oil bath with a volume of approximately 5 m3 of oil and with the possibility of up to 0.8 bar of nitrogen above the bath.

This lower chamber with an oil bath also includes an elevator that can introduce the charge into the heating chamber, back into the transport chamber, and into the oil. The whole thing is dimensioned so that it fits into the existing pit shaft of the furnaces ZEZ Prague.

And since the remaining part of the quenching, washing, tempering does not need to be replaced immediately, we can start with the fact that the main process will be carried out in a new, ecological and economical device, and the other washing or tempering operations will remain in their current form. The replacement of such a heat treatment plant can then be carried out in stages, with the shaft washing machines and shaft tempering and annealing furnaces also being replaced in the future.

If you are interested in an offer, do not hesitate to contact me.

Jiří Stanislav

February  25,  2025