ALD-TT Ramos Arizpe, Mexico. ALD Thermal Treatment recently had the grand opening of the newest commercial heat treating facility, this one located in Ramos Arizpe, Mexico. Bill Gornicki of ALD-Holcroft (new vacuum carburizing systems) was able to provide us with some comments and some photos. September 8/08

“What a show! The two day event opened with plant tours for all the attendees. Along with music and native Mexican style dancers for entertainment. The ribbon cutting ceremony was attended by (from left to right) Eduardo Anzaldua, President and CEO of ALD-TT Mexico, Luis Cuerda, the Sub-Secretary of Economic Support for the state of Coahuila and the President of the city of Ramos Arizpe, Ricardo Aguirre. ALD Chairman and CEO Walter Reinhard (far right on the ribbon cutting line) offered kind words and praise to the ALD-TT team and all those in attendance in a well received trilingual speech. Day one ended with dinner, drinks and a rather unique Rodeo complete with audience participation…. (Don’t ask).

Day two offered a series of technical presentations on various aspects of metallurgy, vacuum carburizing and high pressure gas quenching. A very informative day.

This top notch event was enjoyed by all and marks an official opening of another high production LPC facility. Currently, two, 6 chamber ModulTherm systems are in production and expected to be at full capacity by January 2009. Installation has begun on the third and fourth 6 chamber ModulTherm systems. The third will be at full capacity in the first half of 2009. The fourth ModulTherm will follow soon there-after. The facility processes GM transmission components for the X22 and X25 platforms used in Ramos, Mexico and for the X33 platform used in San Louis Potosi, Mexico.”

Used Equipment Available. A Williams Temper Furnace has just been added to our draw temper page.  Two additional items added to our impressive list of used heat treating equipment. A CI Hayes Continuous 2 Bar Vacuum Furnace and a Surface 5600 CFH Endo Generator.  We have a good condition Holcroft Mesh Belt Temper Furnace located in Eastern Europe.  Effective very recently three items on the site have new very attractive asking prices. A CI Hayes Temper 24" x 36" x 24" is now $9,000 which is an excellent price for a unit in this good of shape. An excellent condition Vac Aero Vacuum unit is now $35,000 and an immaculate CI Hayes Vacuum Oil Quench is now $49,000.We now have an asking price for a good condition Wellman 6 Bar Bottom Loading Vacuum Furnace and the vendor will consider terms which is quite unusual in this industry. The owner of a Surface Combustion 1 Bar Vacuum Furnace will now consider any reasonable offer, although in our opinion this is already very well priced We have seven good condition Pyradia Draw Ovens and two Aluminum pusher Furnaces that have just been added to the site.   On our continuous page we have listed a very nice 7,000 pound/hour Cast Link Belt Line. If you are in the market for one the price has been drastically reduced. Carbottoms are relatively hard to find but we now have two more to offer on our Batch Page. A 1996 C.I. Hayes Hydrogen Mesh Belt Furnace and a Despatch 500F Walk-in Oven are reasonably new additions.  An exciting offer based upon the enormous amount of demand for pit furnaces are two very large, excellent condition pit tempering furnaces.   September 8/08

Applied Thermal Technologies/Warsaw, Indiana, USA. One area that is doing well these days that we have neglected to mention is the medical industry, which sees a number of the large manufacturers centred in Indiana. If the manufacturers are busy you know darn well the local commercial heat treaters are seeing this also-such is the case with Applied Thermal Technologies a good sized commercial shop. While currently they have 12,000 square feet they are as we speak putting in the footings for a 9600 square foot addition. Very impressive for a company which was formed in 1992 and now has 7 vacuum furnaces with possibly others on the way. Applied has seen a steady increase in business over the years, primarily from the aerospace and medical industries. September 8/08

Business Opportunities. We have a Heat Treating QA Manager with over 20 years of work experience and is willing to relocate.  We have an immediate opening for a Senior Vacuum Project Engineer.  We have two new positions available the first is a Mechanical Engineer with Premier Furnace Specialists and the second a Sales Rep for Solar Manufacturing. How about a captive heat treater in the Chicago area that has Annealing Capacity Available. It might work out very well for another manufacturer with medium quantities to anneal. Another opportunity? how about this one? Business and Applications Manager/Wesgo Metals. While we never planned on becoming a site for the latest positions available in the heat treating industry it would appear to be happening as we are adding 4-5 new positions available per week. A Brazing Products Manager is needed for a company located in Northern Detroit.  Boy do we have positions open these days, just today we added another 3 very attractive job postings. For today we have added business opportunities including a Regional Sales Manager position with ABM Induction, a Product Sales Manager for a company located on the west coast and a large heat treat facility in New England looking for a Quality Control Manager. Ipsen needs a Technical Manager interested in developing market-changing technologies NADCAP is looking for Aerospace Experienced Consultant Auditors for their heat treating program.  Phoenix Heat Treating Inc is looking for Sales/Marketing Individual.  Thermal Processing located in Clintonville, WI is looking for a Business Unit Manager.  Experienced Fastener Professional Engineer with 35 years of experience is looking for employment.  Klein Tools is looking for a Heat Treating Supervisor with at least 5 years of experience.  A commercial metal heat-treating company located at Pomona, California is looking for an Maintenance Engineer.  September 8/08

Pete Jenkins/JL Becker Company. It is with deep sorrow that we announce the sad news that Pete Jenkins, a long time employee of the J. L. Becker Company, passed away last friday, August 29th, from complications due to surgery. Funeral services will be in Charlotte, North Carolina on Thursday September 4th. Mr. Jenkins was a sales representative for the J. L. Becker Co. for the Southern United States prior to his retirement last year. His association with the company goes back nearly 40 years. Respectfully yours, Bill Van Etten, J L Becker Co. September 8/08

Carburizing of Windmill Gears. One of the brightest spots for captive and commercial heat treating these days is heat treating of gears for the booming wind energy industry. The sheer size of these gears (we now routinely get inquires about heat treating of gears up to 6’ in diameter and on occasion up to 10’ diameter) appears to have caught most heat treaters off guard with a “scramble” these days to find furnaces that can handle parts this size. So how the heck do you heat treat a part this size? Traditionally they (and pretty well all large gears for that matter) have been heat treated in pit carburizing furnaces, a proven long standing technology. We were fortunate enough to receive from Udo Brenner, Managing Director of “Aichelin Heat Treatment Systems Inc. USA” some well thought out comments about why you would use pit furnaces to heat treat larges gears (Aichelin is one of the largest builders of new furnaces in the world and has a great deal of experience with pit furnaces). September 5/08  

“High efforts were made during the last 20 years to improve both the process technology and the furnace design of pit furnaces. Pit furnaces have become indispensable in the windmill business for the carburizing of large gears. Demands to increase gear diameters to more than 60” and load weights above 50,000 lbs. makes this type of furnace the most beneficial and competitive. Pit furnaces, specially equipped with a retort and inner guiding cylinder, are proven heat treatment furnaces. Accordingly, they are utilized in many heat treatment facilities for windmills, worldwide.

