Last week we profiled a successful commercial heat treater in Indiana by the name of “Dependable Metal Treating” and pointed out that while the company was successful for a number of reasons, a substantial factor in the company’s success was that they have standardized on one particular type and model of furnace. Today we look at another successful commercial heat treater which has thrived for slightly different reasons-“Sun Steel Treating Inc.” in South Lyon, Michigan, USA.

Founded in 1958 Sun has prospered over the years, so much so that the company is ranked as one of the largest commercial heat treaters in North America as ranked by “The Monty Heat Treat News” 50 Largest North American Commercial Heat Treats 2021 | The Monty Sun operates out of two buildings totaling 60,000 square feet, located on 5 acers in South Lyon, Michigan just a few miles from Detroit. With 50 employees the company focuses on just 2 heat treating processes, Ion (Plasma) Nitriding and Vacuum hardening (we lied a little bit, the company is also strong in “straightening”) with nitriding contributing roughly 70% of sales and vacuum hardening approximately 30%.

With just two processes the best way to summarize the company is to say that as a commercial heat treater treater the firm can best be described as a specialty heat treater. One of the more unusual features of Sun is that they build their own nitriders and they build them big. As an example the nitriders you find in these photos have a weight capacity of 30 tons each. The same philosophy holds true for their vacuum furnaces with most having a capacity of 8,000 pounds with 12 bar quenching.

Going back to our original statement that most successful heat treats have a formal for success brings us to the fact that while this company has grown for a number of reasons, one of the main ones is that they have focused on just two processes and with both have gone BIG leading to an economy of scale. We will take this opportunity to point out that this is a privately owned company and the owner, Mr. Jim McGuirk has a friendly relaxed demeanour which has lead to a very loyal and long serving work force who seem to generally like what they are doing.

We leave you with these photos of “Sun Heat Treating”.

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Jim McGuirk III, Derek Saunders, Neil Shelvey, Shayne Kelly, Jim McGuirk jr, Eric Nordin, Rich Elinski 

Rich Elinski, Sales Representative, Eric Nordin, Technical Sales

We mentioned a few weeks ago about how Paulo, one of the largest commercial heat treaters in North America as ranked by “The Monty Heat Treat News” https://themonty.com/project/50-largest-north-american-commercial-heat-treats-2021-2/ had appointed a new Plant Manager for their St. Louis, MO, USA facility. We now have the formal announcement.

“Paulo is excited to announce the addition of Brian Heitmann to our team. Brian is joining Paulo in the role of St. Louis Plant Manager. Paulo’s St. Louis Division is co-located with Paulo Corporate Headquarters and has been in operation for over 75 years. The St. Louis Division offers Integral Quench, Continuous, and Vacuum heat treating in addition to several secondary processes such as gas nitriding and black oxide. Brian joins Paulo with deep experience in manufacturing operations management and an education in Metallurgical Engineering. He earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Metallurgical Engineering from Missouri University of Science & Technology.

Tee Rassieur, VP of Operations, commented, “We are excited to have Brian join the team with his background in continuous improvement, operations management, and technical understanding”. Brian added, “I’m so happy to have joined the Paulo team here in St. Louis.  In former assignments I have been a customer of this plant, and I couldn’t be more pleased to have the opportunity to utilize my continuous improvement and metallurgical backgrounds to lead this great team and continue the tradition of serving our customers.” Founded in 1943, Paulo is one of the largest providers of thermal processing and metal finishing solutions in North America. Headquartered in St. Louis, Paulo operates six strategically-located divisions across the U.S. and Mexico. We deliver quality results with datagineering: blending the best in automation, data, and human expertise.”

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“Aalberts Surface Technologies & Nitrex: An Ongoing Partnership; NITREX METAL and AALBERTS SURFACE TECHNOLOGIES HEAT LTD. (formerly Hauck Heat Treatment Ltd.) have been doing business together since 1995. That’s why when AALBERTS ST, the second biggest commercial heat treater in the world, needs to increase its controlled gas nitriding capacity for processing aerospace parts, the company continues to rely on NITREX turnkey nitriding systems.

