Due to the US National Holiday the offices of WG Montgomery will be closed today and resume on Monday July 6/09. July 3/09
Used Equipment Available. Just added one SBS WC-5156 Water or Water/glycol cooler. Without getting into too many details lets mention a few items that we have added over the course of the past week. All are in our opinion well priced and in good condition. Ipsen Model 224 Vacuum Furnace, a SSI Portable Dewpointer Precision Quincy Oven, and two Wilson-Tukon Microhardness Testers. Last week we added a very good condition Ipsen 2 Zone Temper Furnace with an asking price of $18,000 USD. Two Pit Carburizers were also added recently and we would expect that these will sell quite quickly because they are hard to find. Uncommon but desirable is a 26’ diameter Rotary Hearth Furnace with two press quench units. As you would expect with the current market there is quite a bit of used equipment available at excellent prices. If you’re looking for probably the world’s most popular furnace a Surface Combustion “Super 30” Line we have several from complete lines to just the high heat furnace itself. Asking prices range from $110,000 for a complete line to $40,000 for a high heat only. There is still a strong demand for vacuum furnaces and we have a number including two 6 Bar Vacuum Furnaces with working dimensions of 24” X 36” X 24”, 2 ALD 20 Bar Vacuum Furnaces and two Vac Aero 6 Bar vacuum furnaces. This is a small selection of our listings and remember if you don’t see what you are looking for ask and we will find it for you. July 3/09
Business Opportunities. A Business Development Manager is required by Wall Colmonoy. Performance Review Institute is seeking Nadcap Consultant Auditors Last week we added a Metallurgical Engineer looking for work in Charlotte, North Carolina. Operations Manager would like a change. There are some very experienced heat treating individuals looking for work these days and this is an example Heat Treating/Forging/Foundry Engineer. We have an Induction Salesman looking for sales work on the East Coast and a very successful technical sales executive seeking a Technical Sales or Sales-management position in the heat processing industry. A Metallurgical Engineer with over 20 years experience is looking for a position in the Minneapolis/St Paul area. We added a Midwest Company that is looking for a Metallurgist and a Shift Superintendent. A Midwest company is looking for a General Manager. July 3/09
Vac Aero Move. The largest commercial heat treater in Canada and new furnace builder Vac Aero has relocated their offices as you can see below. Speaking from experience I can say that their current location is full to the brim. July 2, 2009
“VAC AERO has relocated its Corporate Head Office to 5420 North Service Road, Suite 205 in Burlington, Ontario. An integral part of our Thermal Processing Division's Lean Manufacturing inspired re-organization plan requires moving our accounting, administration and executive management offices out of our production facility to free up needed plant space. The new offices are located 9 kms (5.5 miles) away from the Thermal Processing and Furnace Manufacturing facilities. The move does not involve any changes to our telephone numbers, mailing address or other contact coordinates.”
Where Are They Now? Ron Borden. We recently had a reader ask us about where Ron Borden is these days. As it happens this is a name we know and we quickly found out that he is with a service company by the name of Tru-Cal Inc. www.tru-cal.com Tru-Cal is run by our friend Nathan Wright and the company provides combustion tuning, calibration services, and temperature uniformity surveys. Previous to this he was with Conrad Kacsik Instrument Systems and Cleveland Electric Labs. Ron specializes in combustion tuning and furnace maintenance and troubleshooting. July 2, 2009
Advanced Nitriding Solutions/Batesville, Indiana, USA. We have a correction to a news item we posted yesterday concerning this medium sized commercial heat treater that specializes in Ion Nitriding. While the company did enter Chapter 11 on June 15/09 to reorganize, we have been assured that they will stay open and that they expect sales growth of 43% in 2009 which is quite impressive in this economy. July 1/09
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Inter Granular Oxidation (IGO). As it relates to carburizing of very large gears we have come across the term “IGO” on a very regular basis the past few months. While we have a passing knowledge about this term we approached David Pye for a complete detailed explanation. His answer is below. July 1/09