The pit furnace offers other benefits in addition to higher total load weights and bigger gear diameters. As no transfer mechanism is required inside the pit furnace, maintenance is greatly reduced. The alloy retort allows a potentially faster carbon increase due to reduced brick surface. This also provides for a reduction of moisture content as can be found in bricked furnaces. The furnace retort is easily replaced, and does not require as long of a shut down as to replace the furnace bricks. An inner guiding cylinder improves the flow guidance of the process gas and also improves control and uniformity of the temperature profile. The lifetime of the bricks and heating elements are therefore extended.”

As is always the case there is not 100% agreement on this issue. For instance Bill Disler, Vice President Sales and Technology at “AFC-Holcroft” in Michigan believes that batch IQ furnaces are the way to go as you can see from his comments below: (AFC-Holcroft is probably the largest new furnace builder in North America and has very extensive experience in most types of furnaces including batch IQ’s).

"The heat treat activity in the Wind Energy market has become very exciting. It is clear that not only has demand exceeded supply for the time being, but I believe that the demand for improved quality of these very large parts has exceeded, or is at least being limited by the capability of conventional equipment. Conventional equipment, such as pit furnace systems, have distinct limitations and inherent drawbacks, however they are often considered the only sound method available to carburize and quench such large parts economically. We believe that the quality requirements and raw size of the components in this market segment require significant changes in the conventional thinking so that heat treat equipment manufacturers can more efficiently address the challenges our customers are dealing with. The introduction of new equipment concepts can address the demand for improved gear performance and economical processing. This can be our contribution to continue helping windmill manufactures to grow in the global field of alternative energy. This has been one of AFC-Holcroft's focuses and I am excited about our new developments."

When considering which is the better way to go it is important to note that Batch Integral Quench furnaces have changed substantially over the years in terms of capacity. A few short years ago a very large batch IQ furnace had working dimensions of 36” X 72” X 36” with a weight capacity of 6,000 pounds. A large furnace by anybodies standards but plainly not large enough for the largest windmill gears. This has changed with Batch IQ’s in operation with working dimensions of roughly 6’ cubed with plans in the works for even larger. So what you have at the end of the day is a long term solution in the form of pit carburizing furnaces with an alternative now in the shape of batch IQ’s. Each has advantages and each has a proven track record. Time will tell what the market decides.

Mercer Technologies. Mercer is a long standing furnace rebuilder in the US and the press release below talks about a recent addition to their operations. Also you will note the reference to their “Green Vacuum” series of furnaces. It was only a matter of time until “green” came to the heat treating industry. September 4/08

“Mercer Technologies, Inc. has again increased its facilities by 12,000 sq ft. The new warehouse was built to accommodate 20 plus vacuum furnace systems that it has in stock for Mercer Tech’s GV series. GV represents our GREEN VACUUM series of furnaces. They incorporate remanufactured components where applicable, and new components where required. This offers the user a quality, state of the art vacuum furnace system for less investment.

By offering its customers remanufactured alternatives to newly built furnaces, Mercer Technologies saves enough energy to continually power 50 average American homes.

In addition, Mercer Tech’s continuing demand for hot zone designs required enlarging the department. The expansion is due to the patent pending heating element support and insulation retention system. The increased demand is due to the easy replacement and low cost maintenance of the design.

During this growth cycle, Mercer Tech continues to provide quality sales and service for the heat treating industry including trouble shooting, helium leak detection, relocation and retrofitting.”

Kaiser Aluminum/Seco Warwick. Seco is a firm believer in very detailed press releases so there is nothing we can add to this one. September 4/08

Kaiser Aluminum Newark Works has purchased a traveling log homogenizing furnace for their plant in Heath, Ohio. The system will process 2x/6x/7x alloy aluminum logs of diameters typically ranging from 6 to 29 inches (152 to 727 mm). The furnace will be equipped with SECO/WARWICK's patented adjustable airflow baffling system to control airflow distribution throughout the load and improve temperature uniformity.

PATENTED MOVABLE BAFFLES

SECO/WARWICK will provide the patented movable baffle design or small load height system. This patented design will increase furnace performance, when less than the maximum size loads are processed. The baffle position will be adjustable according to the load height to effectively block any open space above the actual load being processed. The blocking action forces the recirculated air to pass through the openings between the layers of logs rather than taking the path of least resistance over the top layer of logs. The blocking results in a higher airstream velocity through the logs, which creates faster heat transfer and improved load temperature uniformity.

How It Works

One side of the stainless steel baffle is connected to the stationary horizontal baffle through a hinge arrangement. The other side of the baffle is connected through a linkage arrangement to a roof mounted electric screwjack. Each screwjack includes limit switches to sense full up and full down positions. In operation, the baffle will be automatically located, after the furnace is in position and the cycle recipe is selected. The baffle should be lowered until its bottom edge is approximately 1" above the top layer of logs. Since the baffle linkage includes a flexible connection, it is nearly impossible to damage the load by lowering the baffle too far. A limit switch will be interlocked with baffle position such that the baffle must be raised to its full up position after the completion of a cycle and before the furnace can be moved. SECO/WARWICK has been utilizing the movable baffle design since 1984.

Traveling Furnace Advantages

Limited plant floor space - The utilization of Traveling furnace provides twice the loading area in half the floor space, since the furnace moves from one loading area laterally to the second loading area.

Loading and unloading consideration- The Traveling furnace load base is at floor level and the load base can be loaded or stacked with a fork truck. Fork trucks can be used because overhead cranes are not needed. The potential of a billet rolling off an above floor level load car is reduced. The loading and unloading of the billet bases is accomplished in less time. Placing thermocouples in the load is made easier since the load is at floor level.

Energy Savings - With the conventional car bottom type of furnaces, the load car is removed from the furnace, unloaded and then reloaded, and is then driven back into the furnace. During this time, the furnace interior can lose a significant amount of heat, so to bring the furnace back up to temperature will take additional time and heat input.

Cycle Time Reduction - When the new Traveling furnace has completed the cycle, the furnace doors open and the furnace travels from one loading base to the next. The first base can be cooled, and then re-loaded while the other load is under heat. The result is a faster load changeover with reduced heat loss from the furnace. Once the furnace has moved into position on the adjacent load base, the heating cycle begins. With the Traveling furnace design, a reduction in overall cycle time can be accomplished, compared with car furnace designs.

