Over the years “The Monty Heat Treat News” has reported several times on a large captive/commercial heat treater in Ovar, Portugal by the name of Ramada S.A. The last time we mentioned the firm was November of 2023 when we spoke about the company investing in 2 new sealed quench furnaces being provided by Ipsen of Kleve, Germany. The installation is now complete as we can see in this photo and the press release below.
“APRIL 28/2024; RAMADA AÇOS is launching a new line of automatic heat treatments with controlled atmosphere and oil cooling – carburizing, carbonitruding, tempering, among others. With more than 70 years of experience, the Heat Treatment unit in Ovar thus increases its production capacity to a maximum of 9,000kg/day, with the possibility of treating pieces up to 1300 mm in length and 1,500 kg.
This new line of heat treatments is the result of a partnership with the supplier IPSEN, a global reference in this type of equipment. Cutting-edge technology allows you to automate and digitalize heat treatment processes, making the production unit safer, more efficient and sustainable, also ensuring the automation of quality control.
RAMADA AÇOS thus reinforces its positioning in the Iberian market as a true partner in the industry, such as metalworking, molds, among others. The company combines greater production capacity with close customer support and a specialized team capable of finding the best technical solutions, prioritizing the quality and speed of service execution, competitiveness and trust.”
“NOVEMBER 22/2023; Captive Heat Treater Prepares to Receive New Sealed Quench Furnaces; The Monty Heat Treat News has spoken several times about captive/commercial heat treater Ramada S.A. in Ovar, Portugal-as a matter of fact Gord and Dale Montgomery visited this facility in 2021 (you can read our summary of that visit further down).
As we have previously reported the company recently invested in two brand new Ipsen Sealed Quench furnaces (Batch IQ furnaces to our North American readers)-the project involves 2 Ipsen-RTQF-XL-GRM furnaces with all the ancillary items required. The furnaces are now completed at Ipsen in Kleve, Germany and prior to shipping Ipsen hosted the entire Ramada heat treat team for a week of training as you can see in this picture.
“NOVEMBER 2021; Ramada ACOS is a captive/commercial heat treater located in the northern part of Portugal in the city of Ovar. The firm is another example of a company which offers some of the most “state of the art” heat treatment processes available anywhere in the world. Ramada has been in business for more than 75 years both as a heat treater and a distributor of steel for Uddeholm. The company has 13 vacuum hardening and vacuum nitriding furnaces all from French furnace builder BMI along with 8 sealed quench furnaces with oil quenching https://www.ramada.pt/pt/servicos/acos-ligas/tratamentos-termicos.html, Interestingly enough at least some of the sealed quench furnaces are from a Brazillian furnace manufacturer by the name of Brasimet which caught our attention-as it turns out because of the historical connection between Portugal and Brazil this is a not uncommon occurence.
The vacuum furnaces include a hardening furnace with dimensions of 1200 mm X 1200 mm X 1800 mm (48″ x 48″ x 72″) with 13 bar nitrogen quenching, a vacuum carburizing system, several tempering units and some nitriding systems. Every single one as mentioned previously was provided by BMI in Lyon, France and in many cases Ramada has been the testing ground for new processes being developed by BMI.””
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This certainly makes for interesting reading. Solar Atmospheres is ranked as the 4th largest commercial heat treater in North America by “The Monty Heat Treat News” and obviously they continue to grow.
“El Cajon, CA, April 29, 2024 – Solar Atmospheres, Inc. is pleased to announce their most recent acquisition, Certified Metal Craft (CMC) located in El Cajon (an East County suburb of San Diego). With nearly 55 years of serving the Southern California region, CMC and the Wiederkehr Family have established themselves as a trusted and dependable source for Heat Treating and Brazing services. With the addition of CMC to the Solar Family of Companies, CMC establishes Solar’s 6th nationwide location and bolsters their West Coast presence.
