Pellet is a fairly recent invention. They are small pieces of compressed material that can be composed of different substances. Wood pellets are well known, used as fuel for heating, but also animal feed pellet has been produced for many years, and pellet of other materials, such as plastic.
But how to produce cylinders of pellets? Thanks to the pellet mills, which are hydraulic or mechanical operating machines composed of a material fuel injection system and a press. Raw materials are pressed through a matrix and pellets is obtained by extrusion. Apparently it is a simple operation, but several variables come into play. First of all, the quality and the characteristics of the material to pellet and, second even more important, the choice of the matrices.
Matrices (or extruders) are part of the pellet mill, which wears faster. Now these components can no longer avoid the hardening of steel under vacuum, and this heat treatment allows in fact a longer lifetime of the part, making it harder, not only on the surface. Another extremely important aspect is the control (or containment) of deformation during the heat treatment, which reduces the processing time subsequent to this stage, with lower production costs of the matrices. In addition, better temperature uniformity provides consistent results in terms of hardness and therefore resulting in greater reliability in the use of the die. This is especially true for machines that operate at very high speeds more susceptible to overheating and wear.
HT Solutions produces a range of specially designed vacuum furnaces for heat treatment of these elements, in order to make the dies more robust and accurate. Vacuum technology allows in fact a higher quality of processing and makes the final pieces cleaner but it is necessary that the parameters of uniformity during heating and cooling of the treated parts are accurate and calibrated.
HTS pays attention to the customer and allows customization of the furnaces according to different treatment needs required for each product type.