About Kaiser Aluminum

Kaiser Aluminum is a leading producer of fabricated aluminum products for aerospace and high strength, general engineering, automotive, and custom industrial applications. Repeatedly acknowledged as "Best in Class" among its global customer base, Kaiser Aluminum's 11 fabrication plants typically produce and ship more than 500 million pounds of product annually. Visit www.kaiseraluminum.com.

SECO/WARWICK Worldwide manufactures industrial heat processing equipment including heat treat furnaces, vacuum furnace technology, atmosphere generators and aluminum reverb melting and holding systems. SECO/WARWICK provides heat treating equipment and services worldwide for customers involved with primary aluminum, aluminum recycling, automotive, aerospace, commercial heat treating, HVAC, electronics, lighting, medical equipment and nuclear applications."

Aceros del Peru SAC. For something different lets look at a commercial heat treat plant in Lima, Peru. Apparently Aceros del Peru SAC is one of only two commercial operations in Peru and they very kindly provided us with 2 pictures of their plant along with a few comments about the company. What is interesting is the fact that they are so heavily involved in Fluid Bed furnaces. This is a technology that has fallen out of fashion in North America but people that have them-love them. September 3/08

“Hi Gord. Attached are some photos of our 02 lines. All the furnaces are fluid bed, the original 02 were made by Procedynes and the 04 newest by QHT of Australia. We are able to heat up to 1180 C , carburize, nitro- carburize, cryogenic treatment and quench in forced air , oil and polymer. Jose Roa.“

Commercial Heat Treating/North Western USA. While we recently spoke quite a bit about the state of the heat treating industry in the western US, a friend of ours, Bob Grammer of Grammer Vacuum Technologies http://www.gvtinc.com/ provided us with a few more details. All in all this area has nothing to complain about. September 3/08

“Inland Northwest Metallurgical Services, Inc. (Spokane, WA) is currently more than doubling the size of their building facility.  Completion is expected before fall.  Inland is adding two vacuum furnaces to their facility as well to make a total of 5.  Mike Oliver has been promoted to Operations Manager according to Dan Tabish, President of  INMS.  Congratulations, Mike! Cascade Metallurgical, Inc. (Kent, WA) is increasing their atmosphere furnace capacity to handle their ever-growing business volume in that area.  Met-Tek, Inc. (Clackamas, OR)  Owner Jerry Shriner has continued to invest in the future with the purchase of a new Beavermatic atmosphere integral quench furnace that will be installed this fall. The addition of another vacuum furnace brings Met-Tek's total to 3 now.  Pacific Metallurgical, Inc. (Kent, WA) has purchased neighbouring Almet.  This adds aluminum heat treating capabilities to PacMet's already wide range of services.“

What's Upcoming? We have a number of news items slated for the next couple of weeks. A few that come to mind are some photos of a commercial heat treater in Peru, South America, an update about how heat treaters in the US Northwest are doing these days and we are going to look at an article we did many years ago entitled “is there any money in commercial heat treating" and ask our readers for comments about how margins today compare to those 7 or 8 years ago. Also in the works are some thoughts about whether you should use a pit furnace or a batch IQ for heat treating windmill gears and some photos of the 25th anniversary party being hosted by Dibalog in Heidelberg, Germany (energy optimization systems). This is going to be attended almost exclusively by European heat treaters so we’ll give you a feel for the European market next week.  September 2/08 

Bodycote/West Coast USA. Want to know what one of the world’s largest commercial heat treaters has planned for their operations on the west coast of the USA? Skip Jones, West Coast Regional Manager Bodycote gives us a bit of an insight below. These comments came from http://www.bodycote.com/ It’s an interesting market California and very different from most other areas of North America in that there is virtually no automotive work and jobs tend to be smaller and far more diverse than most other regions. September 2/08

"Bodycote Thermal Processing announces their West Coast Operations are embarking on a major initiative for integrating and expanding their eight California locations. There has been growing concern amongst the supplier base that capacities in heat treating and related services to the aerospace and commercial markets are diminishing. To reassure our customers, Bodycote is planning a comprehensive modernization upgrade program with extensive equipment replacement to meet the growing needs of the titanium and aluminum aerospace and commercial markets. Not only are our facilities being renovated, relocation of operations are underway with additional staffing taking place. The recent consolidation of San Diego and Tarzana are the first steps of this expansion plan. To demonstrate this commitment, Bodycote has recently commissioned their new Nadcap approved NDT services unit for MPI, Passivate, and Nital Etch services at the Huntington Park facility. We expect to have the Huntington Park copper plating facility expansion completed by November 2008. Our Santa Fe Springs Romandel location has increased capacity by commissioning two tip-up furnaces for an additional 60 tons of metal processing per year."

John Hubbard, CEO Bodycote, International. Friday we had a very interesting news item about Bodycote International (commercial heat treating) selling their testing division and the CEO John Hubbard, retiring when a replacement is found. People love a good conspiracy theory and the fact that John is retiring prompted at least 10 E-mails to us asking about “the real, inside story”. We received a few theories but at the end of the day we don’t believe there is an “inside” story. John is 60, has been CEO of Bodycote for approximately 6 years now, has a house and a wife in Texas, USA and probably just wants to go home (Bodycote of course is based in the UK). He’s done a good job and we firmly believe that he made the decision that he has done what he set out to do and wants a change.  September 2/08

Pat Torok/United Process Controls. We have a news item today of interest to pretty well everybody in the heat treating controls business. Pat Torok who has been involved in the controls business for many, many years has left his position at Danaher Controls to take a job with UPC as VP. We have personally known Pat for quite some time and have a very high opinion of his capabilities. We dug through our archives and actually came up with a picture of Pat taken at a heat treat show in Detroit, Michigan, USA in the fall of 2007. September 2/08

Gord Montgomery (themonty.com), Pat Torok

"United Process Controls is pleased to announce the appointment of Patrick Torok to the position of Vice President of Sales & Marketing - Heat Treat for the UPC group. Pat joins us with over 25 years of experience in the design, marketing and implementation of metals heat treat process controls and sensors. Pat's previously held positions within the group companies include a 13 year tenure at Marathon Monitors where he co-authored the industry's first heat treat specific data acquisition system-Process Master. He held various other positions within MMI including VP of sales and marketing. Pat was President/Owner of Triadx manufacturing where he developed the FurnaceDoctor® heat treat gas analyzer, and later became VP of Engineering and Technology for Furnace Control/Waukee. Pat recently joins us from Danaher Industrial Controls (West/Partlow/PMA) where he was Director of NA Systems Business. "Bringing into UPC such a knowledgeable and energetic person as Pat Torok is a boost to our already very strong management team," said Paul Oleszkiewicz, Vice President of UPC, "Our global position of leader in heat treatment controls is enhanced by his experience." Pat will be charged with development and implementation of a unified market strategy for North America. UPC group companies include Marathon Monitors, Furnace Control, Waukee Engineering and PE."

