In February of this year “The Monty Heat Treat News” reported that hydraulic pump supplier Bosch Rexroth was investing in a new in house heat treatment department at their facility near Queretaro, Mexico (original story is below). We speculated at the time as to what form this heat treat would take, we can now tell you what we have been told. We have been lead to believe that the main part of the investment will be in a total of 6 gas nitriding systems. If true this represents a very significant investment on the part of the company. As always we will try to keep our readers updated.
“FEBRUARY 2024/New Heat Treat Investment for Mexico Facility; June 2023 Bosch Rexroth announced that they had started production at a brand new facility in Querétaro, Mexico (the announcement can be found further down in this article). When the facility orignally opened it did not include in house heat treating capabilities although long term that was the plan-that timing is now being realized. The company is now saying that a supplier for the furnaces has been selected and that the site is being prepared for the equipment. More details to follow.
“JUNE 2023 Querétaro, Mexico; At its 42,000-square-meter plant in Querétaro, Bosch Rexroth began manufacturing hydraulic pumps, motors, and valves for mobile machinery such as excavators, forklifts, and tractors in June. The company prepares the ramp up of hydraulic components and products of linear motion technology. It is planned that additional products will be manufactured there for mobile machinery (transmission units, radial piston motors) as well as linear motion technology products (rails, runner blocks) for applications in mechanical and plant engineering as well as factory automation. Overall, industry specialists expect strong growth for mobile machinery and for the factory automation market, especially in North America.
“With its local-for-local strategy, Bosch Rexroth increases the capacity, flexibility and robustness of supply chains, reduces the CO2 footprint by regionally manufactured products and achieves shorter delivery times,” emphasizes Reinhard Schaefer, Member of the Management Board of Bosch Rexroth with responsibility for manufacturing and quality. In addition to its existing supplier base in North America, Bosch Rexroth relies on a stable and further growing supplier network in Mexico, for example for castings, machining, steel, drive shafts or cylinders.
Together with the Bosch Rexroth production sites in Bethlehem (Pennsylvania), Charlotte (North Carolina), Fountain Inn (South Carolina) and Lincolnshire (Illinois) in the United States, which have been existing for decades, the new plant in Querétaro will serve the market with hydraulic and Factory Automation solutions in a much faster and stable way. In Fountain Inn, Bosch Rexroth is expanding its services to include prototyping, customizing, re-manufacturing, and aftermarket service and spare parts.
“With our growing production capacity in this region, we can react even faster than before to customer requirements and meet the growing demand for components and solutions, in particular for agricultural and construction machinery and OEM machine builders in North America,” adds Christoph Kleu, Senior Vice President Finance and Administration of Bosch Rexroth in North America. “Our customers in North America will continue to order from their regional contact at Bosch Rexroth, but they will have more options for transport and delivery,” adds Kleu.
Bosch Rexroth has been present in North America since 1967 and employs more than 3,500 associates at five production sites and numerous sales and service locations. The new plant in Mexico complements the activities at the established sites.”
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Induction hardening is a critical process in the manufacturing of automotive, agricultural and aeronautical components, such as crankshafts, camshafts, constant velocity joints, axle shafts, etc. The procedure for the evaluation of metallurgical characteristics is carried out in the laboratory and is destructive testing, this means that the component will be unusable, this procedure is time consuming, expensive, and cannot be integrated into the production line. Over time the industry has sought faster and more efficient methods to evaluate metallurgical characteristics. The methods that have had the most development are eddy current testing, magnetic methods and ultrasound. In this article we will address the use of industrial ultrasound, which uses the backscattering technique, which offers a direct determination of the depth of the transition zone between the martensitic phase and the core (ferrite and pearlite). This method is simple and does not require prior calibration to evaluate the components.
Ultrasonic Backscatter technique
Ultrasonic waves propagating in polycrystalline materials (steel) are scattered at material interfaces with changes of density and/or elastic properties. In general, the ultrasonic waves are scattered in all directions, one part also back to the ultrasonic transducer that generated the ultrasonic pulse. The intensity of backscattered ultrasound received by the transducer depends on the ratio of geo- metric size of scattering geometry to the wavelength of ultrasound and on the degree of material property difference at the interface denoted by the term acoustic impedance change.
