“Qatar Aluminum Extrusion CO. (Qalex) received a second nitriding system from Nitrex. The aluminum profiles manufacturer wanted to equip a second extrusion plant with an independent nitriding furnace to save on handling, processing time, and costs associated with having to transport extrusion dies back and forth from its first factory for nitriding work.
“This is the second turnkey system, but it might not be the last one,” says Marcin Stokłosa, project manager at Nitrex Poland. “The story for the initial furnace we sold to Qalex is very long but interesting. Discussions lasted a few years and the customer eventually decided on an order in 2017. In 2021, Qalex boosted the company’s production capacity with the acquisition of a second factory in Qatar dedicated to aluminum extrusion manufacturing and equipped with two extrusion presses. They knew they couldn’t nitride all dies from both factories in one furnace. Every part of this order went like clockwork. The decision to invest in another Nitrex nitriding system was quick thanks to drivers like customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, and the guaranteed levels of die performance and expected results achieved with the first system. Qalex was also very pleased with our technical support and spare parts accessibility. What they ordered is an exact copy of the first Nitrex installation–an identical configuration with the same furnace model, size and process technology.” Nitrex ensured a quick delivery at the request of the customer. Installation and startup were completed in January 2022.
ABOUT QALEX; Qatar Aluminum Extrusion CO. (Qalex) is the brainchild of the Qatar Industrial Manufacturing Company (QIMC). Located in New Industrial Area, Qatar, this multi-million project houses modern extrusion production facilities. Notably, Qalex is equipped with two extrusion presses (7-inch and 8-inch). The facilities also include a vertical powder coating line, the first complete automatic anodizing line in Qatar, installations for thermal break polishing and brushing, nitriding and extrusion dies, and a laboratory. Qalex mission is to increase its presence worldwide and provide efficient, cost-effective products and services. That’s why the company complies with international standards.”
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“We are excited to welcome Navid back in this important sales management role.” said Patrick McKenna, President and CEO of Ipsen USA, Ipsen’s Vacuum Technology Excellence Center. “With global demand for Ipsen furnaces continuing to accelerate, his return to Ipsen comes at an ideal time.”
Gamerschlag was most recently the Sales Manager for a global manufacturer of induction heat-treating equipment. Prior to that, he served as Regional Sales Manager for Ipsen Germany, where he was responsible for promoting Ipsen products and services in multiple international regions. He holds a Dipl.-Ing. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Applied Sciences, Cologne.
“Being back at Ipsen feels like coming home to family,” said Gamerschlag. “I am looking forward to collaborating with my colleagues with a big focus on customer-centricity. This means continuing to build relationships with our customers and earning new business. We can best serve our customers by understanding their needs and use that feedback to drive our products and service offerings.”
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This press release caught our attention as Wall Colmonoy is well known to offer vacuum brazing in all of their facilities and indeed hosts a seminar on vacuum brazing every year.
“The United States Air Force has awarded Wall Colmonoy Aerobraze Engineered Technologies Oklahoma City a five-year contract for the remanufacture of F-15 fighter aircraft fin and plate heat exchangers at the Mountain Home Air Force Base. The Idaho base has a long history dating back to World War II and houses the 366th Fighter Group.
“We are very pleased to have been awarded this competitively bid, multi-year contract. It demonstrates Aerobraze Oklahoma City’s capability to deliver significant cost savings to the United States Air Force (USAF) and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers in support of their F-15 primary heat exchangers,” states Brian Martin, Director of Business Development, Aerobraze U.S.
Aerobraze Oklahoma City developed the remanufacture process to support USAF and FMS clients who were seeking repair rather than new part replacement of their F-15 primary heat exchanger. The method includes complete replacement of the heat exchanger core, as well as inspection and testing in accordance with the USAF Technical Order. This is more cost-effective compared to new part replacement. Since 2013, Aerobraze Oklahoma City has manufactured more than 500 F-15 primary heat exchangers.”
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“The brand new Solar Vacuum Oil Quench furnace is nearing its inaugural run! This equipment, along with a separate SBS oil conditioning system, will lead the way to a safer, more efficient and greener way to oil quench materials. Stay tuned for the results of the maiden voyage!”
Solar Atmospheres of Western PA Installs Vacuum Oil Quench Furnace – Full Video February 16, 2022
Solar Atmospheres of Western PA received delivery of their Vacuum Oil Quench (VOQ) furnace from Solar Manufacturing last week. This 36” x 36″ x 48” furnace will be fully installed, tested and operational in early April. See the largest component, a 40,000 pound vestibule / oil quench tank, being transferred and inverted into its pit. This will be the first vacuum oil quench furnace to employ work thermocouples in the actual load! More to come on this unique furnace . . .