Temptab. You might have noticed our newest banner on the site “Temptab” (just below). They have such a cool product that we have to mention it. Basically what they have to offer are small tabs that would be placed in a load in a heat treating furnace. The tabs (which are disposable) record the temperature in the furnace thus providing a simple expensive way to do a uniformity study. First time we have run across such a product. September 2/08

Bodycote International to Sell Testing Unit/John Hubbard to Step Down. Several months ago UK based, Bodycote International (commercial heat treating, Hot Isostatic Pressing and testing labs) announced it’s intention to sell their testing division. It would appear that an agreement has now been reached as you can see in the press release below (available in it’s entirety at http://www.bodycote.com/). In our opinion these are the main points of the announcement; August 29/08

-the sale price of £417 million exceeds expectations of £400 million

-the fact that most of the sale price of the testing unit is targeted towards the commercial heat treating segment is most interesting. Bodycote has always been clear in their objectives, expand into the growing Asian and Eastern European markets (with some focus on South America), invest in areas and technologies with higher profit margins and take a good hard look at their North American operations which have not performed as well as other areas chiefly because of a tough economy.

-the resignation of CEO John Hubbard when a successor is found. Our humble opinion is that Mr. Hubbard (who we named as the most influential individual in the worldwide heat treating industry some time back) has done an excellent job of focusing the company during some good and bad times. While Mr. Hubbard’s future plans our unknown to us we would find it difficult to believe that he will resign himself to a lifetime of daytime game shows.

"Bodycote plc ("Bodycote") is pleased to announce that it has entered into a conditional agreement for the sale of its Testing Strategic Business Unit ("Testing Business") to Clayton, Dubilier and Rice (acting through CDR Tabasco Limited, a company incorporated by Clayton Dubilier & Rice Fund VII LP to effect the acquisition) ("CD&R") for a consideration of approximately £417 million on a cash and debt free basis and a vendor loan note ("VLN") in respect of 65 acres of surplus land in Mississauga, Canada (the "Sale"). Following the Sale the Board proposes to return approximately £260 million to Shareholders (equivalent to 80 pence per share).

Highlights:

-the consideration for the Sale comprises approximately £417 million in cash payable on completion, subject to the adjustments set out below, and a vendor loan note in respect of 65 acres of surplus land in Mississauga, Canada;
-the sale price of approximately £417 million reflects the high quality of the Testing Business and Bodycote's success in executing its strategy to build the Testing Business across a range of disciplines and geographies;
-the Sale, which is conditional on the approval of Bodycote's Shareholders and the receipt of certain regulatory approvals, is expected to complete before the end of October 2008;
-the Board has assessed the capital structure of the Company in determining the quantum of the return of cash to Shareholders, whilst having regard for the need to maintain flexibility to continue to execute its strategy   to develop the Thermal Processing Strategic Business Unit ("Thermal Processing Business");
-following the Sale, Bodycote expects to accelerate the improvement in the financial performance of the Thermal Processing Business as a result of increased focus, through increasing the amount of high added value and speciality processes, further expansion in emerging markets and by restructuring underperforming facilities, especially in North America;
-the Board believes that the financial performance of the ongoing Group will enable the continuance of a progressive dividend policy, targeting dividend cover of 2.0 to 2.5 times;
-following completion of the Sale, Bodycote intends to return 80 pence per share to Shareholders (approximately £260 million). The Board intends that the proposed return of cash will be effected through a B share scheme. A separate circular giving details of the B share scheme and related share consolidation will be posted to Shareholders as soon as practicable after completion of the Sale;
-In addition, John Hubbard has confirmed his intention to step down as Chief Executive Officer when a successor is found. The search to select a person to execute the ongoing strategy is well advanced and the new Chief Executive Officer is expected to be announced shortly."

Queen City Steel Treating Co./Cincinnati, Ohio. It is a very strange market for heat treating in North America these days; many commercial heat treaters are finding an incredible month followed by a terrible month-all over the map. By and large though most shops are doing reasonably well with a certain number adding capacity-such is the case with Queen City Steel Treating. Under the leadership of Judy Rudy and partners Queen City has fairly recently added a large 20 tray pusher furnace to their plant in Cincinnati, Ohio. In addition to this they have added batch IQ and pusher capacity to their division in Cookeville, Tennessee, Quality Metal Treating Inc. If you recall Quality was bought by Queen City back in early 2003. August 28/08

Len Ohrin. While we never met Len obviously he was a very well liked guy based upon the wonderful comments we have heard about his. Here is another from the COO of Ipsen International, North America. August 28/08

"Greetings Gord, I would like to add some comments regarding the passing of Len Ohrin. Len was truly a rare spirit and an inspiration to many of us. Working nearly every day into his 80’s he was unable to shut off his love of designing thermal processing equipment. Many design standards that people take for granted today came from projects quietly developed by Len 20-30 years ago. His accomplishments even during the last year match those achieved in some lifetimes. Just this year, Len was instrumental in developing creative solutions for a Pratt & Whitney project . Dick Trask, Lead Project Engineer for Pratt told me today that “Len was very quiet in his manner, but when he spoke, everyone knew to listen. Chances are, if you knew Len, then you would remember the first day that you met him. He will be greatly missed.”

Len was the first to jump in the car to help convey his new ideas to customers and the fire in his eyes was always brightest when he found the path through an engineering challenge. I am an avid runner but will never match Len’s highlight reel. Between the ages of 60 and 75 Len ran 20 marathons. Legend has it that a young buck from our sales team, half of Len’s age, started running with Len occasionally and decided to join him for the Boston Marathon. When the race was over Len couldn’t find him and finally they met up when Len found him in the medical tent connected to an I.V. recovering from the race. So much for trying to keep up with him. Len’s spirit, smile and love for life will be missed by all of us. Geoffrey Somary, COO Ipsen,Inc."

Boronizing. This is a process that we know very little about-the subject came up because of a question further down this page. This reply offered some suggestions. August 28/08

"I can explain how gas quenching works with a vacuum furnace, but I'm probably not the right guy to advise you on boronized materials.  But my guess is, if you are quenching quickly enough with oil to make the boronized surface brittle, then you'll probably quench quickly enough to make it brittle with a gas quench as well.  Gas quenching is an oil-free way of getting similar quenching speeds to oil. (Note:  I spoke to a metallurgist for one of the largest heat treaters in the US and his opinion was the same as mine.  Chances are that no matter what material you have and what type of furnace you use, you'll soften the substrate with your 800-900C process.  And no matter how you subsequently try to harden the substrate, you are probably going to make the boronized layer brittle.  But we could be wrong!  Neither of us have much experience with boronized material.)"

