The recent dramatic increase in natural gas pricing has lead to several industry suppliers working to develop a more fuel efficient burner for gas fired furnaces. At least 3 suppliers that we know of have developed new products which are now either in testing or on the market, one of these is Ipsen as you can see in the press release below. Interestingly enough the testing is taking place at a company “The Monty Heat Treat News” is very familiar with, oil and gas industry supplier Centek. Read below the Centek press release and below that our summary of the heat treat department at the Centek, UK facility-Centek also has a very similar heat treatment facility in Oklahoma City, OK, USA.
“We are delighted to have been asked by Ipsen International GmbH to take part in the trial of a new burner unit. This is the first time this highly efficient burner has been installed anywhere in the world and is an excellent addition to our high performance heat treatment plant in the UK, providing advanced starting performance, a long usage lifetime and 11% energy saving. The Recon IV will be just one of 22 Recon burners used in our Newton Abbot, Devon facility. This is the home of one of the largest pusher furnaces in Europe – providing Centek with the high volume of products we need to meet demand, all with the consistent strength and flexibility required to perform downhole. We are proud to have been selected by Ipsen to test pilot this advanced technology. The Recon IV is installed and already working its magic.”
“APRIL 2021 NEWTON ABBOT, UK; Centek Group-In House Heat Treatment of Oil & Gas Components. This is how Centek Group, a manufacturer and captive heat treater describes themselves; “Founded in 2001, Centek Group specializes in the development of engineering solutions for casing running environments. Our focus has always been to reduce risk and rig time. We design and manufacture a range of revolutionary centralizers which provide unprecedented stand-off: giving optimum pipe centralization, aiding pipe rotation and easing the string to total depth without issue. https://www.centekgroup.com/”
To a layman such as myself this means the company designs, manufactures and supplies centralizers, a product used when drilling for oil or gas. This is done in two manufacturing locations, the first in Newton Abbot, Devon UK, the second in Oklahoma City, OK, USA. “The Monty Heat Treat News” team was able to get a half day tour of the location in the UK and this is what we can report.
This location has always been a firm believer in keeping the entire manufacturing process in house and this includes heat treatment. In approximately 2014 the decision was made to update the entire heat treatment department and the end result was an Ipsen 2 row gas fired “pusher” style furnace, using endothermic atmosphere provided by a single retort Ipsen generator.
In overall concept this would be considered a fairly typical “U” shaped pusher design with loading and unloading in the same area, high heat, oil quench, wash, temper and a feature we always like to see-an automated “tray flipper” to provide longer life to the cast base trays. The entire system is controlled by an up to date PLC system with datalogging, with atmosphere controlled by oxygen probes.
What is rather unusual though is the cleanliness of the entire operation, not a breath of smoke or a hint of quench oil to be found in the entire department. Originally this was a family run, employee owned company and while this is no longer the case the family “feeling” and pride lives on.
While this entire project is very much a family affair we have to mention that the fellow in charge of the heat treatment department, Mr. Phil Hayes is a lifelong heat treater who takes his job seriously and he perhaps more than anybody else is responsible for the fact that the department runs so smoothly. Vacuum & Atmosphere Services provides help as required.
While we have not personally seen the location in Oklahoma City, USA our understanding is that it is largely a mirror image of the UK facility although the furnace was provided by AFC-Holcroft, a US manufacturer. These photos will give you a very clear view of the entire facility. Our thanks go out to the entire Centek Group who were so incredibly hospitable during our visit.”
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Solar Atmospheres Heat Treating Operations. The Solar Nation heat treating plants includes Souderton PA, Hermitage PA, Fontana CA, and Greenville SC, and have in total 357,000 square feet of plant space. This does not include Solar Manufacturing division which produces vacuum furnaces. While the down turn in the commercial aircraft business due to Covid effected the company their military business along with their health care business remained strong and the company continues to be profitable. 2019 sales were $61.2 million USD, 2020 sales were $54.3 million and estimated 2021 sales are expected to be $55 million.
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This third generation commercial heat treater founded in 1967 Önerler Heat Treatment | Steel Sales | Turkey (onerler.net) recently announced that they have become the first and only commercial heat treater in the country to become NADCAP certified. The company achieved this certification very recently and joins another certification the firm has achieved in the last little while- AS9100 certification.
“The Monty Heat Treat News” had the opportunity to visit Önerler a few years back and we saw quite an impressive operation as you can see in the photo below.
Heat treaters around the world need to keep two dates in mind for 2022. The first is the Furnaces North America exhibition in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA and the second is the HK 22 in Cologne, Germany. FNA is the #1 show in North America for this year and will be the best North American heat treat exhibition in North America since the start of the Pandemic. The second show HK 22 is always the largest and best heat treat exhibition in Europe and this will be the first one since 2019. “The Monty Heat Treat News” enthusiastically endorses both events.