"When one is gas carburizing using an endothermic atmosphere in conjunction with hydrocarbon enrichment gases, oxygen will be present in the process chamber. The endothermic generating gas contains approximately 19% of carbon monoxide, 1% (maximum) carbon dioxide, 39% of nitrogen, 40% of hydrogen and one percent of methane. As can be seen from the analysis of the carrier gas, oxygen is present. Oxygen is also present in the process chamber from atmospheric humidity. Considering the traditional water gas reaction, the atmosphere control is accomplished by monitoring the CO/CO₂ ratios and the moisture content. The transfer of carbon to the surface of the steel is as follows: CO + CO₂ ⇄ CO +H₂
The transfer of carbon in the process atmosphere must be very carefully controlled due to the presence of oxygen in relation to the alloys that readily form oxides, such as:
· Chromium
· Manganese
· Silicon
Oxygen will readily react with these elements at the surface of the steel and will migrate into the surface of the material. This is known as inter granular oxidation, or IGO. The depth and tolerance of the IGO will be dependent on:
· The part application
· The selected carburizing process temperature
· The selected carburizing process time
· The required case depth
The question now begs to be asked, how will we know if it is present? It is almost safe to say that the IGO will be present. It can only be detected by a microscopic examination of a sample that has been subjected to the same treatment as the carburized part. The sample would be cut and mounted in the appropriate manner followed by:
· Rough grind
· Fine grind
· Rough polish
· Final polish
· Rinse and clean
The sample would then be observed using a metallurgical microscope on the brightly polished surface. It is important at this point, not to etch the formed case. This will almost disguise any IGO that would be present. The IGO will be seen as what appears to be fine cracks into the surface of the formed case. The next question that would be asked is what method can we use to prevent the formed IGO? The obvious answer to this question would be to utilize the process of low pressure carburizing. This process will guarantee that there is no oxygen diffusion into the surface of the steel, thus there will be no IGO formed in the final metallurgy of the formed case. The low-pressure carburizing also gives the opportunity to explore high-temperature carburizing in order to improve productivity. The problem with this solution is that overnight, it makes the use of the atmosphere furnace redundant. In this presents business climate that is not a good solution, unless it is absolutely necessary to ensure no surface IGO. Low-pressure carburizing does not use an endothermic gas generator. Unless the vacuum furnace leaks very badly, no oxygen will present during the process cycle. In addition to this the use of methane or propane makes it difficult to accomplish good carburizing. Propane and methane will decompose prior to making contact with the surface of the steel and will produce excessive amounts of soot. The presence of soot in the furnace means high maintenance of the furnace and poor, carbon transfer to steel surface. New gases such as acetylene (C₂H₂) mean that there is an abundance of carbon available to be delivered to the steel surface. In addition to this, acetylene will crack much easier without the risk of sooting conditions occurring in the furnace."
Nitrex Inc./Franklin, Indiana, USA. To make the statement that Nitrex has done more for gas nitriding technology that any other company in North America would not be too strong a statement. Nitrex Metal Inc in Quebec developed a system which became very successful commercially and from that point utilized the technology in their commercial heat treating plants. This is not to say that the commercial plants only offer gas nitriding and the facility in Franklin is a good example. The plant which we toured last week offers nitriding, Nitreg FNC/ONC, batch carburizing and vacuum hardening amongst other processes. I would classify this as a medium to large sized facility and in the top 25% of commercial plants when it comes to the condition of the equipment and the cleanliness. The photo below shows Dave Stanton (Heat Treat Specialists), Gord Montgomery (themonty.com), Erik Bates (Business Development Manager-Nitrex) and Chuck Thomas (Metallurgical Engineer-Nitrex). Two further items of note. Nitrex is strongly pushing their Nitreg FNC/ONC process as an environmentally friendly replacement for salt bath processing. In addition as the upcoming ASM show September of this year will be held in Indianapolis Erik is making the offer that heat treaters are more than welcome to tour the plant as they are located very close to Indy. July 1/09