Len Ohrin. From Fred Roth at Ipsen International (new furnaces) comes this sad news item about a long time Ipsen employee. "Len had worked for Ipsen / Abar for over 30 years and had designed or behind the designs of our continuous aluminum brazing furnaces as well as unique furnaces requiring movement of the work load either in or out of the furnace.  He will be missed by the Ipsen family." August 27/08

“Leonard J. Ohrin of Roslyn and McAdoo passed away Saturday evening at Hazleton General Hospital. Born in Audenried, he was the son of the late John and Catherine (Lesko) Ohrin. Leonard was a member of Our Lady Help of Christians Roman Catholic Church, Roslyn. A veteran of World War II, he served in the Army as a medic in the Philippines and Japan. Leonard was a graduate of Temple University, Philadelphia. He was employed as a designing mechanical engineer by Ipsen Co., Ben Salem. In addition to his parents, Leonard was preceded in death by his first wife, Agnes Ohrin; a sister, Helen Matsko; and a brother, John S. Ohrin. Surviving are his wife, Dorothy (Danishefsky) Ohrin; sisters, Elizabeth Machey, McAdoo; and Catherine Simmons and her husband, John, McAdoo; and nieces and nephews. Funeral services will be held Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. from Damiano Funeral Home, Blaine and Cleveland streets, McAdoo. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m. in Church of All Saints, McAdoo. The Rev. Richard Brensinger will be the celebrant. Interment will take place in St. Mary of the Assumption R.C. Cemetery. McAdoo. Friends may call at the funeral home Tuesday from 6 to 8 p.m. A Christian wake service will be held.”

Equipment Wanted. It’s surprising how often when we advertise for equipment wanted that a reader will come up with some very helpful suggestions. For that reason today we are asking for your help in finding used items. Please keep in mind that this is not a “charitable event”. If you come up with a fit everybody wins. August 26/08

a) Electrically Heated Oven. Capable of 2100F with working dimensions of 6’ X 6” X 6’.

b) Aluminum Wheel Processing Line. This is an item we are still looking for. While a continuous line would be of most interest a drop bottom oven with working dimensions of 7” cubed is also a possibility.

c) Endothermic Generator. Gas fired capable of 7500 CFH. Brand is not an issue.

d) Aluminum Line. This line is required for T6 heat treating of cylinder heads and each basket will need to have dimensions of approximately 1,384 (L) x 1,124 (W) x 717 (H) in mm.

Martensite. Except for metallurgists we doubt whether the average heat treater is going to be very concerned with who was the first to observe martensite. Still though a little bit of trivia about the industry. August 26/08

"Gord, Good morning - a quick comment on David's little piece. I was a have always been under the impression that martensite was first observed and named by Floris Osmond in 1898 who described the characteristics of several microstructural constituents observed in steels. Following the mineralogical approach he named these constituents: sorbite after Henry Clifton Sorby, troostite after Louis-Joseph Troost and martensite after Adolf Martens, all three having been deeply engaged in the new science of metallography since the 1860s."

Boronizing. We know nothing about the boronizing process which is why we are hoping that our readers can answer this question from a manufacturer who is sending out his heat treating. August 26/08

"Hi Gord! We haven’t met before, I was directed to your website from one of our local heat treatment companies, ******* Heat Treating. I have a question regarding re-heat treatment on various metals after they have been boronized. I’m not sure how familiar you are with boronizing, but we are having an issue with losing strength in our base material. This is due to the fact that we are heating the material upwards of 8-900°C and slow cooling. The reason we do not quick cool or oil quench the material is because this will cause the boronized layer to become more brittle. My question to you is, I was wondering if you had any insight on how we might be able to re-heat treat our product, after it has been boronized, to regain some of the lost base strength. The suggestion that came from my contact at ********Heat Treating was a gas quench in a vacuum furnace because this would not be as harsh as a molten salt bath or oil quench, do you have any thoughts on this? I am not too familiar with the gas quenching process in a vacuum oven, which is also why I am contacting you now to see if you would be able to pass on some information on how this process works. If you could you please pass on your thoughts as well as any other suggestions you might have on the equipment and processes we are going to need in order to solve our issue I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks Gord! I look forward to hearing back from you.”

When was martensite discovered? We have a history lesson today from David Pye, a lesson about one of the most important facets of heat treating-the formation of martensite. August 25/08

Answer:  Iron has been worked for approximately 4500 years or so (give or take a year or two). The real usage of iron was brought into fashion around 12ooBC. The reason being that it was extremely difficult for the earl blacksmiths to smelt the iron from the recovered ore. Combined with this was the inability to achieve temperatures high enough to melt the iron from the host rock. (3200˚F, 1760˚C). The principle source of thermal energy was wood and charcoal. The ancients did not know how to raise the temperature, as the bellows to heat the fire were only 50% efficient. It took a considerable amount of time to develop an air blower that would deliver air to the fire all of the smelting time. Once the iron had been smelted for the host rock, it could then be forged. The ancient blacksmiths did not realize  that while the iron was being heated in the fire, it  was absorbing carbon from the wood and charcoal fire, thus making the article being forged, into steel. (Steel is simply an alloy of iron plus carbon). This was simply transforming the iron to steel by carburization.

In India, the early blacksmiths developed a steel which was known as Wootz steel. (3500 years ago) Today we know it better as Damascus Steel. This steel is carbon rich with approximately 1.00% carbon present. The Arab traders took samples back to Arabia when they travelled the Great Silk Route across northern India, to and from China. When they worked the steel it developed a beautiful, random pattern on the steel surface, which is well known to knife makers today. The primary use of the ‘steel’ was to make tools such as armor, weapons, pots and agricultural implements. These really were the first toolmakers. Steel then became a ‘material of choice’ over bronze (an alloy of copper and tin) because it was stronger, harder, and more resilient.

There is excavated evidence of ancient articles that have been discovered and metallurgically examined. It was seen that martensite, as we know it today, was present, especially near the steel surface of the implement. Martensite was discovered because of early microcopy at the turn of the last century by a German metallurgical engineer named Adolph Martens. He made the exciting observation of martensite in its many forms, the phase that we know as martensite was named in his honor for his significant contribution to metallurgy. There have been many fine metallurgical engineers who have made significant contributions’ to the science of metallurgy. Adolph Martens was such a person.

