Going way back to 2019 aerospace giant Pratt & Whitney announced a new facility in the Ashville, NC, USA area. The ribbon cutting ceremony for the new facility was held November 16th, you can read the details here further down. As part of this investment oven and furnace builder L&L Special Furnace issued a press release about shipping a box furnace to this facility, this press release can also be found further down. It would appear that the plans are progressing as they should and that as we speak additional furnaces are being installed in what will end up being a medium sized in house heat treatment department.
“$650 million aerospace manufacturing center in south Buncombe that is expected to create around 800 new jobs through 2027 held a ribbon cutting ceremony Nov. 16 to celebrate construction of the majority of the exterior structure. The Pratt & Whitney facility will begin production in mid-2023, according to a news release from the company, and will build turbine airfoils for the company’s engines, which are used in both civilian and military airplanes. Pratt & Whitney has already begun hiring employees and has filled 118 of 150 positions the facility plans to open with. The average salary of those jobs is about $68,000, according to company spokesperson Cataldo Perrone. “Global companies like Pratt & Whitney can choose to locate anywhere, but they know they’ve made the smart move with North Carolina,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said at the ribbon cutting, according to a news release. “This investment will strengthen our state’s manufacturing industry, bringing good paying jobs to Buncombe County for years to come.”
“JANUARY 14, 2021. L&L Special Furnace Co., Ships Box Furnace to New Pratt & Whitney Facility; Our understanding is that this box furnace is destined for the new Pratt & Whitney facility in Asheville, NC, a location which will feature a brand new heat treating center. This project was announced back in 2020 and the plant is scheduled to open in early 2022.
“L&L Special Furnace Co. has shipped a highly uniform box furnace to a major aerospace manufacturer located in the southeastern United States. The state-of-the-art-facility will be opening soon and be a central part of a new heat-treating center for aerospace and military components. The Model FB666 is a front-loading box furnace with a pneumatic vertical door. Its working dimensions are 60” wide by 60” high by 60” deep. There are a series of castable piers and an alloy grid that supply a very stable work platform for various part sizes and configurations.
The furnace has a high-convection, air-cooled fan for air circulation and excellent uniformity at low temperatures. It was surveyed for performance prior to shipping and obtained certified temperature uniformity of ±10°F from 500°F to 2,000°F. There is also a venturi cooling system to aid in the cooling of the furnace interior along with an external modulating case cooling blower that provides fresh air intake to keep the furnace case temperature low during operation.
A manual 2,000lb. loader with rails and incorporated stops allows for the furnace to be easily loaded and unloaded. The loader moves on two low-profile rails and is indexed to the furnace front. Positive stops keep the furnace loader in line and prevent accidental impact with the rear or sides of the furnace.”
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Hermitage PA, January 30, 2023 – Solar Atmospheres of Western PA successfully vacuum heat treated two massive H13 extrusion dies at their Hermitage PA facility. Their newest high performing Solar Manufacturing 10-Bar 600 Horsepower high pressure gas quench vacuum furnace was able to fully harden two huge H13 extrusion dies in successive cycles. The dies, received from two different customers located in Ohio, resulted in an as-quenched hardness of HRC 50-52 using nitrogen as the quench gas. The hollow die was 30” OD x 15” ID x 103” long and weighed 16,000 pounds. The solid die, belonging to a different customer, was 34” OD x 64” long and weighed 14,000 pounds. Post-quench each component was triple air tempered resulting in a final hardness of HRC 46-48.
Director of Sales, Mike Johnson stated, “This 10-bar 600 HP high pressure vacuum furnace allows Solar to attain cooling rates that are inconceivable. Solar is always willing to accept the challenge of vacuum heat treating and brazing any job no matter the size.”
For additional information about Solar Atmospheres, contact Mike Johnson at 1-855-934-3284 x2223, email at [email protected], and visit us at solaratm.com.
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Are salaries in the heat treatment industry in North America increasing? Common perception (or misconception) says that the answer to this question is a resounding yes! However we posed the question to our resident expert and regular contributor Mr. Josh Hale of heat treatment recruiting firm International Search partners and he provided us with this very detailed answer covering both salaries and benefits.
Josh what are the current trends and forecasts for compensation in the new year?
Josh: Despite any talk about a supposed pending recession, unemployment remains EXTREMELY low across the board and will likely stay at historical lows for the foreseeable future. This is especially pronounced in the heat treat industry where older workers aren’t being replaced by a younger generation entering the industry at a fast enough clip to cover demand. Overall, it seems highly unlikely that that there will be a wane in the need for talent this year (or 2024 and beyond for the matter…), and the bottom-line is that specialized heat treat skills continue to be in high demand.