Automotive Components Holdings LLC./Indianapolis, Indiana. USA. We used to know this company as Visteon, a division of Ford Motor but times change and now this auto components portion of Ford Motor is now known as ACH. What can you say about an auto components plant these days except that their future is up in the air? In this case the Indianapolis, Indiana, USA plant in the photo below is scheduled to close in 2011 unless the plant receives some new orders. We had the chance to tour this plant the plant this past week and it’s impressive, concentrating on the heat treat we saw a number of nice pusher lines, some batch IQ furnaces and Induction equipment. In the photo below you see John Chemelewski, Met Lab Superintend (real friendly, bright guy by the way) and Dave Stanton, Heat Treat Specialists, Brownsburg, Indiana, USA. June 30/09
Circle City Heat Treat/Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. Appearances can certainly be deceptive. Showing up at this medium sized commercial operation you see a respectable building but nothing especially out of the ordinary. However a tour through this rambling building shows some very impressive equipment, in particular vacuum furnaces. Circle City has been around for quite some time but was purchased by the current owner Tom Dunn within just the past few years. It would appear that Tom is looking at this for the long term and consequently has invested heavily in new equipment, the VFS furnace you see in the picture below is one of the more impressive furnaces. The company has at least 10 vacuum furnaces but in addition has some batch IQ capacity. In the photo below you see on the left Dave Stanton of Heat Treat Specialists in Brownsburg, Indiana, Gord Montgomery on the right. The photo was taken by the GM, Jim Kidd. June 29/09
Ipsen Press Release. This appeared on the Ipsen (new furnaces) Japan website late last week. If you changed the name this could apply to virtually all of the new furnace builders in the world. June 29/09
"Ipsen streamlines production in Germany
- Concentration of production capacity following market collapse
- Strengthening of sales and spare parts service at the Kleve site
Kleve, 23rd June 2009. The Ipsen Group, the world’s leading supplier of heat treatment solutions with five production sites and representatives in 34 countries worldwide, is reacting to the significant erosion of its markets caused by the global economic crisis. At the German site in Kleve on the Lower Rhine production capacity will be adjusted to reflect the sustained decrease in demand. Conversely there will be continued strengthening of the sales department and spare parts service for the German and neighbouring markets. Streamlining of production and a comprehensive package of measures to optimise all processes will result in the loss of 140 jobs in Kleve. There will be negotiations with the workers’ council to find the most socially acceptable solutions with regard to these redundancies.
In common with the entire German machine tooling industry the Ipsen production facility in Kleve has been hit hard by the severe recession. According to the Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau (German Engineering Federation) in April alone the orders received by the German machine tooling industry plummeted by more than 70 %. That is by far the most serious collapse the industry has seen since WWII. Overall since the beginning of 2009 orders received by Ipsen in Kleve have decreased by more than 50 % in comparison with the previous year. “Unfortunately we don’t have any evidence that the volume of business will return to previous levels in the next few months, but rather in light of our customers’ order patterns and in light of the overall development of the market have to assume a continuingly weak order situation,” says Dr. Hendrik Grobler, Chief Executive Officer of Ipsen International GmbH.
While the market leader for industrial furnaces and heat treatment systems is reducing new plant construction, the customer oriented service units in the global group are being strengthened. In order to also guarantee know-how on the ground in the long-term R&D and training in Kleve will remain unaffected by restructuring measures. The Ipsen group of production companies will continue to include production sites in Illinois, USA; Shanghai; Calcutta, India and Kyoto, Japan. Ipsen only relatively recently acquired the industrial furnaces division of Japanese manufacturer Seavac – in late 2008 – with the aim of strengthening its activities and achieving additional growth.
The Ipsen Group is the world’s leading supplier of heat treatment plants. Ipsen industrial furnaces are used during a number of processes to harden steel and other materials to meet the most exacting requirements relating to, for example, motors, gearboxes or power plants. The Ipsen Group has been instrumental in pushing forward the development of heat treatment to an extent which very few other companies can match. Heat treatment is a key, particularly cost-effective process for the significant improvement of the structure and thus the resilience of metals – in particular of steel and titanium alloys.
