The UK’s oldest manufacturer of specialty wires, Webster & Horsfall, has replaced a gas furnace with an electrically heated furnace from Meltech Engineering, to cut energy costs and reduce the company’s carbon footprint. The Meltech MT1100 is used for strand annealing Webster & Horsfall’s range of Austinitic and Super Duplex stainless steel wires. The MT1100 is being used to strand anneal stainless steel wires from 0.7mm – 4mm at 1100OC. It is designed on the Meltech “low thermal mass” principle and features multi-zone temperature control. Customisation of element design allows optimisation of the MT1100’s performance to fine tune temperature zoning and increased element operational life. In addition, the MT1100 uses advanced ceramic and insulation materials to give 90% thermal efficiency, leading to more consistent and manageable heating across the length of the furnace and reduced furnace heating running cost.