In the regime where the ultrasonic wavelength is large compared to the size of scattering geometry, higher ultrasound frequencies (or shorter wavelengths) increase the intensity of ultrasonic backscattering. Further, intensity of backscattering increases with the average effective size of the scattering geometry, for example the grain size of the polycrystalline steel. Using the appropriate frequency of about 20 MHz, the microstructure changes between the hardened case (usually fine grain Martensite) and the core material (usually quenched and tempered) with coarse-grained microstructure causes a distinct increase of backscattering intensity. This effect can be observed when the ultrasonic pulse crosses the interface and standard time of flight evaluation yields the depth position of the interface that corresponds to the Surface Hardening Depth (SHD), see figure below:
Figure 1: Principle of the Ultrasonic Backscatter Technique (UBT) The best results are achieved under the following conditions:
– Parts are induction hardened; – parts are forged, not cast; – the minimum SHD value is higher than ~ 1.2 mm; – there is a distinct interface between base material and hardened layer; backscattering within the base material is of sufficiently high intensity for ultrasonic frequencies of 20 MHz.
Applications
The manual device consists of a four-channel ultrasonic board controlled by a software pack- age for program settings, signal processing, reporting, and general quality assurance (QA) requirements. The components are assembled into an industrial notebook designed for use in rough industrial environments. Our probe systems enable testing of complex shaped components. The wedge of the probe system is adapted to the geometry of the required test position. For SHD values larger than 1.5 mm, rough technical surfaces are available that enable control before machining.
The main source of measurement error is evaluation of surface position: The shape of the surface signal depends on accurate coupling and operator skill. Another error source is setting the marker that provides the time of flight when the pulse reaches the interface. The steeper the signal rises, the lower the error. Thus, a shear wave angle as low as reason- able is used and scanning into the direction of decreasing SHD is recommended. Achievable accuracy of better than ±0.1 mm is possible for standard parts with high quality sur- faces. However, the operator must control the “good” shape of the A-scan during data acquisition. Accuracy based on mi- croindentation hardness profiles compared with the back- scatter method is slightly lower, estimated as ±0.2 mm on average, depending on the material microstructure.
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Next week “The Monty Heat Treat News” will be publishing our list of the “50 Largest North American Commercial Heat Treats-2024”. This years list will feature a USA commercial heat treater we have not mentioned before along with a number of changes.
We won’t keep you in suspense, the largest by a wide margin with be “Bodycote” who for years has dominated this list by a wide margin. As a prelude to the publication of this list we mention this (abbreviated) Trading Summary from the company for the period from January 1, 2024 to May 30th, 2024. The full report can be found at https://www.bodycote.com/
“Bodycote Trading Summary; We have enjoyed a good start to the year with constant currency revenue growth of 3.9% excluding surcharges (2.7% excluding Lake City acquired in January 2024). This demonstrates the strength of our Specialist Technologies businesses and the resilience provided by our diverse customer base, against a mixed market backdrop and some challenging prior-year comparators. Our expectations for the full year remain unchanged.
Group revenue was £268m in the period (2023: £281m), with underlying growth offset by surcharges which halved to around £14m as energy prices fell, and a foreign exchange headwind of £10m year-on-year. Organic constant currency growth of 2.7% (excluding surcharges) was driven by Specialist Technologies (+10.5%), while Classical Heat Treatment revenue was marginally lower (-1.0%). Within Specialist Technologies there was notable strength in Surface Technology and Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP), which captured growth opportunities while delivering strong operational performance.
By end market, on an organic constant currency basis, strength in Aerospace & Defense continued (revenue +16.2% excluding surcharges), with both commercial aerospace and defense sectors growing well. Automotive revenue was slightly lower (-1.8%) reflecting a subdued market environment and the high growth in the corresponding prior year period. General Industrial revenue was also slightly lower (-1.8%), with a varied picture across sub-sectors including continuing good growth in energy (+14.0%) offset by weakness in industrial machinery and related markets. While these industrial-focused markets declined year-on-year, revenue has improved sequentially versus the levels seen at the end of 2023. Medical-related business benefited from the Lake City acquisition which has been successfully integrated and is performing well, generating £3m revenue since its acquisition in late January 2024. As a result of the strong performance in aerospace, growth was considerably higher in our ADE division than in the AGI division. https://www.bodycote.com/press-releases/press-release-2024/trading-update-30th-may-2024/
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“Ipsen USA continues its commitment to the growth of the Ipsen Customer Service (ICS) Parts Department, expanding staff and implementing strategic initiatives to meet a growing demand.