CMC has extensive capabilities to include Vacuum, Aluminum, Atmospheric, Endothermic, Salt Bath and Cryogenic processing and currently employs 25 dedicated and loyal employees. Servicing the Aerospace, Medical, and Commercial markets, CMC is Nadcap accredited and holds a long list of customer and prime approvals. Tim Wiederkehr will immediately assume the role of V.P. of Operations and report to Derek Dennis, President of Solar Atmospheres of California, Inc.
Derek Dennis states “Solar is excited to welcome the dedicated CMC team into the growing nation of Solar companies. We look forward to learning, growing, and working together to modernize the facility with Solar built state-of-the-art equipment, support systems, and a customer support structure that seamlessly works to meet or exceed our valuable customers’ requirements. Together, we will continue to grow our west coast footprint while solidifying our industry leading approach of being the “go-to” choice for all heat treating & brazing needs with an unwavering commitment to honesty and integrity in all relationships.”
For additional information about Solar Atmospheres of California/San Diego, contact Derek Dennis at 1-855-934-3284 x1301 or email Derek at [email protected], and visit us at solaratm.com.”
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Precision Aerospace Heat Treating. Est. 1949. True to our name, we heat treat metal for extreme strength and durability. Most impressive of all, we maintain dimensional stability, minimize distortion, and quickly deliver each part to perfection.
www.herculesht.com
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We at “The Monty Heat Treat News” met Anthony a couple of times over the years and still retain a very good memory of the man. Hercules Heat Treat is a very specialized heat treater, concentrating on the aerospace industry in particular the heat treatment of aircraft landing gear.
“Anthony I. Rizzo, age 92, of Paramus passed away on Thursday, April 25th, 2024. Anthony is predeceased by his loving wife Catherine of 62 years of marriage. He is survived by his son Anthony P. Rizzo and his wife Melissa, daughter Carol Janes, and son Kenneth Rizzo and his wife Gena. Adoring grandfather to five grandchildren – Elena, Matthew, Janine, Nicholas and his wife Brianna and Eric.
Anthony enjoyed going on vacations and spending time with family. He would attend many events involving his grandchildren including dance recitals, sporting events, and graduations. He was the proud owner of Hercules Heat Treating Corporation, a 75-year-old family-owned business that specialized in metallurgical engineering. The company participated in programs for aerospace parts for the F-18, F-35, and A-10. Furthermore, the company produced parts that were used on the space shuttle programs that began in 1981 and ended in 2011. On a nice day you could find him sitting on his porch outside reading his newspaper and finishing up his crosswords. Always a family orientated man, he loved hosting holidays and being surrounded by his children and grandchildren.”
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This past week Jordan and Gord Montgomery were delighted to have the opportunity to visit the Cronite facility in Arnage, France and learn more about the company. Later on, this week we will be giving you some more details of the company along with a number of photos.
1) Today we are pleased to be speaking with Mr. Radek Houdek, Group VP Sales & Marketing, Cronite Group and Mr. Erick Garcia, President, Cronite North America. Gentlemen I have been looking forward to asking you a few questions about Cronite Group, your products, your abilities and your thoughts on the heat treat industry in general. Radek, Erick I always like to start interviews with a little bit of personal background information-if you could share with us your backgrounds and how you ended up where you are now, I am sure our readers will be as interested as I am.
I started my career in the Heat Treatment world in 2001 at Belog Guss in Czech Republic. After 4 years of successful business development in Europe, Cronite took over this company, and so began my journey at Cronite. I will celebrate 20 years of service with Cronite Group in March next year!
I started at Cronite Group as Sales Manager, responsible for Central & Eastern Europe, in 2009. I was also serving in the East part of Germany and Austria. During this period, I developed the Sales network in Eastern European countries which enabled us to double our sales within few years. In September 2010, I moved to our Headquarter in France and in March 2011 took over the position of Group VP Sales & Marketing.”
Erick: “Thanks for the opportunity to share our experience in the industry.
As an Industrial designer as my primary profession I Joined Cronite in 2015 as a designer, having already worked for the foundry industry for 4 years, the transition to design heat treatment castings was easy for me, I got to experience 3 months in our plant in France getting trained by senior designers on our manufacturing-design workflow, key functionality of our fixtures and the design process itself.
