Today we are looking at the Aalberts Surface Technologies facility in Värnamo, Sweden part of one of the largest surface treatment and commercial heat treating organizations in the world. Our host today is Mr. Mirko Dandic, who became plant manager in November 2018-Mirko gives us this summary of what has been accomplished in a little over 2 years.

• November 2018 I started as a plant manager for Värnamo plant.
• 2019 we bought a new HEMO hybrid washer and a new environmental container with AC for storage of cleaning solvent.
• 2020 we overhauled our entire ventilation and heating systems in the entire plant, including a new kitchen and dining room.
• Entire packaging area is overhauled. Painted, cleaned and equipped with lifts and crane, hydraulic tables etc.

“In the beginning of 2020 we also decided to shut down 2 of our last mesh belt furnaces, one manufactured by Sarlin and the other one by Safed. Even though a market still exists in Sweden for small parts and components that are processed in this type of furnace, pricing and the age of the furnaces made it easy to decide about our future.

At the same time, we made a decision to expand our sealed quench line so we can grow with this type of process that we are experts at. The market is growing, our customers are growing as well so we decided to adapt and expand in order to be more competitive in the market.

We bought a new RTQ size 10 furnace, a new tempering DC-10 furnace with protective atmosphere and we decided to replace the old loading/unloading car with a new one. All 3 machines were manufactured by Ipsen, who also provided the rest of the line. Our line is very long (40 meters) and really wide, so we ordered a custom-made unloader to fulfil our standards.

After we sold the old belt furnaces we did overhaul 2000 square meters in the oldest part of the plant, fixed the ventilation system, cleaned walls and painted them, filled old oil pits and installed a KGO gas nitriding furnace. This is a new process for us in Värnamo, but our colleagues in Anderstorp are experts in this area and their training and support is extraordinary. This is just one of the benefits of being part of the Aalberts Group, investments, growth and knowledge is limitless. Mirko Dandic, Plant Manager”

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