Over the years "The Monty Heat Treat News" has visited and profiled well over 100 captive and commercial heat treaters in Germany, and at the end of the day one of the cleanest, most well organized and modern is "WERZ Vakuum-Wärmebehandlung GmbH & Co.", based in Gammertingen, Germany.

This family owned firm of over 70 employees focuses only on vacuum heat treating, vacuum nitriding and coatings and the facility is so clean that live potted plants can be seen throughout the plant-which has to be a first.

The company makes our news today because "Werz" recently upgraded an almost 30 year old plasma nitriding system with the one shown in these photos.

Interestingly enough while plasma nitriding is very common in Europe it has never received the same level of popularity in the rest of the world. In North America as an example only a handful of companies have made a go of this technology, most notably "Advanced Heat Treat Corporation" of Waterloo, Iowa.