My 25 years’ experience with CAN-ENG, has shown that systems with capacities greater than 3000 Lbs/hr simply do not go to the open market and in fact if available are transferred inter-company, moved outside of the user’s local geography, or disposed of for competitive reasons. Over the years, CAN-ENG has supported several new mesh users who successfully located these systems for export into new growing markets. In most cases, surplus equipment was made available because the user wanted to upgrade their existing Mesh Belt Heat Treatment System for more Efficient and Higher Capacity lines. In the earlier days, CAN-ENG Furnaces Large Capacity Mesh Belt lines were 3000-4000 lbs/hr. Today large capacity lines are 6000-7300 lbs./hr. As you can imagine if the volumes warrant, users can significantly reduce their costs via economies of scale processing one line versus multiple smaller lines.
As the equipment designs matured so did the advancements in designs and capacities. CAN-ENG has always been a company with engineers at its core. Customers’ needs drove designs forward. Feedback from customers, enhanced servicing in the field with improved access and combustion designs. CAN-ENG’s Continuous Mesh Belt Atmosphere Furnace became more robust, more energy efficient and easier to maintain. The struggle for industry dominance was being won and CAN-ENG became the North American leader for this industrial furnace. The following thirty years has provided CAN-ENG the opportunity to continue to modify the CAN-ENG Mesh Belt (CEMB) design, building larger equipment for commercial fastener manufacturers, automotive and stamping industries and Austemper and Martempering processors. I included an advertisement that dates to the early 1990s that I thought you would find interesting.” Tim Donofrio, Vice President Sales at Can-Eng Furnaces International, Ltd
Terence Profughi, Chair of HTG’s Board of Directors stated, “After thorough succession planning and a comprehensive search process, the board is pleased to have found the best individual to assume leadership of our organization. Mano has a track record of strong leadership in the many roles that he has filled. This combined with his deep industry knowledge and tenure makes Manos uniquely qualified to lead HTG successfully into the future.”
“Manos is a visionary and innovator with an unrelenting drive, who brings unmatched ability in operations and with a broad international experience base, made him the best choice from a deep pool of interested and highly qualified candidates. He has been a successful executive during his extensive career. More importantly, Manos is a great fit with each of the four ‘critical leadership competencies’ we evaluated as part of our selection process: strategic agility, business acumen, vision, and mission-driven orientation. We’re delighted that he has accepted the position.”
In a statement from Manos, “I am honored and humbled to accept the privilege to work with HTG and its growing family of people and customers. Together, we can undoubtedly accomplish anything we set our heart and minds on. In that renewed spirit, HTG will now embark on a path of revitalization of its rich history and expertise to grow in serving customers in aerospace, food, automotive, marine, and industrial products needing heat treating and brazing.
As testament to that renewed spirit, HTG recently and quickly acquired Universal Heat Treating (UHT) due to an unfortunate event crippling UHT’s ability to serve.”
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SECO/WARWICK, the undisputed leader in CAB technology, will provide an international company in the automotive industry with an EV/CAB line; the design was chosen most often by the automotive sector. The EV/CAB system is designed to braze large-size car battery coolers for the electric vehicle (EV) industry.
This proven solution will operate at the newly established factory in Mexico. This is the fifth SECO/WARWICK CAB line for this manufacturer. It is estimated that by 2025 the market for electric vehicles will be worth about 84 billion dollars. SECO/WARWICK created the EV/CAB line in response to the special needs of the automotive market and e-mobility segment.
The furnace was designed specifically for the production of oversized battery coolers. ln this case, the key to successful production is the perfect temperature uniformity on the 1900 mm wide belt and the design of the curtain and cooling chambers. The line includes a brazing furnace, convection preheating chamber, cooling chamber with air jacket, final cooling chamber, and an innovative control system.
This Client, four years ago, ordered the first CAB line for its Chinese plants and then bought three more twin lines for protective atmosphere brazing. The current order for the Mexican factory is the fifth furnace from SECO/WARWICK that will be delivered for this holding company. All solutions are large CAB furnaces used in the production process for oversized battery coolers.