Furnaces North America (FNA), October 3-5th 2022, Indianapolis, IN, USA Home | fna20 (furnacesnorthamerica.com)
HK 22 October 11th-13th, 2022, Cologne, Germany HK AWT : Home (www-hk–si-de.translate.goog)
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Port Huron, Michigan, USA is home to one of four global commercial heat treat facilities owned and operated by AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group of the Netherlands. AMG is a worldwide company with approximately 3,000 employees but our interest in the company is focused primarily on the heat treating division. ALD HT headquarters are located in Hanau, Germany from where it oversees the four heat treatment facilities; ALD TT, Port Huron, MI, USA, ALD TT Ramos Arizpe, Mexico, ALD Vacuheat, Limbach-Oberfrohna, Germany and ALD HTS, Suzhou, China which opened September, 2021.
Recently “The Monty Heat Treat News” had the opportunity to visit the Port Huron plant-the first visit since 2019 and we saw a number of changes. This facility was established in 2006 and currently has 4 ModulTherm systems (manufactured by an ALD sister division) with a total of 24 treatment chambers, 2 Dual chamber furnaces and a fairly recent addition, 3 nitriding furnaces. With this equipment the company can offer vacuum carburizing (long the mainstay of this location), tempering, gas nitriding, ferritic nitro carburizing (FNC) and another new addition Cryogenic heat treating. With over 50 employees the company can heat treat up to 60-70 tons/day of transmission components.
Being in Michigan, the automotive capital of the world, ALD has always been almost exclusively automotive based, automotive transmission based would be a more apt description. While they will continue to concentrate on the auto market in the future the company under the direction of Jim Muenzenberger, Sr. Vice President, America’s is looking at widening the customer and product base and the results are apparent. Our visit showed two new processes, cryogenic treatment and 3 new nitriding systems which will compliment the firm’s vacuum carburizing expertise. Already you can see the results in the form of a number of new customer parts.
Our hosts for the tour were Jim Muenzenberger and Ms. Kelly Peters, Vice President Operations both of whom very proudly pointed out that ALD TT has received the “General Motors Supplier Quality Excellence Award” for many years running. In addition they also pointed out that ALD has now processed over 1 billion parts with 0 field ppm’s. A tour through this 85,000 square foot facility will clearly show guests that yes this company deserves to be one of the 50 largest commercial heat treaters in North America.
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Jim Muenzenberger, Kelly Peters
Jim Muenzenberger, Kelly Peters, Ron Smith
Gord Montgomery, Kelly Peters
Since 1999 “The Monty” has been publishing annually a list of the largest commercial heat treaters in North America based upon annual sales, our 2021 list can be found at https://themonty.com/articles/50-largest-north-american-commercial-heat-treats-2021-2/ This year readers will see we became much more ambitious and expanded the list to the 50 largest. In our 7th spot we have Braddock Metallurgical.
Braddock Metallurgical. Family owned Braddock Metallurgical was founded in 1953 by William Braddock. The company has eight production facilities mainly in the US Southeast, however the company also has a location in NJ and Puerto Rico. Braddock is a full service heat treater in that they offer virtually every process available. We are quite confident saying that they are the third largest family owned commercial heat treater in North America.
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Williams joins the AHT team with over 20 years of experience in heat treatment, quality and operations, serving most recently as a plant manager for another heat treater in Alabama.
AHT President Mikel Woods commented, “With Chris’s background, he will hit the ground running. He has a great personality and will connect immediately with our customers and employees. We are excited about the growth and new opportunities he’ll help us achieve.”
Williams will be based in Cullman, Alabama. The AHT facility in Cullman offers ion (plasma) and gas nitriding, ferritic nitrocarburizing, UltraOx®, stress relieve and more. This summer it will also be announcing an additional heat treat service.
“I am excited to work for Advanced Heat Treat Corp., a company that is family–oriented and promotes a positive work–life balance.” Williams added, “The technical expertise at AHT is unmatched in the thermal processing industry and I am pleased to be part of the team.”
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Recently we mentioned how Italian furnace builder TAV received an order for what is the largest vertical vacuum furnace the company has ever built. Our original news item is below and included is a photo showing working starting on the vessel. As a follow up to this story we can now add that the furnace is almost completed and can be seen in this photo.
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In North America the most common brand of Batch IQ (Batch Integral Quench) furnace is without a doubt the Surface Combustion “Allcase” line of furnaces. Introduced in 1951 the “Allcase” furnace originally had working dimensions of 24″ x 36″ X 24″-over the years the company has added a number of different sized units ranging up to 36″ X 72″ X 36″ with the “Super 36″ style with working dimensions of 36″ X 48″ X 36” probably the most common. So how many are out there now? Surface claims over 3,000 installations worldwide which is one heck of a lot of furnaces. Incidentally while there are more Surface Batch IQ furnaces installed in North America than any other brand our bet would be that globally furnace builder Ipsen has produced more batch IQ furnaces than any other company.
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Specialty Steel Treating, founded 1956, has been performing precision heat treating for more than 60 years. Since our inception, SST has always put quality and customer service at the forefront of our business philosophy. SST services numerous industries, ranging from but not limited to: Aerospace (military, commercial aircraft, space shuttle), Automotive & Truck, Industrial Bearing, Heavy Equipment and Tool & die. Specialty has facilities in Farmington Hills, Michigan, Fraser, Michigan and East Granby, Connecticut.
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