Christina Connelly, Parts Manager for Ipsen in Cherry Valley, joined the team in 2022, and has since hired six additional employees. Between veteran team members and new hires with strong technical backgrounds, Connelly and her team are focused on reducing turnaround time and increasing customer responsiveness.
“We had outgrown our existing structure as our organization has evolved, so we had to reimagine what our parts team needed to look like, operationally,” Connelly explained.
Ipsen’s ICS Parts Team held an internal Kaizen event – a review of the processes used to complete customer orders and answer requests – and looked for immediate changes that would reduce delays, increase responsiveness, and allow for continuous process improvements. One place where the ICS parts team saw an immediate opportunity to reduce turnaround time came from asking the customers the right questions, right away.
“We started asking certain customers to fill out a detailed request form,” Connelly noted. “We wanted to see if we could turn a request into a quote sooner.” By collaborating with users of the Ipsen Connect online customer portal, Connelly’s team has gained better insight into this process and what information is most useful.
Automation, trend analysis, and artificial intelligence also offer hope for current and future solutions to ensure customer satisfaction. A centralized email system handles parts orders with a single point of contact. AI-powered customer service software automates phone order tracking, seamlessly integrating with sales platforms and managing case assignments. And Ipsen’s commitment to developing digitized machine learning solutions for customers and internal sales specialists is being led by Ipsen’s Vice President of Digital Technologies, Aymeric Goldsteinas.
“Ipsen is looking at ways to continue to support our customers and be better partners,” Connelly assured. “There’s no shortage of work behind the scenes to search for improvements and ways to be a better resource for our customers.”
From furnace builder Aichelin Group based in Mödling, Austria we have this summary about how the company did in 2023-it would appear that they did quite well.
“The globally positioned AICHELIN Group based in Mödling increased its turnover to EUR 214 million in 2023, an increase of 16 % after EUR 184 million in 2022. The Group grew both in its core segments of plant engineering – it produces industrial furnaces, industrial heating systems, control and automation systems as well as Industry 4.0 solutions – and in the service division, which now accounts for almost 40 % of the total sales.
The positive development reflects the geographic diversification of the Group. AICHELIN has subsidiaries in eight countries on three continents and a distribution network in 22 countries. The Group generates 45 % of its sales in the EU, 35 % in Asia and 20 % in North America.
“Our global footprint contributes significantly to our success. Our strong positioning was a key factor in our double-digit percentage growth in both revenue and earnings last year. We rely on decentralized local production facilities with a strong regional presence to respond efficiently to customer needs. This also makes us more resilient to unstable supply chains,” says AICHELIN Group CEO Christian Grosspointner.
Focus in Europe: New Assembly Center as an opportunity in a difficult market environment; To increase its competitiveness, the AICHELIN Group is joining forces in Europe and has established a new, joint production site in Europe. The modern 4,125 m2 Assembly Center Europe was built in Celje, Slovenia, next to the existing site and has been operating since the first quarter of 2024. All European production activities are now carried out here.
“The market situation in Europe is difficult, especially in the area of new equipment. Customers are postponing investments, partly because of the difficult conditions for the industry, such as high inflation, increased energy costs and the lack of qualified personnel,” explains Grosspointner. “However, we have a clear commitment to the location and want to remain a strong industrial partner in Europe. With our new Assembly Center Europe, we are pooling our strengths to respond even more efficiently to our customers’ needs.”
In addition, the Group is focusing on its core competencies with the sale of its subsidiary EMA Indutec GmbH, which specializes in induction heat treatment (see press release in March 2024). The proceeds will be invested in future-oriented projects such as modern furnace solutions for the heat treatment of battery powder, for example for e-mobility, the expansion of the product portfolio and in M&A projects.”
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We wish our friends in the USA a very memorable Memorial Day 2024.
“Memorial Day is an American holiday, observed on the last Monday of May, honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. Memorial Day 2024 will occur on Monday, May 27. Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings and participating in parades. Unofficially, it marks the beginning of the summer season.”
