Performance Benefits
Heat treatment thermal loop solutions offer several advantages over traditional heat treatment methods, including improved temperature control and increased efficiency. The thermal loop system provides precise temperature control, enabling faster heating and cooling and optimized soak times. In addition, the complete design of modern thermal loop solutions includes energy-efficient heating and overall ease of use.
Heat treatment thermal loop solutions are integrated with Industry 4.0 frameworks and data management systems to provide real-time information on performance. Combining artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms can also provide additional performance benefits, such as the ability to analyze data and identify patterns for further optimization. Ongoing performance losses in a heat treatment system typically come from process drifts. Industry 4.0 solutions can explore these drifts and provide opportunities to minimize these deviations.
Heat treatment thermal loop solutions can be optimized using failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA). FMEA is a proactive approach to identifying potential failure modes and their effects, allowing organizations to minimize the risk of process disruptions and improve the overall efficiency of their heat treatment processes. Historically this was a tabletop exercise conducted once per year with a diverse team from across the organization. Updates to this static document were infrequent and were primarily based on organization memory rather than being automatically populated in real time with actual data. There is a potential to produce ‘live’ FMEAs utilizing today’s technology and leveraging insights for continuous improvement.
The effectiveness of heat treatment thermal loop solutions can be measured using metrics such as overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). OEE combines metrics for availability, performance and quality to provide a comprehensive view of the efficiency of a manufacturing process. By tracking OEE and contextual data, organizations can evaluate the effectiveness of their heat treatment thermal loop solutions and make informed decisions about optimizing their operations.
Download the complete white paper: Thermal Loop Solutions: A Path to Improved Performance, Sustainability and Compliance in Heat Treatment