After one year of working in our foundry in Monterrey I was promoted to Design & Project manager for the US and MX. Here is when I got to meet Radek, and I started to build good networking relationships both in the US attending to all the Trade show for ASM and FNA.
Years later an opportunity to join the Mexican sales team opened up and after the Covid 19 quarantine I was very happy to jump on the road and get to work firsthand on the projects I used to manage from the design side.
In September last year, I was promoted to Sales Manager for the USA & Canada after having had good success in Mexico, now I get to Manage our Sales office and warehouse in the Cleveland area.”
2) Cronite is an international company with several different locations-please give us an overview of the company as a whole, the different facilities and number of employees. As an aside could you also give us an indication about annual sales and the relative size compared to other foundries servicing the heat treatment industry?
Radek: “Cronite reached 90 mil USD sales last year, about 80% of our business is related with heat treatment business like standard heat treatment baskets or base trays, tailored made fixtures and furnace spare parts.
With all respect to other foundries supplying the heat treatment industry, we are the only one having foundries (France, UK and China) and one production site for fabricated products in Germany, serving our customers around the world. In addition, we do have own design and R & D Center with close to 20 employees and a R&D center working on new products and alloys and new processes. Globally, Cronite Group is a company with more than 500 employees.”
Erick: “Complementing what Radek said, with a good synergy of work between R&D and our engineering department we are to determine the needed yield between thickness and strength by FEA analysis with our own alloy database that when it comes to producing our fixtures we are able to come up with optimized proposals for customers looking to improve Alloy + parts yield that results on productivity increase for our customers.”
3) I think of Cronite mainly for castings-am I right or wrong? Along the same lines there are a few different types of casting, sand casting, investment casting, centrifugal casting-what can you provide and what are the advantages/disadvantages of each?
Radek: “Gord, Cronite is not “only” a casting manufacturer. During my extended stay in USA last year, I could personally experience that Cronite is well known as an alloy supplier and not so much a producer of CFC components and fabricated products. Fortunately, we enlarged our product portfolio sold in USA last year, especially in the field of CFC/Graphite.
Cronite delivers in-house cast items such as green sand casting, Alphaset casting, investment casting and centrifugal castings. With over 100 years of experience in the design and manufacture of refractory alloy castings, we select the best production method depending on size & shape of casting as well as type of heat treatment process.
Our goal is to reach the best Total Costs of Ownership for our customers.
Additionally, Cronite offers fabricated parts like retorts or muffles as well as CFC fixtures or furnace spare parts. Cronite is offering a solution to customers. It is not only about products.”
4) I am really curious about your involvement with CFC (Carbon/Fibre/Carbon) fixturing. I am certainly very familiar with CFC fixturing but can’t help but wonder if it is in competition with your cast products. I mean why would you offer two different and competing solutions for fixturing needs? Or does each have certain advantages that make them more suitable in some applications than others?
Radek: “Cronite is not new to the CFC / Graphite market, since 1995 we have been supplying these products to
Our latest development is a Hybrid Fixture, combining refractory alloys and Carbon materials to achieve the perfect balance of cost, strength, weight, and temperature/process resistance. This technology is particularly effective for vacuum heat treatment process, atmosphere carburizing/hardening, and low-pressure carburizing with gas or oil quenching.
The principle is simple; Combine the benefits of each material to maximize load size, life cycle, and process results all while minimizing cost.”
5) Tell us about your design capabilities and how it helps your customers out. I will tell you why I phrased the question that way. A number of years ago I worked closely with a US foundry who had a reasonably substantial design department which they were rightfully quite proud of. However, they always claimed that while this was generally a very definite plus for them it was also a minus in that it raised their costs and made it difficult to compete price wise with firms that merely copied competitors designs. What are your thoughts on being able to offer designed solutions?
Radek: “I will do my best to make the story short.