“Today, Asia is our main recipient of CAB technology and solutions for e-mobility, and this client is one of our leading Partners. This is the customer’s first order outside the Asian market. The new factory in Mexico will therefore be able to boast of the highest quality machine park. We are glad that SECO/WARWICK will be involved in this project. We are also happy that customers come back to us, and when they open new branches, we are their first-choice supplier. It is an expression of trust and confirmation of the high quality of our product and service,” says Piotr Skarbiński, Vice President of Aluminum and CAB Products Segment in SECO/WARWICK.
/ SECO/WARWICK and the automotive industryThe global demand for battery coolers is increasing due to the growing production of electric vehicles.SECO/WARWICK, a leader in the production of CAB lines, perfectly cooperates with the automotive industry by providing solutions that help develop the technology for electric vehicle production. In this way, indirectly, it is part of the trend, and the obligation to reduce exhaust emissions and care for the natural environment.Super IQ®, is a hybrid system combining the features of conventional and vacuum furnaces, designed mostly for carburizing processes under elevated temperatures and equipped with traditional oil-bath quenching. The industry requires a cleaner, faster, and more efficient carburizing method. Compared with conventional methods, Super IQ® brings benefits in terms of increases in overall productivity. It operates under higher temperatures, which translates into shorter cycle times and thus more efficient production.
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July 7th of this year we announced how Perceptive Industries of Plainwell, Michigan, USA a long time oven and furnace builder had closed their doors (the announcement can be found further down this page). In an interesting turn of events the intellectual property of the company has been bought by Horizon Performance Technologies another oven builder. Read on.
“JULY 17 2022; Waukesha WI, USA .. Horizon Performance Technologies LLC (Horizon) announces the acquisition of all intellectual property of Perceptive Industries Inc. (Perceptive). Since 2002 Perceptive has been supplying industrial ovens to the metal fastener and coatings industry, the general thermal processing industry throughout the USA as well as delivering equipment globally to international based metal coaters.
This acquisition further expands Horizon’s product line and geographic presence. The Perceptive product line is complementary to Horizon’s already existing Industrial Oven and Washer product lines for the Metal Finishing Industry, thermal processing and industrial cleaning lines. Horizon holds several patents in the thermal processing field that have proven to save electrical and natural gas operating cost.
Jeff Mitchell, president of Horizon, said, “We’re excited about this strategic acquisition of Perceptives’ intellectual property. This allows Horizon to continue to serve Perceptives’ customer, provide equipment service and spare parts through our online portal, and will allow us to adapt our patented technology to the Perceptive equipment. Perceptive customers will benefit from energy saving designs to be implemented on any new equipment purchases and allows us to expand our geographic presence, product and service offerings, and customer base. We look forward to working with Perceptive’s customer base and providing our first-rate service.”
About Horizon Performance Technologies LLC; Horizon Performance Technologies LLC (Horizon) is an OEM engaged in the design and manufacturing of industrial capital equipment in the heat processing and finishing industries including ovens, washers, and material handling. The Horizon team has over 200 years’ experience in industrial manufacturing and engineering.
Horizon is a technology driven company, with patents in the thermal processing and industrial cleaning industries. These patented designs have been instrumental in allowing Horizon equipment users to save up to 75% energy when compared to conventional design. Horizon serves a global industrial manufacturing base including the automotive, energy, metal finishing, glass, aerospace, aluminum, and composite industries. Horizon is headquartered in the Midwest near Milwaukee WI, USA. (www.horizonpfm.com)”
“JULY 7, 2022; Oven/Furnace Manufacturer Closes Doors-A Sign of the Times? Oven/Furnace Builder Perceptive Industries in Plainwell, Michigan, USA has just closed their doors as can be seen in the company issued statement below. The reasons for the sudden closure are exactly the same challenges as every firm in the heat treatment industry is seeing these days, supply chain issues and labor shortages. It is always upsetting to see companies struggle, especially one such as Perceptive who had a very good reputation in the industry.