For over 60 years the company has been setting the course for market innovations with groundbreaking process technologies. Key sales markets are medical technology; wind energy generation and the aviation and foodstuffs industries. Ipsen customers include, among others, companies from the automotive and aerospace industries as well as in tooling and mechanical engineering and also contract heat treatment workshops. “The basis for our company continues to be very good; our technologies are innovative and in demand worldwide,” continues Grobler. “Over and above this we have taken additional steps to open up new markets with strong growth, particularly in Asia. The Kleve site will also benefit from this and will be provided with the foundations for a long-term, sustainable future following restructuring”.
In the event of enquiries please contact:
Ipsen International GmbH Uta Kirschnick Flutstraße 78 D - 47533 Kleve T: +49 (0) 2821-804-506 E-Mail: Uta.Kirschnick@ipsen.de Website: http://www.ipsen.de/"
Chet Wesolek/Modern Metal Processing. The Wesolek family has announced the passing of Chet Wesolek on June 19, 2009, he was 78 years old. Chet founded and was the owner of Modern Metal Processing Company in Williamston, Mi. He was an active member of the MTI, ASM, and AWS, the Brazing Section for 30 years. Chet will be remembered for his expertise in vacuum brazing and heat treating, particularly the aluminum alloy’s. Chet’s son Ed Wesolek who has worked along side Chet for many years has been running the company for some time and will continue company operations.June 29/09
Dana Corporation/Glasgow, Kentucky, USA. For those of you not familiar with Dana Corp. they are one of the world's largest manufacturers of automotive components with plants all around the world. Obviously they have been effected by the state of the worldwide heat treating industry but their facilities are still top notch and they have been very progressive over the years in investing in their captive heat treating departments. The Glasgow, Kentucky plant is a prime example. When we visited this plant earlier this week we saw several pusher lines, a very large, impressive press quenching department (one of the largest I have ever seen), batch IQ furnaces, a 2 year old ALD 8 cell ALD vacuum carburizing system and in spite of the fact that this is a down economy a state of the art control system which had recently been installed on several furnaces with others in progress. We were very fortunate that they agreed to let us take at couple of photos of the plant-generally pretty unusual in captive plants. In the two photos below you see in the first Brian Long, Heat Treat Technician on the left and Gord Montgomery on the right. In the second you see Gord Montgomery and Rao Yallapragada Metallurgist-both top notch fellows. We realize it is a tough world and that companies are reluctant to invest but in our opinion things will get better and companies such as Dana that are investing will reap the rewards in the future. June 26/09
Ameritherm/Bill Carr. It's not that long along that we visited Ameritherm in Scottsville, NY/USA. Ameritherm is not one of the largest players in the Induction heating business but we were impressed by the close knit atmosphere and the innovative ideas they quite obviously have. Our personal opinion is that this is a company that will continue to grow and one of these days will become one of the larger players in this business. June 26/09
(Scottsville, NY) Ameritherm Inc. — an Ambrell company in expanding its US sales coverage is pleased to announce and welcome Bill Carr as Regional Sales Manager, Northeast. With more than 20 years experience in the induction heating field, Bill is responsible for growing Ameritherm’s client base in the New England area, highlighting Ameritherm as the premier Induction Heating solutions provider. “Our customers benefit from new capabilities and features being added to the popular EASYHEAT and EKOHEAT product families. Higher power and lower frequency models are being added along with new LabVIEW based analysis software. These expanded ranges combined with our unsurpassed applications expertise will broaden the portfolio of solutions available.” Ameritherm, Inc., Cheltenham Induction Heating Ltd. and Ambrell B.V. are combined under a common banner: Ambrell. These induction heating pioneers provide over sixty years of induction expertise. Products offered under the Ambrell brand are available through offices, distributors or representatives in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, India, and Mexico. Development, manufacturing, sales, application engineering and services at the regional level provide advanced products and solutions. The Ambrell group holds 21 technological patents and has installations in over 40 countries. Extensive product and applications information including video demonstrations are featured at the Ameritherm website, www.ameritherm.com.
Chromalloy/Mercer Technologies. Chromalloy is a large worldwide company that specializes in inspection and repair of aerospace components. Due to lower demand from the commercial airlines the company has been making a number of changes over the past year, including decommissioning vacuum furnaces and moving others. The note below comes from Mercer Technologies who recently received an order from the company to move and rebuild two vacuum furnaces.