Cronite has 20 designers located on 3 continents – Europe, Americas and Asia – in order to provide the right support in the same time zone.
We use 3D software as well as FEA simulation software and Topology optimisation software.
Our goal has always been to provide the best technical solution to our customers.
What are the main goals?
– Reduce the weight of fixtures and reduce the energy consumption (as less energy as possible to heat and cool the fixtures),
– Increase the number of components to be heat treated (more components per batch, less costs per component),
– Reduce the distortion / deformation of components (less scrap rate at our customer),
– Prevent any damage to customer parts (again less scrap at our customer),
– Easy loading and unloading of components,
– Improve the life span of fixturing.
I don’t want to repeat myself, but we help our customers to improve the Total Costs of Ownership.
Additionally, our R&D center in the Czech Republic, continuously develops new alloys, which helps to optimize the costs. These new alloys are not only dedicated to heat treatment but also other segments, which we supply, like Waste Incineration, Steel and the Aerospace Industry.”
Erick: “What can I add to Radek’s answer? Being a designer myself and having already worked from the manufacturing-design and product development standpoint I can say that we honor our slogan “Better by Design” and we strongly believe that, due to this great teamwork, we offer the best solutions thaks to our “Better by People” state of mind.”
6) Where do you feel you are the strongest by product? Fixturing? Furnace parts? Radiant tubes?
Radek: “Definitely, Cronite’s strength is in designing dedicated fixtures for any kind of furnace (Low Pressure Carburizing, Vacuum, Conventional, Pit furnace…). Our motto is “Better by Design”.
Additionally furnace parts like radiant tubes, furnace rolls and fans are an important part of our business.”
7) The previous questions lead directly to this one-what about stocking of spare parts? We all know that sometimes, such as in a breakdown situation delivery is more important than price-do you have many “off the shelve” items?
Radek: “North American Cronite keeps a stock of standard trays, grids, baskets, posts as well as furnace parts to help out our customer situations like a breakdown.”
8) So, if I as a customer came to you and said, Radek. Erick, I need a pusher head assembly for a 2004 Surface Allcase with working dimensions of 36” X 48” x 36” are you able to quote me what I need, or do I have to get out there with my tape measure and start drawing and measuring?
Erick: “We have a large database with the furnace spare parts with patterns to produce the majority of them, so we are able to determine a starting point of what the customer needs, but some times installations differ to what actually was built for each furnace, so it’s worth to check for any deviations from the print to the physical install.”
9) You already told us where your various facilities are and some such as the UK and France are relatively high-cost areas to do business in. How do you compete with lower cost areas such as India?
Radek: “Interestingly, you mentioned India, which we also supply from our European foundries…. How do we do that?
“Better By Design”: we offer the right technical solution.
“Better By Alloy”: we select the best alloy for the process.
“Better By People”: we provide the right service.
Honestly, I don’t see our competitors as enemies but as colleagues from industry.”
Erick: “During the last ASM trade show in Queretaro I was approached by a 75-year-old individual who has spent most of his life in the heat treatment industry-he told me he considers us to be the “Rolls Royce” of the industry when it comes to fixtures. Obviously I was pleased by this comment, but somehow I feel like our parts are very well designed and tested and should not be considered a luxury item such as a “Rolls Royce” Everything we do is designed to provide a good product, with a long life for a very competitive price.”
10) Perhaps you fellows could polish up your crystal ball and tell us where the heat treatment industry is going in 2024? Up? Down? Stable?
Radek: “I do wish I had a crystal ball to give you a precise answer. What is true at Cronite, is that we work with different scenarios to remain agile. Coming back to your question, the answer might be different by geographical area.
We can see the first positive signs of recovery in China, Europe demand is expected to remain stable, and USA should continue to grow. Globally, the start of the year is really promising for Cronite, and our target is to exceed 110 M$ in 2027.”
Gord Montgomery: “Radek, Erick I thank you for your time and your very candid answers.”
