For years now “The Monty Heat Treat News” has been running across a very experienced heat treater by the name of Mike Nappi. We first ran across Mike at Cincinatti Steel Treating and subsequently at Feintool and most recently at Ford, Sharonville, Ohio, USA (this facility is rated as the largest single location captive heat treater in North America as ranked by “The Monty Heat Treat News” 10 Largest Single Location Captive Heat Treats-North America 2022 | The Monty)
Mike has just landed a new position with the world’s largest commercial heat treater, Bodycote (The Monty Heat Treat News – 50 Largest North American Commercial Heat Treats 2022 | The Monty”. Mike has a very interesting title “Program Manager – Additive” which caught our attention. We can only assume that Bodycote is dedicating some of their resources to heat treating in the additive manufacturing sector. Mike is a competent fellow and we have no doubt but that he will thrive in this new job.
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It is with regret that we mention the recent passing of Mr. Jim Montemagno, President of Alcon Industries of Cleveland, Ohio, USA. Alcon Industries is one of the largest suppliers of alloy furnace components and fixturing in North America and Jim spent his entire working career in the heat treatment industry.
“Jim Montemagno age 64, of Avon Lake, Ohio passed away June 17, 2022. He was born on January 29, 1958 to James and Laura Montemagno. Beloved husband of Kathleen Montemagno; loving father to Keith Gailey (Karla), Beth Ann Gailey (Matt Roth), Emily Prack (Bryan) and James Montemagno (Heather Walicki); devoted grandfather to Kassidy, Kaleb and Karson Gailey; brother to Rose Hansford (Robert), Carmela Donegan (Barry), Joseph Montemagno and Michael Montemagno (Susan); uncle and great-uncle to many. Jim was honored to spend 35 years at Alcon Industries, a company that his father worked at before him. He started with Alcon sweeping the floors and 30+ years later became President of the company. He loved cooking, the beach, Vegas and playing Keno. When Jim wasn’t working or spending time with friends, you could find him and his wife of 25 years on the golf course. Jim will be missed by all that knew and loved him. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Bladder Cancer Network, https://bcan.org/get-involved/ways-to-give/donate/”
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“Therser UK continue to expand with the recent acquisition of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)of Wellman Furnaces & Almor Limited Alloy Fabrications Facility.”
From the heat treatment industry in the UK we have this press release about a recent acquisition; “Therser UK, the UK’s number one Kiln & Furnace company, are delighted to announce the recent acquisition of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of Wellman Furnaces & Almor Limited.
Over the last few years, Therser UK continues to grow at a tremendous rate, with this recent acquisition it only further adds to Therser UK’s growing portfolio of expertise & strengthen Therser’s position in the market place .
The acquisition will allow Therser to fully support existing Wellman Furnace’s customers with servicing, spares, repairs, refurbishments and the supply of new equipment and including the following well known brands.
- Wellman Furnaces
- Almor
- Almor Alloy Fabrications
- Gibbons
- British Furnaces
- Incandescent Heat
- Metal Electric
- CGE
- Wild Barfield
- Birlec
Furthermore with this exciting acquisition Therser UK have acquired brands such as Wild Barfield & Barlow Whitney, Marathon Process Controls, Heat Treat Services along with the well known Wellman Furnaces division.
The Wellman Furnaces division incorporates a number of well known names in furnace building such as Incandescent, Birlec, British Furnaces, Gibbons, Metalectric, CGE (Consultant Gas Engineers).
This all contributing to Therser UK’s depth of technical expertise and knowledge of furnace design, manufacture and operation.