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The link below will take you to the June 2024 issue of “The Monty Heat Treat News“-for almost 50 years the premier source of news and trends in the Global Heat Treatment industry. A few stories in this issue include these;
Aichelin Group to Enter Vacuum Market
Munitions Supplier Adds Heat Treating Capacity
MT Heat Treat Auctions Off Surface Combustion Equipment
Bodycote Covington, Georgia, USA Appoints General Manager
Captive/Commercial Heat Treater in Portugal Completes Furnace Install
“The Monty” Visits Alloy Supplier Cronite, Mancelle, France
All these stories are combined with hundreds of surplus heat treat furnace listings. As always the entire “Monty” Team looks forward to your thoughts and comments. Sincerely, Gord, Dale and Jordan
Auburn, Indiana, USA is home to Auburn Gear LLC a very progressive manufacturer and captive heat treater who recently invited “The Monty Heat Treat News” to inspect their manufacturing facility and in house heat treat department. “Auburn Gear, LLC is a leading designer and manufacturer of custom engineered wheel drives, axle drive components, and specialty drives and solutions for diverse mobile equipment applications. Through its expansive product portfolio of planetary gearboxes, electric drive systems, driveline systems, and differentials, Auburn Gear offers more than 120 base product models covering over 3,200 application solutions that transfer power and torque to wheels, axles, booms, augers, winches, and platforms. https://auburngear.com/
Gord Montgomery of “The Monty Heat Treat News” in conjunction with Ben Tackett and Ryan McLaughlin of “McLaughlin Furnace Group” were given the complete tour of the Auburn Gear facility this week by long time heat treater Don Bartelt, Process Metallurgist for Auburn Gear and it could not have been a more interesting and complete tour mainly because of Don’s enthusiasm for the company and it’s abilities.
What we viewed was a company which offers a complete “made in America” solution to high end drive systems. While the entire facility was fascinating, as usual our focus was on the “in house” heat treating department. In years past the heat treat department was fairly typical of many if not most heat treat departments-older, dark and smoky. However the decision was made earlier this year that this was no longer acceptable and early in 2022 most of the floors were replaced, solutions to smoke from the furnaces were addressed and the entire heat treat department was updated. The end result is that what you now see is quite a clear, well organized department with large batch IQ furnaces, ancillary equipment and a brand new induction system being added.
These photos show the Surface Batch IQ furnaces, part fixturing and in one of our favorite pictures the finished product ready for shipping. The underlying theme of the entire company is their desire to offer a top notch, entirely made in America product which has complete control over every part of the manufacturing process and this includes heat treating.
It was a joy to see this facility and we thank the entire “Auburn Gear” team for their incredible hospitality.
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Don Bartelt, Ben Tackett and Ryan McLaughlin (McLaughlin furnace group)
Last week “The Monty Heat Treat News” briefly mentioned a new mesh belt furnace installation in Germany, we are now in a position to provide the full details.
Nedschroef Altena GmbH, of Altena, Germany is the oldest screw manufacturer in Europe dating back to 1709 when it started producing needles, The company was a pioneer in drill screws and tapping screws and now focuses on small screws. It has always considered heat treating to be a “core competency” which means a reasonably large and certainly a modern in-house heat treat department consisting of a number of mesh belt furnace lines.
Literally days ago the firm started producing parts on their newest mesh belt furnace line which was provided by Sistem Makina of Turkey. The “U” shaped line includes an automated loading system, high heat furnace designed for neutral hardening, an oil quench, rotary washer and mesh belt temper all controlled by a state of the art control system with complete datalogging. The line is capable of 1,000 kg/hour (2,200 pounds) and will be producing parts to the highest standards in the automotive and aerospace industries.
The line was sold by “Sistem Makina’s ” German sales representatives, “Avion Europe, Heat Treating Equipment” who also did the installation and start up (next week we will have two articles about Avion, their place in the European heat treat market and how they are cementing their impressive standing in the heat treat market).
The association between Nedschroef Fasteners and Avion is a close one as Avion has updated and rebuilt the other mesh belt heat treat lines at this facility.
In these photos we see part of the Avion team including, Roland Caminades, President, George Cluse, Sales Manager and Sebastian Schmidt. Also included in these pictures are Bulent Civici, General Manager of Sistem Makina and Aylin Civici, Sales & Marketing Engineer, Gord and Jordan Montgomery of “The Monty” and part of the engineering team from Nedschroef.