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Tyler joins the Ipsen Team from Rockford Ball Screw, where he worked as a Business Development Manager. He also has extensive experience in sales, service and support of industrial machinery from his time at Bourn & Koch, a machine builder in Rockford, Illinois.
Charlie holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Alabama. Over the course of his career, he has held positions as an Applications Engineer, Mechanical Designer, and Project Engineer.
Transitioning from his role as the Southeast Regional Sales Engineer, Asher Thoeming steps into a new position as Regional Service Manager for Ipsen’s International Customers. Asher has provided exceptional service to Ipsen’s loyal customers in the Southeast and is committed to maintaining the same high level of service to customers across the globe.
The Regional Sales Engineers report to Matt Clinite, who was promoted to Director of ICS Sales and Retrofits last year. In this capacity, Matt spearheads strategic initiatives and provides guidance to both inside and outside aftermarket sales teams, aiming to secure the long-term success of Ipsen’s customers.
“Ipsen has the largest and most technical aftermarket support team in the industry,” said Clinite. “We continue to hire uniquely qualified employees for our customer-facing roles, most of whom have technical degrees. Ipsen is fostering the next generation if industry leaders, and we are extremely excited about the teams we have in place.”
Over the last two years, Ipsen has made significant changes to its aftermarket services under the leadership of Chief Service Officer, John Dykstra. This included the addition of Christina Connelly, Customer Service Parts Manager in 2022, and David Choate, Director of Field Service in 2023. Both have grown their teams, improved operational efficiencies, and led initiatives to enhance customer support.
In the coming weeks, stay tuned for updates on Ipsen’s Parts, Field Service, and New Equipment Sales Teams, highlighting their ongoing commitment to customer satisfaction.
For more details on Ipsen Customer Service, please visit https://ipsenglobal.com/parts-and-services/.
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“An automotive company in South America has recently placed a follow-up order for a second EndoFlex generator from UPC-Marathon, a Nitrex company. Following the successful installation of a 200 m³/h EndoFlex unit last year, the new generator, boasting a similar capacity, aims to enhance stability, ensure consistent composition and gas flows, and prioritize top-tier quality of automotive gear boxes while achieving efficiencies in heat treatment operations.
Prior to adopting the EndoFlex solution, the manufacturer relied on four outdated generator units, each with a capacity of 70 m³/h and consuming 80 kW of power. Remarkably, with the same 80 kW of power consumption, the EndoFlex generator delivers an impressive 200 m³/h capacity, marking a substantial increase in efficiency and cost-effectiveness for the customer.
This transition to EndoFlex represents not only a remarkable 75% reduction in power consumption but also a significant contribution to operational efficiency and sustainability efforts. Furthermore, the new generator streamlines maintenance procedures, adheres to stringent quality standards, and reduces CO2 emissions. EndoFlex’s precision control over gas quality and production for the neutral hardening furnace enhances product quality, reduces operating costs, and optimizes energy consumption. By automatically adjusting gas production to match real-time furnace demand, EndoFlex effectively eliminates overproduction and waste.
“We’re proud to continue our partnership with this automotive customer,” remarked Marcio Boragini, UPC-Marathon’s Sales Director for Brazil. “This latest investment builds on the success of our first EndoFlex installation, establishing a benchmark for excellence. Moreover, EndoFlex offers a compelling return on investment, empowering the manufacturer to achieve their business objectives fast, while reinforcing our commitment to driving success together.”
ABOUT UPC-MARATHON. UPC-Marathon, a Nitrex company, pioneers industrial process control, automation, and digitalization for heat treatment and combustion markets. Our mission is to support furnace OEMs and equipment end-users with innovative solutions, enhancing profitability and reliability while optimizing operational efficiency. End-to-end control solutions encompass probes, analyzers, controllers, flow control systems, upgrades/retrofits, SCADA, and engineered solutions for various heat treat processes. Leveraging our digitalization platform QMULUS, customers gain a deeper understanding of their assets and production processes. Dedicated to our customers’ sustainable growth, UPC-Marathon delivers localized service with a global approach to excellence and care.”
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