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AHT’s Alabama employees have been training in Iowa to prepare for the new service offering. Mikel Woods, AHT President, commented, “We are pleased to offer induction hardening at a second AHT location. After talking with many of our customers, we know this will be a welcomed service and we’ll be able to provide better turnaround times than the area is currently experiencing.” In the past couple years, AHT has invested in five new induction units and has plans for additional units as the customer base grows in Alabama. Aside from the new UltraGlow® Induction Hardening, AHT’s Alabama location also offers ion nitriding, gas nitriding, ferritic nitrocarburizing, UltraOx®, stress relieve and more. The location also holds many quality certifications such as Federal Firearms License, ISO 9001:2015, IATF 16949:2016 and is ITAR compliant. To learn more about UltraGlow® Induction Hardening or AHT’s other surface treatments, please visit www.ahtcorp.com or contact Advanced Heat Treat Corp. at 319-232-5221.
About Advanced Heat Treat Corp. Established in 1981, Advanced Heat Treat Corp. (AHT) is a recognized leader in providing heat treat services and superior metallurgical solutions to companies across the globe, with locations in Alabama, Iowa and Michigan. Their UltraGlow® family of processes includes plasma ion nitriding, ferritic nitrocarburizing (FNC), gas nitriding, UltraOx®, through hardening, carburizing, carbonitriding, induction hardening, black oxide and many more.
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“AFC-HOLCROFT August 4, 2022; On our floor now are a MBA mesh belt austemper line for austempering stamped metal components, two new UBQ line with ancillaries – one for an automotive supplier and another for a commercial heat treater; two standalone UBQ’s – one for a commercial heat treater who will integrate the furnace into their existing AFC-Holcroft installations and one for a supplier of forged components. We have entered the EV market by supplying an installation for a first-time customer in this important technology. Several EZT Series Endo Gas Generators are also underway for specific customers as well as our ‘Built for Stock’ equipment supply. Furnace rebuild and refurbishment projects round out the available floorspace.
Most equipment will be delivered by the end of the year, making way for latest incoming orders such as a complete new UBQA line, which was recently announced. Tracy Dougherty, Vice President of Sales, commented, “While inflation and consumer confidence are a concern for all of us, our order and quote backlogs remain strong – keeping us optimistic that sales bookings will continue on the current path well into 2023.”
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Dekalb Forge, accurately located in Dekalb, Illinois, USA is part of the “Forge Resources Group” which operates 6 facilities throughout the US Midwest. Each location in addition to their forging capabilities also has in house heat treating facilities. In the case of Dekalb their in house heat treating department includes a number of Surface Combustion batch IQ furnaces. Very recently Dekalb adding another furnace, in this case a used batch IQ furnace which in this picture you can seeing being dropped in place.
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Recently the company gave a tour to the German Minister of Economic Affairs, Mr. Bernd Althusmann to give him a vivid impression of how energy intensive their business is and to show possible scenarios in the event of a slowdown or complete shutdown of their gas supplies. While the situation is under control now it is too soon to tell what will happen during the peak demand period this winter. No reports on how the minister responded.
In related news we see that the last time we mentioned Hanomag was almost exactly one year ago when they company received a new pit carburizing furnace.
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With concerns over energy costs rising combined with extremely long delivery times from companies such as Eclipse several companies are bringing to market new options such as this one from McLaughlin Furnace Group of Avilla, Indiana, USA.
“McLaughlin Furnace Group recently released their own direct fired packaged burners to the market. The MFG-1000 and MFG-1001 direct fired burners are in full production with short lead times. These burners are very versatile for low and high temperature applications. Burner outputs range from 500,000 BTUs to 5,000,000 BTUs. Please call McLaughlin Furnace Group to discuss your application and availability.”
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PWR Advanced Cooling Technology based in Ormeau, Australia is a high end supplier of heat exchangers. While based in Australia the firm also has facilities in the UK and the USA. PWR is rightfully very proud of the fact that they just received NADCAP Accreditation for both their chemical processing and heat treating operations which makes them the only company in Australia to have both. The centerpiece of the heat treat department is a very impressive, large TAV vacuum furnace designed for vacuum brazing. In addition PWR has two Controlled Atmosphere Brazing (CAB) furnaces, the first being a continuous belt with the second being a single batch type furnace. The firm also has plans on adding heat treatment capabilities at their facility in the USA in the future. Congratulations are certainly in order for the entire team.
