The Deltech furnace used to fire a CMC (Ceramic Matrix Composite) nozzle designed by Boeing and built by ATK affiliate COI Ceramics has an interesting history. It started out as the largest furnace Deltech had ever built: a custom top hat model furnace featuring a 10 foot in diameter x 3 foot high workspace. It was purchased by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for use by ATK in making the lens for the JPL’s F.I.R.S.T project. Since its installation at COI in 2001, it was used for this and numerous other projects. Then in 2011, ATK contracted Deltech to reconfigure the furnace into a front load model with a 7.3 foot in diameter x 8.5 foot high workspace. The reconfigured furnace features 12 independently controlled zones and sophisticated HMI (Human Machine Interface) features.
