Two months ago, with bated breath we followed the Axiom 4 space mission, which saw the first Polish person in space in decades—Sławosz Uznański. It’s worth noting that the SECO/WARWICK Group headquarters, a global leader in heat treatment and vacuum metallurgy technologies, are located in Poland. This is where the solutions that form the foundation for producing components used in space missions are created.
In particular, this refers to technologies for melting and refining titanium alloys, which are crucial in the production of rocket, satellite and spacecraft components. SECO/WARWICK supplied the innovative VAR arc furnaces and PAM plasma furnaces that carry out titanium melting in vacuum conditions to the EcoTitanium plant in Europe. It is these devices that make it possible to achieve materials of the highest purity and uniformity—essential for the extreme conditions of space.
“First of all, I would like to congratulate Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski on this successful mission. SECO/WARWICK, together with other Polish companies involved in the space industry, is proud of this groundbreaking accomplishment,” said Sławomir Woźniak, CEO of the SECO/WARWICK Group.
SECO/WARWICK is involved in one of the most ambitious scientific projects of the 21st century—ITER, the international thermonuclear reactor. The company worked with the American corporation General Atomics in producing the world’s largest superconducting magnet—the Central Solenoid—which will be the heart of the reactor. Although this technology is related to energy, it has a direct impact on the development of propulsion and energy systems for future space missions.
The international ITER research project is compared, in terms of scale, to the construction of the International Space Station. The assembly of the large research thermonuclear reactor, which is expected to allow for, among other things, sustaining fusion reactions for much longer than known generators, began in the middle of last year.
The Aerospace Industry is open to SECO/WARWICK technology
For years, the SECO/WARWICK Group has supported giants of the aerospace and space industries. Three years ago, it supplied a SECO/WARWICK horizontal vacuum furnace to a Chinese aeronautical company listed on the Shenzhen stock exchange. The device is used for producing highly specialized cast components for the aviation and space industries.
“The aerospace and space industries have very strict requirements. The quality standards for parts used, for example, in spacecraft orbiting the Earth are extreme. Our furnaces, made according to Polish technological thought, guarantee such quality. Hence the significant presence of SECO/WARWICK in this sector. Of course, we cannot talk publicly about all projects, but we are always pleased that SECO/WARWICK contributes a Polish element to the conquest of space,” commented Katarzyna Sawka, Vice President of Marketing at SECO/WARWICK Group.
In another project, SECO/WARWICK delivered a vertical retort vacuum furnace to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, which is used for high-vacuum annealing of structural elements of gyrotrons.
The Institute conducts research and measurements on gyrotron prototypes. Gyrotrons are devices used in fusion processes to heat plasma. The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, among other activities, is developing gyrotron technology in cooperation with European industry, and has also conducted research on gyrotrons for national and international scientific projects (e.g., ITER).
“Our technologies are present wherever reliability, precision, and safety matter—from the aviation to the space industry. We are pleased to support the global ambitions of space exploration,” says S. Woźniak, President of the SECO/WARWICK Group.