The Telford, UK, site has a total of three NITREX furnaces to date, varying in size and with a total production capacity of 35,000 lb. (15,600 kg). All systems include the pivotal NITREGR nitriding technology that protects aerospace parts against corrosion and wear. “AALBERTS ST knows our products and our technology very well. The company trusts us for our technological capabilities and appreciates our customer support service and spare parts availability,” reveals Marcin Stokłosa, Product Manager at NITREX.

The last investment, a model NX-1220 purchased in 2018 for its Telford plant, is a furnace used to nitride aerospace parts with an additional treatment, an in-process post-nitriding oxidation process called ONCR, which adds a higher level of protection against corrosion and wear. Aside from the nitriding installations, NITREX has also worked with AALBERTS on control modernizations and upgrades of other furnace brands at this location, replacing outdated end-of-life technology with NITREX controls to improve furnace performance and achieve higher process reliability.

This new system order with a load capacity of 8400 lb. (3800 kg) uses a unique aerospace software package, specifically modified at the request of AALBERTS ST, to meet production requirements and comply with stringent aviation standards and procedures, i.e., temperature uniformity of +/-3°C. It is equipped with ONCR to post-oxidize parts for improved color uniformity and anti-corrosion properties and also includes instrumentation conforming to AMS2759/6 and AMS2759/10 for controlling the nitriding potential (Kn) and dissociation. The integral dissociator guarantees excellent white layer control, either a zero white layer or a limited layer of subsurface nitrides is possible.”

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This acquisition caught our attention as both companies are involved with the heat treating industry. What changes there will be remains to be seen.

“Watlow®, a designer and manufacturer of complete industrial thermal systems, is pleased to announce that it has signed an agreement to acquire Eurotherm® from Schneider Electric, the global leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Eurotherm is a premier global provider of temperature, power, and process control, measurement and data management equipment, systems, software, and services for global industrial markets. The company’s headquarters are in Worthing, UK, with core manufacturing operations in Lędziny, Poland, and headcount of about 650 people worldwide.

“Watlow is excited to invest in this innovative product portfolio and professional team,” said Rob Gilmore, Watlow’s CEO. “Combining Eurotherm’s complementary controls technologies with Watlow’s focus on thermal systems, our shared engineer-to-engineer sales models and our focus on common markets will allow Watlow and Eurotherm to better serve all of our respective customers. We are impressed with Eurotherm’s heritage in the controls industry and strong reputation for innovation and quality, so we are looking forward to welcoming the Eurotherm team to Watlow.” Gilmore continued, “Watlow is investing aggressively right now, including development of our operations in Europe and Asia to ensure we can support and respond to our customers wherever they need us. This acquisition will help us expand our presence in Europe and extend our electronics and controls capabilities globally.” “We are very pleased to be joining the Watlow team,” said Chris Ashworth, Eurotherm’s Managing Director. “Watlow is a known leader in the industry, and I believe that combining our strengths will open new opportunities and create value for our customers.”

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Every successful commercial heat treater in the world has achieved that success through a slightly different formula, concentrating on a particular process, having a process which the competition doesn’t have, offering better pricing and deliveries, being a “one stop” shop-the possibilities are endless. Dependable Metal Treating in Kendallville, Indiana, USA has been quite successful for a variety of reasons, the main one probably being standardizing. “Dependable Metal Treating, Inc. is a locally owned and operated heat treating facility located in Kendallville, Indiana. Incorporated in 1995, we have grown from a small 2 furnace operation to 10 integral batch furnaces with support equipment, automatic monitoring controls and a full metallurgical laboratory. Home – Dependable Metal Treating, Inc. ”

Earlier this week “The Monty Heat Treat News” had the opportunity to visit this facility after a hiatus of several years and what we saw was an above average sized commercial heat treat which has standardized on one particular make and model of furnace-a Surface Combustion Model “Super 30” batch IQ furnace with internal dimensions of 30” X 48” X 30”. Few if any were purchased new but all were lovingly rebuilt before being installed. The result is that every spare part including cylinders, radiant tubes, roller rails, fans and even fixtures are standard to all furnaces. Another obvious benefit is that the operators are familiar with the controls and functions of each furnace.

