Oxygen Monitoring is critical in aerospace manufacturing.
In aerospace manufacturing, the smallest details matter. When heat treating critical aerospace components, even minor deviations from specification can have disastrous results. Whether the goal is to enhance the strength of a component or improve its resistance to fatigue failure, the manufacturer needs precise and reliable control of their heat treatment operations.
It was exactly these critical requirements that led a major aerospace company to approach AMI about replacing their poorly performing zirconium oxide sensor-based monitoring systems on their heat treatment furnaces. Their application required purging the furnaces with nitrogen to eliminate the presence of oxygen and prevent contamination of their products during heat treatment. Their current units generally worked for the application, but there were several deficiencies that drove them to find a new analyzer supplier.
Using poorly performing oxygen monitoring results in production downtime.
The biggest problem was the lost production hours, days and even weeks when the oxygen analyzers were offline. The systems team, who is charged with making sure all instrumentation is working correctly, had difficulty diagnosing if the analyzers were working correctly, needed calibration or had some other condition failure. Delays were compounded when the unit had to returned to the factory for repair or calibration. On top of the downtime, the high cost of factory repairs made it imperative that the systems team start searching for an alternate solution.
Critical to the company’s process control requirement was a reliable measurement range of 5 to 50 PPM when the furnaces are fully purged. This requirement aligned very well with the capabilities of AMI’s trace oxygen electrochemical gas analyzers. To better understand AMI’s monitoring solution and our electrochemical sensor technology, representatives from the company visited AMI’s manufacturing facility and observed our production and testing procedures. With the support of AMI’s technical team, the customers settled on AMI’s MODEL 2001RSP for their application.
AMI dominates in head-to-head performance test against the competition.
In addition to AMI, the customer also evaluated an electrochemical O2 analyzer solution from another manufacturer. The definitive trial test for the customer was running our MODEL 2001RSP against their current system as well as the other competitive unit being considered. The results went overwhelmingly in AMI's favor. Here is why:
- MODEL 2001RSP allows rapid calibration by air while still installed on the heat treatment furnace
- AMI Oxygen Sensors are easily to replace with no tools
- COMMAND CENTER Software provided access to monitor Analyzer readings and performance in 'real-time', allowing the customers systems team to quickly identify any problems
- AMI offered an extremely high level of customers support, and service was located in the US
- AMI’s solution offered all the advanced features they needed at an extremely attractive price point
All these key features plus the MODEL 2001RSP's 2001RSP's overall performance stability and ease of use made the decision to go with AMI an easy one. The customer has already replaced the oxygen analyzers on 10 of their heat treatment ovens and will finish the remaining 30 in the coming year.