“It is with great regret that I am writing to notify you that Perceptive Industries has closed its doors and is being forced to cease operations after 20 years of serving our customers. This reality is the result of a myriad of challenges we have faced over the past couple of years, includes severe disruptions in the supply chain that supports our business, workforce challenges, and severe drop of new projects from our customers who face similar challenges in the market. These challenges have left the Company with little working capital to continue operations and we are facing default under our loan agreements. At this time our bank has assumed control of all assets.”
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https://www.haerterei.com/fileadmin/user_upload/video/Haerten_und_Verg%C3%BCten_Brackenheim.mp4
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From Jack Cahn, founder and owner of Deep Cryogenics International we have this technical paper about nitriding combined with Deep Cryogenics. To learn more about the story behind Deep Cryogenics we would suggest reading a very interesting interview we did with Jack earlier this year https://themonty.com/project/j
Introduction. Steels are nitrided in the machinery and toolmaking industries to obtain better tribological properties and fatigue performance, which result from compressive stresses generated in the surface [1, 2, 3]. Typical nitrided products include a variety of cutting tools, drills, dies, injection moulds, valves and many machine parts, such as gears, crankshafts and spring [4]. In nitriding, nitrogen is introduced into the surface of steel over a period of several tens of hours. Gas nitriding is the most common process but nitriding in molten salt baths and plasma nitriding is used as well [5, 6].
Typical nitriding temperatures are between 500 and 530°C, depending on the tempering temperature and associated precipitation processes. The tempering temperature must be higher than the nitriding temperature. In conventional thermochemical treatment (TCT), nitriding is always the final operation. In most cases, the enrichment takes between 15 and 30 hours, depending on the material, the desired case depth and the nitriding process type. Nitriding as a means of increasing surface hardness is a costly operation, mainly due to long process times. Nevertheless, it is still widely used and difficult to replace with other TCT processes.
Nitriding can by accelerated by using a higher nitriding temperature. The result will be a nitrided layer of a greater thickness produced in a shorter time than with conventional nitriding [7]. However, nitriding at increased temperatures cannot be used as the last operation in a thermochemical treatment sequence. Therefore, it is applied as the first operation and followed by quenching and tempering. Much like conventional nitriding, it delivers high surface hardness and a very good toughness in the core can be expected to lead to a lower case hardness due to subsequent austenitizing and tempering, and to a lower volume fraction of nitrides and carbonitrides.
For this reason, attention should be paid to subsequent hardening of the nitrided layer, the base material as well as the core of the nitrided part. Sub-surface hardness can be increased by holding the part near the austenitizing temperature and by rapid cooling, which produces martensite in the primary nitrided layer, and by subsequent age hardening. Nitrogen migration during austenitizing causes (Fe, M)-C-N particles to form in the sub-surface nitrided layer. These possess a structure which differs from that of the original nitrided layer (depending on chemical and phase composition). An appropriate austenitizing temperature and cooling rate lead to higher core hardness even without the presence of nitrogen. Several procedures are available for steel hardening. Their detailed descriptions are given in [8–11].
Deep cryogenic treatment (DCT) is an advanced process for increasing the hardness in the subsurface layer. DCT is usually performed right after quenching, i.e. before tempering. In this case, deep cryogenic treatment promotes grain refinement and precipitation of fine carbonitrides that contain the alloying elements. Generally, the purpose of DCT is to reduce the amount of retained austenite, to improve the matrix hardness (or surface hardness in thermochemical treatment), to stabilise martensite for dimensional and geometric stability of the part and, last but not least, to improve wear resistance [12–16]. The impact of deep cryogenic treatment on the Czech Standard 41 9830 steel grade (whose equivalents are designated as DIN 1.3433 / HS6-5-2, AISI M2 and others) was reported in numerous studies [17–20]. All of them also indicated added value in terms of higher wear resistance and longer life of tools.