In the recruitment business, we sometimes use the term “a candidate’s market” to describe times where unemployment is low and there are more available jobs than there are potential employees. In a “candidate’s market” like we’re in now, it is typical to see wages in increase as companies start making stronger offers to entice new employees to come on board while at the same time giving raises to their current workforce with the hope that they’ll be able to retain the employees they have.
Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen upticks in salaries for all positions and it seems to be moving quickly with base compensation trending upwards consistently month-over-month. Prior to the pandemic a typical “good” offer was 10-15% above a candidate’s most recent salary, but now we’re seeing 20-25%+ being a baseline for many candidates to even consider making a move.
All of this might sound scary to managers out there with hiring objectives to meet on the year but remember that while salary is a huge motivator for employees, it is not the ONLY factor that workers look at when making a career move. Most candidates will consider any prospective offer wholistically and factor in benefits, bonus potential, growth opportunities, etc. Extra PTO and schedule flexibility are two things that many employers use to tip the scales in their favor when there isn’t anything left in the salary bucket to give. Of course, money still talks though, so it is also important for companies to remember that they need to pay market rates. All this is to say that a good benefits package can tip the scales in favor of one employer over another, but only when the base comp is competitive.
Companies should be cautious, however, about using “great team” or “good work environment” as a lure because it’s hard to quantify and it won’t be the needle-mover to get a candidate to jump from one company to another. Instead, fostering a synergetic work culture should be seen as part of a retention (not recruitment) strategy – not to mention just generally a good idea for all.
For employees who are seeing dollar signs right now, it is good time to consider making a career change as there are a lot of options available – especially for those willing to relocate, which obviously casts a wider net. We work with a lot of people who are working currently and generally content in their roles but can help them “put feelers out” confidentially by having us keep them in mind for certain opportunities. This works best when the employee has a good idea of what he or she wants, so another piece of advice would be to think about career goals, company preferences, personal strengths/weaknesses, desired locations, tradeoffs, etc. so that when that “dream job” is presented, there’s no delay.
While a market like this poses some challenges and can feel stressful due to the fast-moving nature, there are also many opportunities and, in the end, rising wages and a mobile workforce bodes well for the overall health and growth of the industry.
Josh Hale has been collaborating with companies to identify, engage, and hire top performers as a professional “headhunter” since the early 2000’s. He’s focused exclusively on the thermal processing industry since acquiring the only search and placement firm to specialize exclusively in heat teat, International Search Partners, in 2015. Soon after, he hired Jessica Maier to support the practice, and, together, they’ve helped dozens of companies make hundreds of hires in a variety of roles within the industry, including engineering, sales, quality, metallurgy, and management.
The Monty Heat Treat News has worked closely with International Search Partners, a US search firm which is known for being the only recruiting agency in the world working exclusively in the heat treatment industry, for many years now. In 2023, The Monty is pleased to announce that this relationship will continue with ISP offering a regular exclusive feature where they will answer questions about salaries, interviewing, negotiations, and a host of other topics related to recruiting and job searching for companies and/or individual professionals in the heat treat industry.
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“KAL Capital Advises Kittyhawk, Inc.’s Acquisition by Trive Capital”
Trive Capital (“Trive”), the Dallas-based private equity firm, is excited to announce its recent investment into Kittyhawk, Inc. (“Kittyhawk” or the “Company”), a leading provider of Hot Isostatic Pressing (“HIP”) services for a variety of industries including space, commercial aerospace, defense, and medical applications.
HIP is an integral service that improves the strength and metallurgical properties of casted and additively manufactured parts. Kittyhawk specializes in servicing parts for high-temperature, high-pressure, and high cost of failure applications such as rocket and jet engine componentry.
Founded in 1981, Kittyhawk is a leading provider of HIP services on the West Coast from its locations in Garden Grove, CA, and Canby, OR. The Company is trusted by many of the largest aerospace, defense, and space OEMs to increase the performance and safety of their most iconic platforms.
KAL Capital served as a financial advisor, and Perkins Coie served as legal counsel to Kittyhawk. Haynes & Boone LLP served as legal counsel to Trive Capital.
KAL Capital’s Q+A Regarding Kittyhawk Acquisition
What made Kittyhawk such an attractive asset?