Cutting Specialists Inc., McKenzie, Tennessee, USA. So often captive heat treating is "the lost child" of manufacturing, the department that is last to get any capital improvements, which is always a shame (from our standpoint) but understandable being that the common perception is that heat treating does not add to manufacturing capacity. For this reason it is always refreshing to see a company that invests in their heat treating department and even brags about it. Such is the case of Cutting Specialists Inc., a manufacturer of lawn mower blades and other similar items. A quick look at their website http://www.supertuf.com/index.html shows you their new furnace loader (might be a "High Tech Loading System"-hard to tell from the single photo and also a picture of their new continuous draw furnace. Refreshing to see indeed. August 25/08

Hot Isostatic Pressing. This past week we had a news item about “Hipping” and spotlighted a company in Washington state USA, Bodycote that has a truly impressive facility (one of many). In our previous article we mentioned how Bodycote is far and away the largest player in this very specialized market. Nothing leads us to believe that this is not correct however a reader pointed out that they are not the only company in the US doing this and gave us some examples of other companies also offered the same process. One final note worth mentioning is the fact that this is NOT a process you want to get into unless you really know what you are doing. With pressures of up to 30,000 PSI no mistakes can be made. August 22/08

“There are quite a few HIP units in the USA (it really got its start in the Mid Ohio area in the early 1970's). Some of the companies that are commercial heat treaters that offer both HIP and Vacuum furnace work include:

Lake City Heat Treat (Warsaw, IN) they just bought a 2nd unit from Avure (formerly ABB from Sweden) that will be a duplicate of one they bought in the late'90's. This is a family owned business that has really grown over the past 15 years.

Howmet (Whitehall, MI) although not a true commercial HT shop, they do HIPPING work and have 5 or 6 units.

Pressure Technology (Concord, OH) has 4 HIP units and they have their main facility in Warminster, PA (at least 3 units - HIP are here)

The HIP industry is very small and very inbred (sound familiar?) but it would be a nice side bar to investigate on your side of the line. There are only 3 or 4 major manufacturers that qualify as HIP companies (American Isostatic Presses - Columbus, OH), EPSI (Haverhill, MA), Pressure Tech makes their own, another Mfg in California (can't remember the name), and the BIG ONE in Sweden - Avure (they have gone through a number of ownership changes in the past 5 years - formerly called ABB)."

Stress Relieving on the QEW. A friend in the industry happened to be driving on the QEW (Queen Elizabeth Way) highway yesterday (this is the main highway in Southern, Ontario, Canada) when he was passed by several fire trucks. Being naturally curious about what all the fuss was about he followed the fire trucks and what did he find? Stress Relieving on the highway. What had happened was a transport truck owned by All Source Heat Treat (commercial heat treating) of St. Catherines had caught on fire with a full load of parts to be stress relieved. It must have ruined the day of Wayne Howard, the owner of All Source. August 22/08

What is meant by High Temperature Carburizing? David Pye, world famous heat treat consultant is going to tell us. davidpye@pyemet.com August 21/08

"Answer: High Temperature carburizing is a metallurgical thermal process that takes advantage of the fact that, the high the process temperature, the faster the diffusion rate. It is based on the classic and traditional (yet simple) Harris formula: Case Depth = Square root of time X factor (temperature derived). The process can only be carried out effectively in a vacuum furnace simply because of the materials of construction of an atmosphere furnace do not permit high temperature operations at elevated temperatures. The high temperature carburizing process is usually carried out at temperatures approximately 1900˚F to 1950˚F. (1035˚C to1065˚C)."

Pacific Northwest Annual Golf Tournament. Not even sure whether this event has a name but every year for the past number of year’s heat treaters in the Pacific Northwest area of the USA get together for an annual golf tournament. This year featured roughly 50 heat treaters generally divided up by company. For instance Met-Tek fielded several teams, Bodycote was there, Stack Metallurgical and a number of others. Excellent day and a good time was had by all. Yours truly, Gord Montgomery? Not being a golfer the highlight of my day was banging a drive off the golf cart and killing somebody’s beer. When you start off with low expectations they are generally fulfilled.  August 21/08

Left Photo: Far Left: Jeff Lane, GM-Stack Metallurgical Services, Inc.
Jerry Shriner, Owner - Met-Tek, Inc.
Bruce Sorenson, Owner - Pyro Instrument Service Co.
Far Right: Richard Shew, QA - Stack Metallurgical Services, Inc

Right Photo: Left: George Raimer, Retired, Former owner of Met-Tek, Inc.
Right: Bob Grammer, Grammer Vacuum Technologies

Left Photo: Jason Shriner Met-Tek, Inc.

Right Photo: Bruce Sorenson, Owner - Pyro Instrument Service Co.

Left Photo: On ground: Bruce Sorenson, Owner - Pyro Instrument Co.
Standing L: Bruce Davis, Sales Manager, Stack Metallurgical Services, Inc.
Standing C: Steve Hess, Retired Maintenance Manager, Stack Metallurgical Services, Inc.
Standing R: Jeff Lane, Facilities Manager, Stack Metallurgical Services, Inc
#27 Seated: Doug Lane (cousin of Jeff Lane and not in heat treating, so a guest)
Far Right: Eric Wiegele is a furnace operator at Met-Tek, Inc.

Right Photo: Far Left: Dennis Cerveny, Titanium Vacuum Heat Treat, PCC Structurals, Portland
Left Center: Bruce Haphey, Operations Manager, Bodycote Camas
Right Center: Joe Dyer, General Manager, Bodycote Camas
Far Right: Mike Landis, Special Outside Consultant, Bodycote Camas

Left: Bob Grammer, Grammer Vacuum Technologies
Right: Mark Manning, Beaver Heat Treat Corporation

Ipsen International/New Order. We make a mistake-we correct it. Very recently we mentioned about how Ipsen International (Rockford, Illinois, USA) had landed a large order from an aerospace company for a carbottom vacuum furnace for processing titanium. This item caught us of guard as we do not think of Ipsen for car bottom vacuum furnaces. It would appear that this was incorrect and while Ipsen did receive an order some time back our understanding is that it was for several front loading vacuum furnaces (anywhere up to 4) 24' deep (amazing) and that they will be for processing titanium. This order will probably never see a press release owing to the secrecy of the buyer but if we get any further details we will let you know. August 21/08

Met-Tek, Inc./ Clackamas, Oregon, USA. We now feature our last profile of a West Coast Heat Treater, Met-Tek a commercial shop near Portland, Oregon. If a picture is worth a 1,000 words you now have at least a short story based upon the pictures below of Met-Tek. This company is owned by one of the most outgoing, friendly guys we have met an individual by the name of Jerry Shriner a long time heat treater. To the pictures below the only other interesting tidbit of information we can add is that within days Jerry will be receiving a brand new Beavermatic Batch IQ furnace to go inline with his other units. If you find yourself in the Portland area and want to talk about heat treating give Jerry a call, I would be amazed if he didn’t talk your ear off and buy you a beer at the same time. While we saw a number of captive and commercial heat treaters on the West Coast this past week as usual the captives (which ranged from rocket engines to medical components) were all very leery about photos of their operations, something which we respect although don’t necessarily like. To conclude our series about Western USA heat treating Thursday of this week we will have pictures of the annual “Northwest Heat Treaters” golf tournament.  August 20/08