Material and treatment. Square bars of 7×7 mm cross section were produced of the Czech Standard 41 9830 high-speed steel grade (whose equivalents are designated as DIN 1.3433 / HS 6-5-2 and AISI M2). Its chemical composition is given in Table 1. The bars were thermochemically treated using four sequences. These combined gas nitriding, quenching and tempering and deep cryogenic treatment (DCT). Four sequences were compared in this investigation. Conventional nitriding at a reduced nitriding temperature without and with DCT is identified as sequences A and B, respectively. Sequences with nitriding at an increased temperature without and with DCT are identified as C and D, respectively. The differences consisted in nitriding temperatures and holding times, where the latter were appreciably shorter for the higher temperatures.
Additional differences were in the order of operations. In conventional processes, nitriding is always the last TCT operation. When a higher nitriding temperature is used, nitriding cannot be applied as the last operation (due to the risk of over-tempering the matrix). In this study, nitriding at increased temperatures was the first step in the thermochemical sequence. It was followed by austenitizing, quenching and tempering in a reactive atmosphere (ammonia). After conventional nitriding, tempering was performed in air furnaces with no protective atmosphere. The sequences and their designations are listed in Table 2.
Conventional gas nitriding was performed in ammonia gas in container placed in a pit furnace. The process was controlled by regulating the ammonia flow. The content of dissociated ammonia was monitored using a water-based dissociation meter. Nitriding at increased temperatures was performed in the NX609 Nitrex equipment, in cooperation with IMP Warsaw. The equipment offers automatic controlled gas nitriding with a good process repeatability. Quenching was carried out in vacuum furnaces using identical temperatures, holding times and nitrogen pressure. After both nitriding variants, deep cryogenic treatment was performed in cryogenic boxes which provide good process control and stability. In conventional nitriding sequences, tempering was completed in air furnaces with no protective atmosphere. In sequence with increased nitriding temperatures, an atmosphere containing ammonia was employed. The parameters of nitriding and tempering in a reactive atmosphere are given in Table 1.
Results and discussion. Metallographic sections were prepared by cutting the samples perpendicular to the surface. Samples were embedded into resin by hot pressing, they were ground and polished. Microstructure was revealed by Nital etchant. The thickness of nitrided layers was checked under an optical microscope (Fig. 1). Conventional gas nitriding produced layers of approximately 100 µm thickness. Sequence A led to approx. 110 µm and sequence B a layer of approx. 110 µm. No appreciable effects of deep cryogenic treatment were detected in these specimens. Nitriding at increased temperatures led to greater layer thickness of up to 190 µm. In specimen C, it was approximately 150 µm. Sequence D with deep freezing for 8 hours produced a layer approximately 190 µm. In this case, a considerable impact of deep cryogenic treatment was found.
Nitrided layers were examined in detail using a JEOL-6380 scanning electron microscope. In a close-up image, the white compound layer had a thickness between 4 and 5 µm (Fig. 2 – sequences A and B) in the conventionally-nitrided specimens, and approximately 2 µm in the specimens nitrided at increased temperatures for shorter times (Fig. 3 – sequences C and D). Micrographs of compound and diffusion layers are shown in the Fig. 2 and Fig. 3. Structure is composed of tempered martensite and carbides undissolved during austenitization.
Owing to the combination of an increased nitriding temperature, deep cryogenic treatment (160°C for 8 hours) and tempering in a reactive atmosphere (ammonia) in sequence D, the resulting hardness increased considerably in depths down to 140 µm (Fig. 4). Hardness was very stable and above 1250 HV0.1. Sequence C does not have similar trend in hardness curve as sequence D. The hardness decreases consistently with the distance from the surface. The depth of nitriding hardness is a characteristic value for the thickness of the nitride layer (Nht). It describes the vertical distance from the surface to the point at which the hardness is still 50 HV higher than the core hardness. The greatest Nht case thickness was found in specimen D (approx. 220 µm). In specimen C which had not undergone DCT, the Nht thickness was approx. 170 µm (Fig. 4). Core hardness in the specimens tempered in a reactive atmosphere (up to 890 HV0.1) was slightly higher than in the specimens tempered three times in an air furnace (850 HV0.1).