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From time to time “The Monty Heat Treat News” searches through our archives for photos of some of the most interesting heat treats from around the world. Today’s edition comes from Istanbul, Turkey and features what is quite possibly the highest heat treat department in the world. Donusum Isil Islem in Istanbul, Turkey is a captive heat treater who does heat treating for their parent company who offers various types of steels. This location provides hardening, vacuum hardening and gas nitriding all on the 6th floor of their warehouse and office building near Istanbul. Why on earth the heat treat is located on the top floor of the building is beyond us as is how they even got the furnaces up there in the first place. When we visited the facility a few years back it was in the company of Matt Cross of SSi Europe-you can see Matt in the one photo. Other photos also show a very impressive and fairly new Schmetz 10 bar vacuum furnace, the outside of the building with the heat treat on the top floor and another hardening system already in place. So if you are ever asked what is the highest captive heat treat department in the world you can proudly hold your hand up high and say with a high degree of certainty “Donusum Isil Islem in Istanbul, Turkey on the 6th floor”.
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The XLE 244 is equipped with solid-state relays for fast, quite cycle times to offer good control. These are housed in a NEMA 1 control panel with single-point power connection. All required fusing and interconnections are included. The control system is driven by a Honeywell program control with an overtemperature control to prevent the furnace from overfiring. A digital round single-input chart recorder keeps accurate recordings of the furnace process temperature. The Kanthal Iron Aluminum Chrome coiled elements located on the sides, back and door are controlled in two zones for balancing of temperature gradients from top to bottom.”
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Want to know how large commercial heat treater Paulo is? “The Monty Heat Treat News” ranked the firm as one of the largest in North America https://themonty.com/project/5
“Chris Manago Joins Paulo as Kansas City Plant Manager Paulo is proud to announce Chris Manago joining the Paulo team as Kansas City Plant Manager. Chris is a Wisconsin native and graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Stout for both of his bachelor and masters degrees. Chris has a background in thermal management manufacturing including areas of Engineering, Manufacturing, Purchasing, and Leadership.
Tee Rassieur, VP of Operations, remarked, “I am excited to have Chris’ energy and operations leadership join the team and Paulo family. He has had a strong track record of implementing lean practices, committing to superior customer service, and developing teams.” Chris completed his onboarding at the St. Louis Plant with guidance from Tim Mohr, Senior Director of Operations & Strategy, and has joined the Kansas City team. Chris added, “I am excited to be part of the Paulo team and look forward to working with the many dedicated and knowledgeable members for years to come!”
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Paulo, Cleveland, Ohio
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 21st spot we have Hansen Balk, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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Advanced Heat Treat Corp., based in Waterloo, Iowa, USA recently posted to their website an interesting little article about how manufacturers can save a few dollars when sending heat treating out to a commercial heat treater. Some of these thoughts are relatively obvious but others we would not have thought of. We would consider it a good, quick read. 5 Cost Savings Tips for Heat Treat (ahtcorp.com)
“We continue to see costs rise – the cost of material, the price of oil, the expense of chrome plating, etc. Due to this, many businesses are assessing their bottomline and trying to figure out additional ways to reduce expenses and save money. In this blog, we’ll offer five tips to help you save money as it relates to heat treating. As always, please contact your AHT representative for details and quotes.
COST SAVINGS TIP #1: Lot Size / Price Per Piece
Most heat treatment is specified with a piece-price and/or a minimum lot charge. The piece price is the cost to treat an individual part. The minimum lot charge is the smallest transaction the heat treater is quoting, regardless of the number of pieces you are sending. How the minimum lot charge works, for example, if a part is priced at $6.00 each and the minimum lot size is $900:
- If you send two pieces, the total invoice is $900
- If you send 150 pieces, the total invoice is $900
- If you send 151 pieces, the total invoice is $906
It is usually in the buyer’s best interest to maximize the number of pieces in a lot.
NOTE: If you have a high minimum lot charge, it likely means your work is running by itself. If it can be included with other parts, it may save you money. This may not be an option for very specific orders.
COST SAVINGS TIP #2: Masking
While induction hardening can selectively treat (and not treat) specific areas of a part, other heat treatments require masking (or tooling) to do this. You can save money on this added labor a couple different ways:
a.) you can avoid the expense altogether by masking the part yourself
b.) consider what actually needs to be masked and specify with simplicity in mind.
TIP: If you want your parts to be returned with or without the masking paint, please specify this on your purchase order. This may impact the price.
COST SAVINGS TIP #3: Freight
Heat treatment is often the last operation prior to assembly. Instead of shipping back to you, we can often drop ship directly to your end customer. This saves time and freight cost.
Communicating when your parts will arrive can also help to reduce your costs. For instance, if your work can run with something else, we might be able to delay that run until your parts arrive.
COST SAVINGS TIP #4: Set-Up Fees
Induction hardening is not a batch process, and similar to a machine shop, when you change jobs, you are “breaking set-up.” Because of this, set-up fees are common in induction hardening. You can often reduce your per-piece cost by increasing the number of parts you send.
COST SAVINGS TIP #5: Packaging
Unless specified, it is assumed that parts will be returned in the same packaging they are received. Using reusable dunnage can be a great cost saver as there are fewer boxes to dispose of and fewer damaged parts. Pre-racking can also be a significant cost savings.
We continue to see costs rise – the cost of material, the price of oil, the expense of chrome plating, etc. Due to this, many businesses are assessing their bottomline and trying to figure out additional ways to reduce expenses and save money. In this blog, we’ll offer five tips to help you save money as it relates to heat treating. As always, please contact your AHT representative for details and quotes.
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