Murphy: The business was incredibly well received by the market and had strong interest from both strategic and private equity buyers. The basis of that interest was anchored around the fact that Kittyhawk serves a growing, attractive niche with incredibly high barriers to entry. The primary growth vectors of the business are 1) the recovery of the commercial aerospace supply-chain and 2) the increased tempo of space launch driven by SpaceX, Blue Origin and emerging launch providers.
Bohn: The core service offering, Hot Isostatic Pressing, is a highly specialized type of heat treatment that requires substantial upfront capital investment and highly skilled operators. Additionally, while this service has traditionally been used as a mission-critical piece of the aerospace casting process; HIPing has now emerged as a requirement for any flight critical 3D printed part. The implications for our M&A process were profound, as opportunities with true exposure to 3D-printing are few and far between.
What is next for the aerospace heat treating industry generally and Kittyhawk specifically?
Murphy: Our perspective is that buyers will continue to aggressively pursue assets within the heat treating sector. The financial profile of the businesses is generally attractive due to the tolling nature of the model plus the remaining providers have generally achieved a level of scale that gives them the ability to maintain attractive margins. The sector remains relatively fragmented which means that private equity will predictably look to provide capital to consolidate. We believe that this transaction will be the first of several aerospace heat treat and HIPing transactions over the next several years.
Bohn: For Kittyhawk, my guess is that Trive Capital will be looking to insistently consolidate not only the HIPing sector but expand into logical adjacencies. Part of what made Trive attractive to our client was their pedigree and track-record of successful roll-up strategies within the aerospace supply-chain, namely Valence Surface Technologies. Our belief is that Trive will be looking to repeat aspects of that successful investment including aggressively looking for additional M&A targets to expand geographic reach and offer additional services to the existing customer base.
What broader trends within aerospace & defense M&A does this transaction illustrate?
Murphy: For me, this illustrates the consistent energy of the private equity community for assets within our sector. The growth story of Kittyhawk was relatively straightforward to communicate as its core customer base of aerospace casting providers were increasing activity based on commercial aerospace build-rates plus the new space sector continued to expand at an aggressive rate. The sponsors were able to underwrite an attractive investment case based on the expected growth and were then able to pursue the opportunity aggressively. Bohn: It’s as simple as quality and scarcity value will always command premium multiples, regardless of market conditions. Kittyhawk offers a highly unique solution that commanded the attention of strategic and financial buyers. On top of that, we had a great management team that wanted to remain with the business. It’s a great outcome for all participants.
Bohn: It’s as simple as quality and scarcity value will always command premium multiples, regardless of market conditions. Kittyhawk offers a highly unique solution that commanded the attention of strategic and financial buyers. On top of that, we had a great management team that wanted to remain with the business. It’s a great outcome for all participants.
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High-Efficiency and ultra-low-emission burner technology made by WS Wärmeprozesstechnik GmbH will heat thyssenkrupp’s newest hot-dip galvanizing plant in Dortmund, Germany.
In the presence of NRW’s prime minister Hendrik Wüst, thyssenkrupp Steel recently inaugurated its newest hot-dip galvanizing line 10 (FBA 10) in Dortmund, Germany. The new line sets a global benchmark in energy efficiency and low-emission heating. By using modern regenerative burners from WS Wärmeprozesstechnik GmbH in double-P radiant tubes, the plant typically saves between 15% and 30% fuel as compared with conventionally heated furnaces. At the same time, particularly low NOx emission values are achieved, thanks to the patented FLOX® combustion process. Due to its high efficiency and the excellent temperature uniformity of the radiant tubes used, the heating system also creates a perfect basis for a later switch to green fuels such as hydrogen.
With a total of three vertical strip-processing lines, the thyssenkrupp plant in Dortmund is one of the worlds most modern locations for the annealing and surface finishing of steel strip. Together, the three lines can process up to 2,000,000 metric tons of steel per year. WS already delivered nearly 800 modern gas burners to the Dortmund location, making it one of the most advanced and environmentally friendly sites worldwide. Regarding the regenerative burners used for FBA10, Dr. Clemens Trachternach, team leader of FBA 10, says: It is the best technology available on the market, which we are installing in order to really future-proof the plant and still safely undercut the emission limits many, many years from now.
Crucial to meeting this goal is the decades of experience at WS with the multiple award-winning and patented FLOX® technology, which is already successfully in use in tens of thousands of burners worldwide. The FLOX® combustion technology allows highly efficient burners to be operated with particularly low NOx emission levels. It is our ambition at WS, to provide solutions for all continuously operated strip lines which can reliably attain NOx emissions well below 100 mg/Nm³, with simultaneously high combustion efficiency over 80% and which are, already today, suited for a future with green combustion gases says Dr.-Ing. Wünning, President of WS Wärmeprozesstechnik GmbH.
