1. Why do your extrusion dies feel “less and less durable”?

If you run an aluminum extrusion plant in Iraq, you may be seeing some of these symptoms:

• The die is just installed, and the bearing surface soon shows galling, scoring or chipping.

• Within the same batch of dies, some survive a full maintenance cycle while others fail halfway.

• Die changes are getting more frequent, and the line spends more time in “prepare – debug – stop” than in stable production.

Many plants instinctively look at die steel grade, lubrication or operator habits, but overlook a basic link: unstable nitriding process or unsuitable nitriding furnace selection. If the critical working zones are not hardened properly, or the nitrided layer is too brittle in the wrong area, the die will naturally be the first part to fail under high-load production.

2. If you face similar problems, what kind of plant are you?

Before investing in a 60 kW nitriding furnace, it helps to “profile” your own plant:

• How many die sizes and profiles do you run?
  Are you switching between many cross-sections and multiple die steel grades?

• How stable is your order pattern?
  Mostly long-run high-volume, or frequently changing small lots and many batches?

• How is heat treatment handled today?
  Fully outsourced? A small in-house furnace? Any real process records?

• What is the dominant failure mode of your dies?
  Fast wear and scoring, severe chipping, or gradual fatigue cracking and collapse?

If you have almost no data on “heat treatment process parameters” and “die failure statistics”, it likely means your die nitriding step has long been treated as a black box, and the furnace choice simply reinforces this uncertainty.

3. In Iraq, how do you choose a 60 kW nitriding furnace that really works?

A 60 kW nitriding furnace that truly helps extend die life must be evaluated on more than just “maximum temperature”. At minimum, you should look at:

1. Furnace chamber size and loading pattern

   • With 60 kW power, a medium-sized chamber (typical for extrusion dies) usually gives a good balance between load size and heating speed.

   • If the chamber is too small, you end up running “one or two dies per batch” with frequent start-ups and poor energy efficiency.

   • If it is oversized, you may suffer slow heating and high idle power consumption.

2. Process curve and recipe management capability

   • Does the furnace support multi-step heating, soaking and cooling programs?

   • Can you build fixed nitriding recipes for different die steels so dies of the same family behave similarly from batch to batch?

3. Nitriding potential and temperature uniformity

   • Temperature distribution and nitriding potential control accuracy determine whether you can consistently reproduce nitrided case depth and hardness.

   • If this part is weak, even a 60 kW rating just means you “heat the dies up”, without truly improving their life.

4. Power grid compatibility and maintainability

   • In some regions of Iraq, voltage fluctuation is significant, so electrical protection and locally available spare parts are important.

   • A design that is easy to inspect and calibrate will be far more stable after years of operation.

When comparing suppliers, write these points down and ask them one by one, instead of starting with price. Vendors like Wuxi Wondery Industry Equipment, who have long experience in heat treatment equipment, can usually provide both furnace specifications and basic process guidance, which reduces your early trial-and-error cost.

4. After installing a 60 kW nitriding furnace, what changes should you realistically expect?

With proper selection and process tuning, a 60 kW nitriding furnace typically brings several visible improvements:

• Longer die service life in production
  For the same die families, the extrusion tonnage per major maintenance cycle increases, while early failures drop significantly.

• Fewer unplanned stops on the extrusion line
  Die-change rhythm becomes more regular; emergency stoppages caused by “sudden die problems” are reduced.

• More orderly die inventory
  Die life becomes more predictable. You have a clearer view of which dies are core tools and which are close to retirement, making stock structure healthier.

• More stable profile surface quality
  Defects linked to die condition, such as galling, scoring and edge breaking, become less frequent, especially under high-load order schedules.

Ultimately, these improvements translate into lower die cost per ton and more usable capacity on your extrusion lines.

5. What small steps can you take before you actually buy a furnace?

Before you commit to a 60 kW nitriding furnace, you can start with a few low-cost but high-value actions:

1. Compile 3–6 months of die failure records
   Note die type, failure mode (wear/chipping/cracking) and approximate extrusion tonnage.

2. Summarize main die steel grades and size ranges
   Put them into a simple table. This will be one of the most important inputs when talking with furnace suppliers.

3. Evaluate the “uncertainty” of your current heat treatment
   For example: Do you use one or multiple subcontractors? Do they provide real process reports? Are batch-to-batch results clearly different?

With this preparation, you can approach suppliers and better judge whether their 60 kW nitriding furnace proposal is aimed at solving your die-life problem, or simply selling you a piece of equipment.