June 25/09"Mercer Technologies Inc. is in the process of completing an order from Chromalloy Component Services to move one (1) Ipsen VR72 x72 bottom load vacuum furnace and one (1) Ipsen V7272 bottom loading Turbo Treater from Fort Walton Beach, Florida to San Antonio, Texas. The relocation included rebuilt Hot Zones utilizing Mercer’s New Patent Pending Insulation Retention and Heating Element support systems, complete installations, start-ups and certification of each unit. The deciding factor in the purchase was the ability of Mercer Technologies to take the furnaces from removal to certification. Michael C. Mercer, Vice President of Operations, Mercer Technologies Inc., Mike.jr@mercer-tech.,com"
Heat Treating Indiana/Kentucky, USA. In our journey to find an area of North America where captive and commercial heat treaters are not feeling the pinch these days we are spending the week in Indiana and Kentucky. Alas so far it does not appear that this area is fairing any better than most other parts of the continent-although it is still better than the most hard hit areas, Michigan and Ontario. Up to date we have visited auto parts makers (not good), commercial shops (not bad as long as they are largely aerospace) and several other captive heat treaters. Later this week and early next we should be able to provide a few photos and a few more details. June 25/09
Georges Henry/Metcor Trempeurs D'Acier Du Quebec. For as long as I can remember (over 30 years in the heat treating business) the General Manager of commercial heat treater Metcor in St. Eustache, Quebec Canada has been an individual by the name of Georges Henry. Georges was born in France and had long considered moving back after his retirement which was planned for early this year. It is very upsetting that this dream will not come to pass as Georges passed away this past weekend from cancer. A good man, he had spent his whole life in the heat treating industry and there was very little to do with heat treating that he did not know. I personally will miss speaking with him. Metcor is the largest commercial heat treater in Quebec and one of the larger in Canada and at one point in time was a division of Lindberg. June 24/09
GBM Rivet & Fasteners, Inc./Maple, Canada. July 13,14/09 the remaining assets of GBM located just outside of Toronto, Canada will be auctioned off. While this medium sized fastener manufacturer did not heat treat in house they certainly sent out a lot of work to commercial heat treaters around Southern Ontario. Unfortunately when the company closed these same heat treaters were left with a number of very large unpaid bills. June 24/09
Shanghai Advanced Materials Technology Co., Ltd./Shen Li. As we have pointed out in the past commercial heat treaters around the world have been severely affected by the recession and this holds true even in China. Bodycote International, one of the world’s largest commercial heat treaters has a facility in Wuxi (near Shanghai, this is where many Western companies have set up operations in China), and this plant like most was forced to part ways with several employees. One such individual was Shen Li who looked upon this as an opportunity which lead to him and several other metallurgists setting up their own consulting business in Shanghai, Shanghai Advanced Materials Technology Co. The company will offer experienced advice about heat treatment and surface engineering and their website is www.samtc.com If you’re looking for somebody in China drop Shen a line and he’ll be glad to talk to you shen.li@samtc.com June 23/09
Grain Boundary Oxidation. The question and answer which David Pye has sent us caught our eye because IGO has been a hot topic of late as it pertains to windmill gears, an area which is attracting a lot of attention these days. June 23/09
“Is it possible when carburizing under atmosphere conditions to eliminate the potential for grain boundary oxidation? When using an endothermic gas generator with a hydrocarbon enrichment gas, or a nitrogen methanol system with a hydrocarbon enrichment gas, the answer is a simple no. This is simply because oxygen is generated within the process chamber as a result of the gas mixture when producing endothermic gas. Oxygen is produced simply because of the mixture of natural gas (methane) (also known as city gas) with air. The two gases resulting from the mixture and cracking of the primary two gases (natural gas/methane and air) will result in the formation of:
· Carbon monoxide (CO)
· Carbon dioxide (CO₂)
· If the carbon dioxide is allowed to escalate in its value of the total gas analysis, it will be a source of oxygen to cause oxidizing conditions on the surface of the steel. This will contribute to the potential problem of inter-granular oxidation (IGO) in the surface of the steel. The IGO will be seen microscopically on a polished but un-etched sample with the cracks migrating into the steel from the surface.
