Furnaces are used across industries to create strong and reliable metal components. Although their exact design and specifications depend on the details of the application, all furnaces reach sufficiently high temperatures to alter the physical and mechanical properties of metal to improve its workability and ultimate performance. S.M. Engineering & Heat Treating specializes in custom heat treatment furnaces, offering design and fabrication options to satisfy the full spectrum of applications. With over 50 years of experience in heat treatment, we can develop an innovative solution for any industrial need.
Custom Furnace Manufacturing From S.M. Engineering & Heat Treating
Whether your application calls for a convenient 9-foot tabletop furnace or a 90-foot floor unit, S.M. Engineering & Heat Treating can create a custom furnace that streamlines your heat treatment processes. As one of the world’s leading furnace manufacturers, we offer multiple furnace types to address common pain points in hardening, brazing, and a wide variety of other heat treating applications.
Our atmosphere-conserving furnaces are crafted with the highest-quality components at our ISO 9001:2015-certified, U.S.-based facility. In addition to using premium and customizable raw materials, we equip every furnace with cutting-edge microprocessors to ensure precise control over heat treatment cycles. This commitment to quality, coupled with our responsive customer service, is why clients have trusted S.M. Engineering & Heat Treating with custom furnace builds and rebuilds since 1958.
Our Capabilities
Our engineering capabilities include furnaces of all sizes suitable for annealing, as well as other common heat treatment techniques, such as:
- Hardening
- Brazing
- Soldering
- Glass sealing
- Enameling
During our free consultations, we work with clients to understand their specific heat treatment needs and develop a design unique to their needs.
Our Industrial Furnace Types
As part of the custom furnace consultation and design process, we help clients identify which type of industrial furnace aligns most closely with their constraints. We design and fabricate custom:
- Conveyor belt furnaces
- Strip quench furnaces
- Pusher batch furnaces
- Batch furnaces
- Retort furnaces
These models are available in all common kW ratings and voltages, with either digital or PLC control mechanisms.
Continuous Conveyor Belt Furnaces
Our custom conveyor belt furnaces are ideal for continuous heat treatment, efficiently moving parts without interruption through brazing, enameling, sealing, and hardening stages. S.M. Engineering & Heat Treating designs continuous conveyor furnaces for parts up to 36 inches in width, with maximum temperatures between 1800°F and 2100°F. Additional options may further optimize efficiency and part quality, such as multi-zone heat treatment, digital belt controls, and automatic nitrogen purge.
By combining annealing with other heat treatment stages, continuous conveyor belt furnaces maximize energy efficiency and streamline your production processes.
Pusher Batch and Quench Batch Furnaces
Pusher batch and quench batch furnaces are ideal for manufacturers with lower part volumes, or those who need to process several types of products separately. We offer custom pusher batch and pusher quench batch furnaces for continuous indexing of parts up to 24 inches in width. Additional options include nichrome 80/20, wire and ribbon, or silicon carbide glow heating elements, with maximum temperatures of 1800°F to 2100°F.
Our pusher and quench batch annealing furnaces feature precise, customizable controls to ensure reliable results across batches.
Strip Quench and Multiple Tube Strip Furnaces
Our multiple tube furnaces are designed for wire and strip annealing of parts as small as 0.002 inches thick. These custom furnaces feature gas or electric heat sources, with options for multiple treatment zones and high-limit temperature controls for optimal efficiency. An optional PC interface enables computerized communication for easy monitoring.
Custom multiple tube strip furnaces are ideal for clients in the electronics and jewelry industries, as well as anyone who routinely treats narrow pieces of metal. These clients benefit from the precision and efficiency offered by S.M. Engineering & Heat Treating’s custom annealing furnaces.
Industries Served
We’ve provided innovative and responsive engineering assistance to clients in multiple industries for over five decades. However, we are proud to offer custom-tailored solutions to any client who works with annealing or heat treatment processes. Some of the sectors that benefit from our furnaces include:
- Electronics. Our industrial furnaces offer a controlled environment for heat treating moisture-sensitive electronic parts.
- Jewelry. Jewelry manufacturers benefit from our flexible furnace configuration options, which make it easy to anneal a broader range of steels and precious metals.
- Automotive. Automotive industry clients demand hard and corrosion-resistant components with the ductility to resist cracking. Our custom heating treatment furnaces help vehicle manufacturers achieve these qualities for large and small components of any material.
- Medical. Annealing improves the chemical and physical properties of medical components, reducing the likelihood of dangerous component failures.
- Munitions. Our custom annealing furnaces enable continuous or batch heat treatment of casings, fasteners, powdered metals, and similar munitions staples.
- Aircraft and aerospace. Aerospace clients come to S.M. Engineering & Heat Treating with some of the most demanding component specifications. Our custom industrial furnaces offer ultimate reliability when annealing precision parts for aircraft and other aerospace applications.
- Wire. Annealing is a key step in wire manufacturing, as it renders the metal more ductile and formable. Our strip quench and multiple tube strip quench furnaces help clients process metal as thin as 0.002″ to improve wire performance easily and rapidly.
- Tubing manufacturers. Annealing ensures that pneumatic, hydraulic, and material transfer tubing is strong, hard, and durable. Our industrial annealing furnaces are a cost-effective option for heat treating high volumes of finished tubes.
If you have questions about the suitability of our furnace solutions for your industrial application, our engineering team would be happy to discuss your needs during a free annealing consultation.
Contact Us for Custom Industrial Furnace Manufacturing Solutions
At S.M. Engineering & Heat Treating, we’ve spent more than 50 years offering custom heat treatment services and equipment, and we remain an industry leader in both areas. Our catalog includes a range of furnace designs, and every furnace can be modified to meet a diverse range of industrial requirements. Whatever your process or raw materials, we can create the ideal batch furnace, strip furnace, or conveyor belt furnace for your needs.
We manufacture all of our custom equipment in the United States, shipping worldwide from our heat treatment facility in Massachusetts. Our U.S.-based engineers leverage innovative techniques to minimize cost and lead times for our clients, no matter where they are in the world. From the time of your free consultation, we can design, engineer, and fabricate a custom furnace in as little as 12-18 weeks.
As a leading industrial furnace manufacturer, we are committed to delivering affordable custom solutions while maintaining our stringent quality standards. To see how a custom industrial annealing furnace from S.M. Engineering & Heat Treating can benefit your operation, please contact us today.