“Nadcap, administered by the not-for-profit Performance Review Institute, recognised the company following audits of their chemical processing and heat treating sites. The confirmation has enabled the company to undertake vacuum brazing, heat treating, hard anodising and conversion coatings, as well as supporting conformance processes, while being formally listed on the Quality Manufacturers List for chemical processing and heat treating. According to Kees Weel, managing director of PWR, the recent announcement reflects the company’s philosophy of quality. “Building on our existing AS9100D certification, Nadcap accreditation demonstrates PWR’s determination to ensure quality is at the centre of everything we do. This milestone allows PWR to be the only Australian company to offer both Nadcap-accredited heat treating and chemical processing within the same business,” he said.”
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Surface hardening of steel components and tools by nitriding allows for the formation of a very hard layer needed for enhancing their tribological, as well as corrosive, properties without affecting dimensional stability of the products [1-3]. This is especially important and beneficial when the expensive parts- such as long shafts or screws- are treated. Available processes for those parts are gas and ion/plasma nitriding. Equipment operated by Advanced Heat Treat Corp. allow for treating the longest parts in the country- including long shafts and extruder screws reaching almost 400” in length, see Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. Unloading of 35’-long shaft from plasma vessel through the open roof of the AHT’s building in Monroe, Michigan.
Heating And Nitriding By The Glow Discharge/Plasma Processing
A pulse, abnormal glow discharge generated between the cathode/part and the anode/wall of the vacuum vessel generates high energy ions of nitrogen and hydrogen gases doped occasionally with a small amount of methane and argon. These active species have a positive charge and, together with the high energy neutrals, bombard the surface of the treated part. They generate active nitrogen atoms and NxHy radicals and raise its temperature via transfer of their kinetic energy to the cathode. In plasma nitriding, exactly the same energy per surface area is generated along the entire length of the long parts. The plasma density is in the range of 0.4-0.8 W/cm2 and this is enough for heating the entire part to the desired temperature [1, 4]. Only the treated part is heated and not the “entire” vacuum chamber. Thus, energy required for heating depends only on the size and quantity of the parts.
Alternatively; in the gas nitriding furnace, its entire length is heated by multiple heat zones/segments regardless of the quantity and the length of the treated components. This can be relatively costly when trying to maintain uniformity of heating for the long parts and low quantity. In addition, ammonia gas circulation must be very uniform from the top to the bottom of the part’s surface to assure the same activity of the atmosphere.
In plasma nitriding, only a small fraction of the gas flow compared to the gas flow in gas nitriding is used (approximate ratio 1:10). Composition of the gas ionized/activated near the top of the load is the same as at the bottom since the glow discharge is characterized by the so called “Crookes Dark Space” (CDS) near the cathode. Thickness of the CDS depends only on the gas pressure, gas composition, and temperature used; and those are the same along the entire length of the part/cathode.
The Most Common Applications Of The UltraGlow Ion Nitriding Process Used For Long Parts
Products made of all types of steels and ferrous alloys can be treated in plasma process without any additional activation/pre-activation needed. Whereas, pre-activation steps are necessary in gas nitriding process when treating stainless steels. This is possible because the high-energy species bombarding the cathode cause its sputtering leading to elimination of the native chromium oxides present on surface of the stainless steels [1]. This sputtering phenomenon is present during the entire process/contact of the glow discharge with the part. Presence of sputtering also limits growth of the compound zone, which can be very beneficial for the quality of the nitrided layer. Total case depth kinetics are parabolic in relationship with nitriding time and exponential in relationship with temperature. See example for stainless steel case depth modeling in Fig. 3.
Plasma/ion nitriding of long parts at Advanced Heat Treat Corp. include long stainless steel tubes shown in Fig. 4.
The color of all treated parts is typically grey-silver and this depends on the length of the process and resulting total case depth [6]. After long processing, a grey color prevails since the layers formed are quite deep, Fig. 5.
It should also be added that the length of the ion nitriding vessel can be adjusted as needed by using proper modules of the vessel.
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