This cannot be stopped, but can be reduced by good control management and continual monitoring of the gas analysis both at the generator and at the furnace.”
Joe Greene. An individual who has always impressed us as being extremely competent is Joe Greene. A Materials Processing Engineer, Joe spent 12 years at Ipsen (new furnaces) in Rockford, Illinois, USA and 12 years at Praxair Surface Technologies' Powder Plant. If you recall we mentioned back in March of this year that Joe had become a victim of the current recession. Since that time he has worked non stop getting his name out, networking and interviewing with good results. He has just accepted a position with an aerospace company as a Materials & Processes Engineer. It’s a rough world but if you are good at what you do there are still positions available. June 22/09
What is the difference between Ferritic Nitrocarburizing and Carbonitriding? Our friend Dave Pye davidpye@pyemet.com tells us below what the differences between the two processes are. June 22/09
“The first essential difference between the two processes is the process temperature itself. Both low alloy and plain carbon steels can be successfully treated by either process. However, with one of the two processes distortion can be a significant problem. This is simply because of:
· A higher process temperature
· Rapid cooling requirement (quenching)
· Process cycle time
The process of carbonitriding is a high-temperature process (1675°F approximately) and it will produce a completely different finished surface metallurgy than the ferritic nitrocarburizing procedure. It is often misconstrued that the purpose of the carbo nitriding process is to improve the surface hardenability of a low alloy steel or a plain carbon steel. While this does occur and higher surface hardness values are seen because of the addition of nitrogen into the surface, the real reason for the carbo nitriding process is it to lower the final austenitizing temperature. The final austenitizing temperature will be reduced by approximately 50°F. This means that the potential for distortion is reduced and the potential for retained austenite is also reduced. Nitrogen in the surface of the steel is an austenite transformation temperature suppressant. Ferritic Nitrocarburizing is a low temperature nitriding procedure that can be applied to low alloy and plain carbon steel’s. The procedure is conducted at a slightly higher temperature than would be for nitriding. The process temperatures are generally in the range of 975°F to 1075°F. The process is still based on the diffusion of nitrogen into the surface of the steel but with the addition of a hydrocarbon gas which will assist in the formation of the epsilon compound zone at the steel surface. The process is generally applied to low cost components that require a hard wearing surface. However the surface will not take any impact conditions, as it has no core strength to support any potential impact on the surface. But it does give a hard wearing surface.
There has been confusion in engineering circles on the interpretation of which process is which. Some European drawings will call for the procedure of:
· Nitro-carburize
This is sometimes misinterpreted to mean carbo nitride which is an incorrect interpretation. The correct interpretation of the European terminology is in reality:
· Ferritic Nitro-carburize or more commonly known as FNC.
The FNC process can be further adapted to include a post-oxidation treatment. This is a procedure which occurs at the completion of the FNC process and is a deliberate oxidation of the steel surface. This will assist in corrosion resistance. This does not mean that it will stop corrosion, but it will reduce the rate at which corrosion could normally take place.”
L & L Special Furnace. For one reason or another we have been coming across this company quite a bit recently, today we hear about them recently shipping a furnace for use in the dental industry. June 22/09
“Aston, Pa (June 19, 2009) -- L&L Special Furnace Co., Inc. has shipped an ultra high uniformity box furnace, model XLFS, to a major US/European dental laboratory for manufacturing implants. The primary purpose of the furnace is to evenly remove binders and cure ceramic blocks prior to being machined into teeth. The blocks are heated to 700°C to remove binder. The blocks are then heated to 1010°C to cure. The ceramic blocks shrink during the heating cycle, but the amount of shrinkage can be controlled with even heating. If there are variations in the temperature uniformity it will cause irregularities in the product, resulting in waste and/or costly rework. During tests prior to shipment, the furnace was surveyed and indicated uniformity of ±2°C at 1010°C throughout the work envelope. Many blocks and round ceramics can be placed in the furnace with a work envelope of 16” wide by 16” high by 24” deep. There is a 2” diameter outlet in the top to which an afterburner can be attached. This allows for the binder to be burned off prior to venting. The furnace includes a secondary shell with a 300 CFM venturi which is integrated with a motor control so the venturi speed can be adjusted to meet any required cooling curve. About L&L Special Furnace Co., Inc. L&L Special Furnace Co, Inc. designs and builds high temperature furnaces, ovens, kilns, quench tanks and heat treating systems. We specialize in batch production furnaces and ovens particularly for applications requiring high uniformity and controlled atmosphere. L&L sells and services equipment worldwide. A 60+ year reputation for sophisticated engineering, quality workmanship, excellent documentation, and professional service has resulted in a large and growing base of satisfied customers, many of them larger and very particular customers. For more information, contact Tom Schultz, L&L Special Furnace Co., Inc., 20 Kent Road, Aston, PA 19014.”