What we saw during this visit was a very impressive mesh belt installation which would rival anything available on the market. Stay tuned for the “Avion” story next week.
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Each week “The Monty Heat Treat News” tracks our most popular heat treat news stories according to “Social Media”. For the week starting Monday May 13 these were the top 3 stories with each getting several thousand “reads”.
Furnace Builder Aichelin to Offer Vacuum Furnaces; “The AICHELIN Group and Sistem Teknik have signed an agreement to establish a joint venture in Austria. This joint venture will produce and distribute industrial vacuum heat treatment technologies and services in Europe. The AICHELIN Group is thus adding a promising segment to its existing product portfolio.
“As one of the global market leaders in the production of industrial furnaces for industrial heat treatment, we want to become an even stronger partner in the supply of vacuum furnaces for industry. The joint venture combines the best of two worlds: With the products developed by Sistem Teknik and our global after-sales and service network, we create maximum customer focus – a perfect combination to better meet the increasing demand for vacuum solutions in the future,” states Christian Grosspointner, CEO of the AICHELIN Group.
“The motivation of our joint venture is to offer the best possible technology that fits our time, which inevitably demands environmental efficiency and sustainability. We have noticed that there is a strong market for megatrends such as carbon footprint, electromobility and lean production. With our vacuum furnaces, we aim to provide solutions that ensure low carbon emissions and maximum process quality. I am very confident that this collaboration will not only bring innovation, but also benefit our industry,” says Mehmet Özdeşlik, CEO of Sistem Teknik. https://themonty.com/furnace-builder-aichelin-to-offer-vacuum-furnaces/?no_cache=1715691989
Ipsen USA Welcomes Max Stormo to Souderton, PA; Ipsen welcomes Max Stormo as the new Ipsen Customer Service (ICS) Operations Manager as the company streamlines its aftermarket services in Souderton, PA. Stormo comes to Ipsen after an extensive career working as a manufacturing operations leader in Texas, and a recent role as Vice President of Operations at a manufacturer in the Philadelphia region.
In this position, Stormo will be a hands-on leader that directs and coordinates activities of Ipsen’s aftermarket business for the Souderton plant. This includes overseeing manufacturing activities, developing and implementing production plans, training and developing staff, and ensuring the delivery of high-quality aftermarket parts to Ipsen’s customers.
New Commercial Heat Treat in Tennessee; According to this press release a German company by the name of BorTec will be setting up a commercial heat treat facility in Johnson City, TN. Once completed the facility will offer “boronizing”; “Boriding, or Boronizing, is a thermo-chemical surface hardening process used to improve the life and performance of metal components. The process is used to strengthen resistance to corrosion and abrasive wear, decrease coefficient of friction, and, of course, greatly increase surface hardness. What is the difference between boriding and nitriding? While boriding can increase the hardness of material up to 2600 HV, nitriding can only achieve 950 HV for certain types of steel. Nitriding is most effective on nitriding steels, whereas boriding is also used on steel grades containing nickel, nickel superalloys, and cobalt superalloys.”
Want to know more about boronizing? In a few short weeks boronizing expert Craig Zimmerman of commercial heat treater Bluewater Thermal will be speaking about the process in a new episode of “The Heat Treat Podcast”.
“A new manufacturing facility in Johnson City will be the first U.S. location for a German-based company. State officials announced Thursday BorTec USA’s plans to invest $3.1 million and create 35 new jobs at its plant at 3618 Bristol Highway. The heat treatment plant will mainly produce wear- and corrosion-resistant pipes for the oil and gas industries. https://themonty.com/new-commercial-heat-treat-in-tenesse/?no_cache=1715611884
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Auburn, Indiana, USA is home to Auburn Gear LLC a very progressive manufacturer and captive heat treater who recently invited “The Monty Heat Treat News” to inspect their manufacturing facility and in house heat treat department. “Auburn Gear, LLC is a leading designer and manufacturer of custom engineered wheel drives, axle drive components, and specialty drives and solutions for diverse mobile equipment applications. Through its expansive product portfolio of planetary gearboxes, electric drive systems, driveline systems, and differentials, Auburn Gear offers more than 120 base product models covering over 3,200 application solutions that transfer power and torque to wheels, axles, booms, augers, winches, and platforms. https://auburngear.