Aalberts Industries/Financial Report. Heat Treaters outside of Europe can certainly be forgiven for not knowing the name Aalberts, however it is a name you should know as one of the 10 largest commercial heat treaters in the world and undoubtedly the second largest in Europe. Based in the Netherlands, Aalberts has roughly 50 commercial heat treating and surface coating plants including 3 in North America, Ionic Technologies Inc., Greenville, SC and Accurate Brazing with two locations in Greenville, SC and New Hampshire. Their latest financial reports are now available on line at their website http://www.aalberts.nl/shownews.asp?docid=latest The highlights are below but the tough part is separating the heat treating results from the rest of the conglomerate. If you can decipher the results you will know how the heat treating facilities did.  August 20/08

Highlights of the first half of 2008
- Increase of revenue by more than 6% to EUR 913 million (10% at constant exchange rates)
- Organic revenue growth of approximately 3% (at constant exchange rates)
- Operating profit (EBITA) up 9% to EUR 106 million
- Increase in net profit by more than 6% to EUR 67 million
- Earnings per share up 3% to EUR 0.65 (7% at constant exchange rates) - Maintaining solid balance sheet ratios - Acquisitions Flow Control (Henco and Zawgaz) and Industrial Services (IDE, Duralloy and Cotterlaz

Stack Metallurgical Services Inc. Continuing with our tour of western USA captive and commercial heat treaters today we go to the big guys on the block, Stack Metallurgical Systems Inc., (Stack) in Portland, Oregon. The largest in the Pacific Northwest even their competitors would probably grudgingly admit that this is a very impressive, well run company. When we visited this past week the owner, Dave Ederer was amazingly forthcoming, hence the photos below of pretty much all areas of the facility, from Batch IQ’s, Ion Nitriding, continuous to aluminum and Induction. We’ll make a couple of comments about the pictures below; in one photo you see what appears to be a brand new Ipsen vacuum furnace-as a matter of fact this is brand new having entered production within the past few months. In another photo you see you a very large Abar Ipsen 10 bar vacuum furnace. The interesting thing about this furnace is that when it first entered production some years back it was the first 10 bar vacuum furnace in production in a commercial heat treat plant in North America. Stack has a long history in the Portland area and since it’s inception Dave Ederer has invested (either as an outright owner or investor) in several other facilities in the US and Mexico including Inland Northwest who we mentioned last week. All in all Stack in our humble opinion deserves to be in the top 5% of commercial heat treaters in the world based upon cleanliness, the state of the equipment and professionalism. August 19/08

Bob Grammer (Grammer Vacuum Technologies), Dave Ederer (Stack), Nels Plough (President, Stack), Pat Walsh (Metallurgical Consultant), Jeff Lane (Stack) and Gord Montgomery.

SECO/WARWICK PATENTS HYDROGEN CLOSED-CYCLE HARDENING SYSTEM. This was a news item we posted early last week, Bill Jones of Solar had some comments (which we posted) further down this page and now Seco Warwick who posted the original comments is responding to Bill's. Complicated enough? It makes for very interesting reading as both of these individuals certainly know their stuff.  August 19/08

"Bill Jones' comments. In response to Bill's comments: This patent positions SECO/WARWICK in the area of hydrogen quench and recycling in HPGQ furnaces because we believe this technology will come into common use in the near future. We developed this unique and marketable approach that will conserve energy while producing high quality work while working with customers to improve both system efficiency and final metallurgical results. Best regards; Maciej Korecki Ph.D., Research & Development Director Seco/Warwick S.A. tel. +48 68 38 20 506 mob. +48 502 288 237 fax. +48 68 38 20 555 email: M.Korecki@secowarwick.com.pl web: www.secowarwick.com.pl"

Inland Northwest Metallurgical Services Inc./Spokane, Washington, USA. The common perception amongst North American captive and commercial heat treaters is that the western USA is the land of “milk and honey” these days based upon the healthy  aerospace, defence, medical, cutlery/knife industries. There is some truth to this (certainly compared to many other areas of North America) but western heat treaters face the same challenges as others, price pressure and rapidly increasing energy costs. Having said this we have yet to meet a captive or commercial heat treater in this area whose is not having at least a “half decent” year. An example of this is Inland Northwest a commercial operation in Spokane, Washington who is finding business to be good-good enough to warrant an addition to their plant and additional equipment. The photos below show where they are at and if you look closely what the future holds for them. Look closely at the photo on the right and you will see Inland's current plant (green border at the top of the building) and behind this the almost completed addition which will more than double the size of the plant, an addition which will house a number of additional furnaces. To the best of our knowledge (which we in our conceit consider to be very extensive) Inland is one of the only commercial heat treaters in this particular area and consequently they offer most processes, batch IQ, aluminum heat treating and vacuum heat treating being the main ones. All of this is run under a fellow by the name of Dan Tabish, President a good competent heat treater who has been with the company since it was started a number of years back-we believe about 15 years ago. You can see Dan in one of the photos below along with the most prominent heat treat rep in this area, Bob Grammer, Grammer Vacuum Technologies (Ipsen, SSI, Dibalog, Dry Coolers). Going back to our original statement about the western US being a good area for heat treaters, yes it is but heat treating in just about any area of the world has a lot of challenges.  August 18/08

Hardenability. So what does the term ‘hardenability’ mean? David Pye, Heat Treating Consultant, and one of the top guys in the industry gives us a good explanation.    August 18/08

"What is meant by the term ‘hardenability’? The term ‘hardenability’ is a term used to describe a steels ability to harden. The term does not mean how hard the steel can be made. Hardenability is usually determined by the Jominy End Quench Test. This means machining a steel test bar of the steel to be tested to specific dimensions. (4inches long and 1 inch diameter) The bar has a flat milled onto the length of the bar, followed by marking the bar every 1/16 inch along its length.  This is followed by heating the steel test bar to the appropriate austenitizing temperature, followed by spraying a volume of water onto the end face of the test bar. The result will be that the face that is quenched will be cooled rapidly and the cooling effect will be slower along the length of the bar. After the bar has cooled, then hardness tests would be conducted along the length of the bar (every 1/16inch). From the hardness test results, a curve can be plotted. This would show the decreasing hardness along the bar length. This is the steels ability to show the depth of hardening that would take place across an equivalent diameter bar of steel. The addition of alloying elements will affect the steels hardenability. It would also demonstrate the hardness values of a piece of steel 8 inches in diameter form the outside diameter to the core of the 8 inch bar."