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In the US Midwest Wisconsin Oven has promoted an employee of many years standing to the position of General Manager. “Wisconsin Oven Corp., appointed Jeff Kent to the position of general manager. Kent has been with Wisconsin Oven for more than 35 years. His experience covers all areas of manufacturing and sales within the company. Kent’s previous positions include QA manager, vice president of sales and marketing, vice president of operations, executive vice president and, most recently, director of sales and service. As general manager, he will oversee all functions of Wisconsin Oven.
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“The Monty Heat Treat News” is looking forward to a formal press release about a commercial heat treater on the US West Coast being sold shortly before Christmas of 2022. The story tells us that this profitable, state of the art 2 location shop has entered the new year with new ownership. We expect to have the formal press release shortly.
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“L&L Special Furnace Co. has shipped a dual-chamber heat-treating and tempering furnace to a leading global manufacturer of shopping carts and display cases located in the southeastern U.S. The equipment will play a supportive role in keeping key production equipment on-line along with thermal processing of various projects.
The L&L model QDS124 has two chambers: the top chamber rated to 2,350°F is used for heat-treating various steels and other non-ferrous materials; the bottom chamber rated to 1,250°F includes a recirculation fan and baffle for tempering, stress relieving or preheating.
The effective work zone of the top chamber is 10” high by 11” wide by 22” deep, with the tempering chamber work zone being 10” high by 10” wide by 20” deep. The furnace is controlled by Eurotherm controls with overtemperature protection. The top and bottom chambers are sealed for use with inert atmosphere and include a manual flowmeter/regulator system for both chambers. Solid-state relays drive the heating circuits and are housed in a side-mounted NEMA1 panel. The furnace was painted with custom colors to match the customer’s existing equipment.
Shipped with the furnace was an accompanying QTO1224 oil quench tank. The quench tank has a working size of 12” high by 12” wide by 24” deep and holds 65 gallons of oil. Included is a hinged safety lid, immersion-style heater with thermostat, and an agitator with explosion-proof motor for deployment with oil. Provisions are offered for additional oil to the air cooler if needed. The quench tank and furnace are NFPA86-compliant for safety.”
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FPM has just promoted a long standing employee to the position of General
Manager. Ryan Schwanke has been with the company for 30 years and was
appointed GM just a few weeks ago-congratulations.
Commercial heat treater FPM in the US Midwest is ranked as one of the
largest commercial heat treaters in North America by “The Monty Heat Treat
News”
https://themonty.com/project/the-monty-heat-treat-news-50-largest-north-amer
ican-commercial-heat-treats-2022/
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The North American heat treatment industry is losing a good man at the end of this month- well we should rephrase that and say that we are losing some of the services of one of the most experienced quality individuals that we have run across in the industry.
Mr. Abdul Admani has spent 50 years in the industry working with companies such as Arrow Gear, Braddock Metallurgical, Bodycote and for the past number of years at East Carolina Metal Treating in Raleigh, NC, USA. After all these years Abdul has announced that he will be retiring at the end of this week with the intention of being a part time consultant.
Abdul is a good man and his vast experience will be missed. As a footnote to this story we will add that East Carolina Metal Treating is one of the largest commercial heat treaters in North America as ranked by “The Monty Heat Treat News” https://themonty.com/articles/the-monty-heat-treat-news-50-largest-north-american-commercial-heat-treats-2022/
This brief summary describes the company and the accompying photo shows ECMT as we saw it during our last visit. The owner of the company Mr. Jamie Ramm, is on the left in this picture and Abdul is second from the right.
“East Carolina Metal Treating was founded in 1976 by Charles Ramm with just a salt pot. When Charles retired in 1998, he passed down his legacy to his son, Jamie Ramm. Through a commitment to continual improvement and reinvestment, ECMT has garnered a reputation for providing high quality service with great turnaround and the best customer service. ECMT has a state of the art metallurgical lab and maintains Nadcap, ISO 9001, AS9100, and Appendix B certifications.
Servicing the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions the company has grown into a 45,000 square foot facility located just outside downtown Raleigh, and ECMT’s second location, Virginia Metal Treating, is currently constructing a 20,000 square foot facility in Lynchburg, VA. ECMT offers a full range of heat treating services including Vacuum, Batch IQ, Nitriding/FNC, Induction, Cryogenics, as well as Black Oxide and partners with the best equipment manufacturers to provide repeatable quality results for our diversified customer base.”
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