Chrysler/Williams Industrial Service Inc. In 2007 Chrysler announced they were building a new axle plant in Marysville, MI, USA to replace an older facility in Detroit known as “Detroit Axle”. Construction was started and equipment ordered including new pusher furnaces from Williams Industrial Service. Then in 2008 the world changed and there was a great deal of debate about the future of this plant, debate which included Chrysler possibly selling the facility to either Dana, American Axle or partnering with ZF. Due to the uncertainty the furnaces were not shipped until fairly recently after sitting at Williams for quite some time. However the furnaces are now installed, Williams has been paid in full for this roughly $9 million USD project and the furnaces should be starting production within the next few months. June 19/09
Borg Warner, Muncie, Indiana, USA. Yesterday we had a note about this being the end of the line for Borg Warner in Muncie as the remaining equipment was being auctioned off. The auction was held and the remaining 4 Surface Combustion Super 30 Allcase lines were sold along with the Holcroft Endo generators. Always sad to see the end of the line for what was at one time such a large manufacturing facility. June 19/09
Thermocouples. David Pye, Heat Treat Consultant and regular contributor to “The Monty” offered us some thoughts yesterday about thermocouples in the heat treating industry. We had a couple of comments to this item including one individual who suggested that if you don’t know the purpose of thermocouples you are in the wrong industry. Be that as it may we did get some thoughtful ideas from Andrew Basset, a very experienced individual whose job it is to certify thermocouples (amongst other things).June 18/09
"Gord: I'd like to add on to David Pye's remarks about thermocouples. I agree that many people assume that the temperature on a furnace control is the true temperature inside the furnace. The remark that thermocouples have a known error or correction factor is correct, but as any good thermocouple laboratory will state, that the thermocouples error may change during it's use. The amount of change depends on such factors as temperature, time and environmental conditions under which the thermocouple is used. In the aerospace and automotive heat treating industries, there are several requirements that check the "health" of the control/recording thermocouples. System Accuracy Testing (SAT) or Probe Checks is the most common. A System Accuracy Test is defined by AMS-2750D as "An onsite comparison of the instrument/leadwire/sensor readings or values, with the readings or values of a calibrated test instrument/leadwire/sensor to determine if the measured temperature deviations are within applicable requirements. Performed to assure the accuracy of the furnace control and recorder system in each control zone" The SAT frequency will be determined by the Class of the equipment i.e.: +/-10F, +/-15F, +/-25F, etc and the Instrumentation Type. SAT can be performed anywhere from a weekly basis to a semi-annual basis.
Another note to mention would be to determine the overall performance of a furnace would be to conduct Temperature Uniformity Survey (TUS). Again, as defined by AMS-2750D, "The temperature variation (usually expressed as +/- degrees) within the qualified furnace work zone with respect to set point temperature". Temperature Uniformity Surveys are conducted with certified/calibrated test thermocouples along with a certified/calibrated test instruments. With the applicable correction factors applied to all readings, one can determine the true temperatures within a furnace. Both these test are required (in aerospace & automotive heat treating) and often misunderstood and misapplied. Many clients do not know their requirements. A thorough review of process specifications and AMS-2750D would be a good start. Best Regards, Andrew Bassett Vice President Pyrometry Services Conrad Kacsik Instrument Systems, Inc. (908) 217-8722 "