We certainly don’t mean to take away from the fact that Dependable is run by an experienced team who are extremely attentive to customers needs and we don’t mean to imply that the company doesn’t have other types of equipment but the mainstay of the plant is the ever reliable “Super 30” and they have served the company well. These photos tell the story and included is a picture of Mr. Jeff McLaughlin of McLaughlin Furnace Group proudly showing off his reasonably new “Tru Mix” Endo generator.

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 Jeff McLaughlin, Linda & Ross Noble, Gord Montgomery

ALD Thermal Treatment in Port Huron, Michigan, USA is part of the global commercial heat treating network of Hanau, Germany based ALD ALD – Heat Treatment Services: Our plants worldwide (heat-treatment-services.com)  Their location in Port Huron, Michigan has always made our list of the largest commercial heat treaters in North America 50 Largest North American Commercial Heat Treats 2021 | The Monty and as we are updating our list for this year a visit was certainly in order. Coming soon “The Monty Heat Treat News” will have a full profile about the most recent updates to this facility but in the meantime we can share this photo of part of the management team in front of one of the recent process additions to the company. From left to right we have; Gord Montgomery, The Monty Heat Treat News, Kelly Peters, Vice President Operations and Mr. Jim Muenzenberger, Sr. V.P. Business Development North America.

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“Can-Eng Furnaces International, Ltd. (CAN-ENG) has recently been awarded a contract to deliver a second high-capacity Mesh Belt Heat Treatment Furnace line to a commercial heat treater in the Midwest United States. CAN-ENG completed commissioning of a 4000lb/hr Mesh Belt Furnace System for this customer in 2020. This duplicate 4000 lb/hr high-capacity Mesh Belt Furnace line is to be installed along side the previous furnace line in the recently expanded plant.

These custom engineered continuous atmosphere heat treating systems feature an increase in usable hearth area to provide high-volume processing when running products requiring carbon diffusion and lighter belt loading, as they will be used primarily for processing including Carbonitriding and Carburizing. The furnaces are capable of a maximum throughput capacity of up to 4000 lb/hr neutral hardening each.

Both furnace lines reportedly feature; a computerized controlled automated bin dumping and vibratory part feeder system, dunk and spray pre-washer, protective atmosphere-controlled mesh belt hardening system, oil quench, dunk and spray post wash system, forced recirculation temper furnace, in-line post cooling system, and CAN-ENG’s PETTM Level 2 SCADA system. By integrating CAN-ENG’s Level 2 Automation, the end user also has access to tracking of products’ status, detailed process data for continuous process improvements, comprehensive equipment diagnostics, cost analysis, and inventory management which is required by many demanding customers.”

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​​​​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 9th spot we have Nitrex.

Nitrex is a world leader in heat treating solutions with a unique integrated products portfolio composed of three divisions: Nitrex Turnkey Systems, United Process Controls and Heat Treating Services. Its Heat Treating Services division is an international full-service commercial heat–treatment solutions provider. With over 35 years in heat–treating, 9 locations in the U.S., China, Canada, Mexico and Europe, over 4000 unique processes, 18,000 lab test results and a team of skilled metallurgists, engineers and heat treaters, Nitrex is a solutions provider capable of going beyond traditional heat–treating services. Serving North American customers from its locations in Chicago-IL, Franklin-IN, Mason-MI, Las Vegas-NV, Montreal-Canada, and Queretaro-Mexico, Nitrex has established long term relationships with an array of OEMs, Tier 1s and end-users. While world-renowned for its nitriding expertise, Nitrex also provides a full suite of state-of-the-art vacuum, atmosphere, and LPC solutions to its many customers and will continue to expand its global footprint through 2020 and 2021.

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