In conventionally gas-nitrided specimens (A and B), the nitrided layer was relatively thin (Nht, specimen A: approx. 170 µm, specimen B: approx. 140/150 µm). A considerable increase in the resulting hardness was found after the deep cryogenic treatment. At 80 µm below the surface of the DCT-treated specimen, the hardness was approximately 100 HV0.1 higher than in the same depth in the specimen without DCT (Fig. 4).
Conclusion. An innovative nitriding process combined with quenching and tempering and deep cryogenic treatment delivers a major increase in hardness and case thickness. With nitriding at increased temperatures, the entire treatment can be shortened (by least 15 hours) which greatly reduces the cost and harmful gas emissions. Post-quenching deep cryogenic treatment improves sub-surface hardness after both types of nitriding. After conventional nitriding with DCT, the hardness is approx. 100 HV0.1 higher at 80 µm below the surface when compared to a process without DCT. After nitriding at increased temperatures, DCT produces a significant increase in hardness. Sequence D led to a very stable hardness in the subsurface layer down to a depth of 140 µm (approx. 1250 HV0.1).
Thermochemical treatment at an increased temperature produced a thinner white compound layer of about 2 μm. Conventional nitriding led to a thickness of about 4 to 5 μm. Greater Nht thickness of the nitrided layer is achieved by using an increased nitriding temperature 170 μm upon sequence C and 220 μm upon sequence 140/150 μm (sequence B). All these results illustrate the positive effect of nitriding at increased temperature, which can be completed within shorter time.
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The astounding growth in the oil and gas industry in the past year has lead to boom times for many captive and commercial heat treaters in the heartland of the industry-Texas, USA. Numbered amongst those heat treaters benefitting from this is “Worldwide Heat Treat” in Houston, Texas founded a few years back by long time heat treater Robert Gutierrez. Robert started his career with SEI Heat Treat in Texas and since that time he has worked with several commercial heat treaters, all in the Houston, Texas area. Our understanding is that in the very near future Worldwide will be tripling the size of their facility which will compliment the fact that recently the company has added equipment and employees. Texas ranks as one of the largest areas in North America when it comes to captive and commercial heat treating.
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All of the equipment at what was formerly “Metal Ceramics Company” of Bensenville, Illinois, USA will shortly be going to auction-this includes the entire heat treating department. In addition to the continuous furnaces the auction will also include machinery, customer lists and intellectual property. The auction will be held September 21. 2022 and amongst the heat treating equipment included is aa Abbott 18″ Electric Furnace (converted from gas), a Sinterite 12” belt sintering furnace and a pusher line. Metal Ceramics Company was founded in 1951 and offered powdered metal parts to a variety of industries including the automotive industry. “The Monty Heat Treat News” would expect to see some interest in the furnaces but not a lot considering the age and condition.
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A captive heat treater has shut down his entire batch IQ heat treatment department and all of the equipment is available. Equipment consists of the following;
- 2 Surface Combustion Internal Quench Furnaces “Super 30” with working dimensions of 30” X 48” X 30”, rated for 2500 pounds each. Dual quench cylinders, rear handler, gas fired. Complete and in good condition. Asking $99,000 USD Each.
- 1 Surface Combustion Double Ended (DEDP) charge car. 30” X 48” X 30” high. 480 Volt. Asking $25,000 USD
- 2 Surface Combustion Dunk/Spray Washers, gas fired rated at 500,000 BTUH, 30” X 48” X 30” working dimensions. Asking $25,000 USD Each
- 1 Surface Combustion Endothermic generator rated for 2400CFH. Asking $20,000 USD
- 2 Gas Fired, Air Re-re-circulating temper furnaces. Rated for 1250F, working dimensions of 30” X 48” X 30” high. 500,000 BTUH. Asking $25,000 USD Each.
Some alloy fixturing and spare parts also available. Both lines shut down very recently, still installed. Very good condition ready to go. Vendor prefers to sell entire department as one package but will consider selling some items separately. Further details available upon request.
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