Hot Isostatic Pressing. While many heat treaters would not consider Hot Isostatic Pressing (hipping for short) to be “true” heat treating it uses heat and pressure to alter the properties of metal so strictly speaking it is a form of heat treating. While a very specialized process it is well known in certain applications such as high end casting and “cladding” and is the only way to go. The undisputed worldwide leader is none other than Bodycote International who certainly has well over half the commercial worldwide market. We have heard about the technology for years but just yesterday was the first chance we had to see it in operation-the Bodycote facility in Camas, Washington, USA and it was well worth the visit. While a large, 10 bar state of the art vacuum furnace is impressive to see a “hipping” unit operating at pressures up to 30,000 PSI is truly impressive! This facility is the only one in the US that offers both vacuum heat treating and hipping which is done in 3 or 4 very large units with capacities of up to 30 tons. We could go on and on about this technology but for the time being we will leave it at the fact that it is amazing to see, this plant is absolutely immaculate and the total investment in this operation puts most heat treating operations to shame. Wish we had more photos but we do have a couple below. August 15/08

Bob Grammer (Grammer Vacuum Technologies), Henry Peterson, Engineering Manager, Bodycote, Camas Washington.

Gord Montgomery, themonty.com, Henry Peterson, Bodycote

Electricity Pricing. Energy in the long term is going up, this is a given. Whether it be natural gas, propane or electricity heat treaters are going to be paying more and consequently every single heat treater in the world is looking at ways to save a few bucks. Concentrating only on electrical costs we see something interesting on bills, something that quite a few consumers are not aware of-peak demand charges. In very simplistic terms all consumers get charged for the amount of electricity they use, what a reasonable percentage of users are not aware of is the dreaded peak demand charges. What this is, is an additional charge that electrical providers tack on to your bill, a charge based upon the highest demand a consumer uses in a given 15 minute period in any month. To put it another way your electricity provider watches what you use in a month, picks the 15 minutes that you used the most energy and charges you at a rate far higher than normal. Call it money grab or look at it from their standpoint which is that they have to have generating capacity for peak period which costs money, either way it is very expensive for consumers. So as a user if you can keep your electrical demands relatively constant you are way ahead of the game. Start your furnaces at different times, stagger when you use them (if possible) anyway to flatten out demand is going to pay back in spades. Something to keep in mind. August 15/08 

Accurate Steel Treating, Inc./South Gate, California, USA. We had a look at Thermal Vac (commercial heat treating, Orange, CA) earlier this week, lets now have a look at another good sized commercial operation (60 employees) this one located in South Gate which is just south of Los Angeles. This plant is 47 years old and is ranked in the top 50 in the USA by MTI (Metal Treating Institute) in terms of sales. The company is run by Ron Loynds, President and Mike Bastian, GM and VP. Looking at processes the company has a pretty general mix, a number of vacuum furnaces, batch IQ furnaces Ion and Gas Nitriding (as a matter of fact they made our HT news page recently when they installed a brand new SSI Gas Nitriding control system) and a number of associated processes. Looking at where they have been and where they are going they have recently achieved ISO 9001, added additional property to allow for future expansion and have seen sales steadily increasing. One real odd note (at least for most commercial heat treaters in Canada and the US is the half walls around some of the buildings. While it has been tried in Canada and Michigan the snow drifts around the furnaces in winter have proven to be a problem. In the photo below you see from left to right Gord Montgomery, Ron Loynds and Mike Bastian and on the far right Rick Apodaca of Champion Furnace (furnace rebuilding). August 14/08

SECO/WARWICK PATENTS HYDROGEN CLOSED-CYCLE HARDENING SYSTEM. Scrolling down a few items you will come to a posting about a new patent Seco Warwick has applied for concerning Hydrogen closed cycle hardening. Quite frankly it did not mean a great deal to us but it certainly did to Bill Jones of Solar Atmospheres as you will see from his comments. August 14/08

“Reference Seco News Release Aug 12, 2008. It appears that US Patent 7,361,299 is a rather complex method for storing and regenerating hydrogen gas where one uses a vacuum furnace hot zone as part of the mechanism as in an experimental design. Counter to the Seco News Release no claims are made in the patent as to alloy quench rates, “difficult steel grades to harden”, or the method of “low part distortion”. We are sure the patent has value for some applications but exactly how this fits the day to day heat treating industry is not at all clear. William R. Jones, CEO, Solar Atmosphere Inc., Souderton, Pa.”

Steve Driscol/Thermal Vac, California, USA. We’re going to have a lot more details about this operation in the very near future but for the time being this is what we can tell you. Located in Orange, CA Thermal Vac specializes in brazing applications but is also involved in commercial heat treating. President and owner is Steve Driscol (second from the left in the picture below), on his right is his son, Sean Driscol (Furnace Manager), on the far right Tim Coe and on his right, Gord Montgomery (themonty.com). As we say more on Thermal Vac in the next little bit but we will take this opportunity to say more about Tim Coe. Manufacturers rep in CA, Tim worked with VFS (new vacuum furnaces) and Seco Warwick (new furnaces) for many years before becoming an independent rep a couple of years back. He now reps for Ipsen International (new furnaces), Dibalog (energy optimization systems) and Custom Electric (electric furnace elements). He is pictured in the one photo below with his wife Jody, dog Chloe and his boat in the background. August 13/08

Sheila Giordano/Namac Corp. Sheila we have run across before from her days at Plansee Corp (moly), Namac we had not run across before until quite recently. August 13/08

"Nanmac Corporation, leading supplier of thermocouples to industry since 1956, recently hired Sheila Giordano as Senior Account Manager, to service Nanmac's growing client base in the Heat Treating Industry. Ms. Giordano joined the company on August 1, and brings nearly a decade of experience in the High Temperature Thermal Processing Industry with Plansee USA (formerly Schwarzkopf Technologies) and has traveled extensively throughout North America, Europe and Asia calling on end users and manufactures of high temperature furnaces and other applications related to thermal processing. According to Ms. Giordano "It is an exciting change for me as Nanmac has a renowned reputation for its distinctive engineering expertise in the high temperature thermal processing industry, with an array of temperature sensors and related equipment, accessories, and calibration services. Nanmac's customers are many of the same I have called on for years. Ms. Giordano will be at Furnaces North America on October 21-22 in Nashville (Booth #140), meeting with clients, partners etc. To make an appointment, please call her at 508-872-4811 x275, or email her at sgiordano@nanmac.com."