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In Austria we find that Schmid Schrauben (Wurth group) has just finished installing a mesh belt furnace line from Italian furnace builder Meapforni.
“Meapforni is installing a mesh belt line with a capacity of 1000 kg/hour at Schmid Schrauben plant (WURTH group) in Austria. The line is part of a large investment SSH is doing to increase the production capacity. The system is fully automatic and consists of a prewash, gas carbonitriding furnace with oil quench, post wash and tempering furnace. Production tests are scheduled for next months.”
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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 15th spot we have Heat Treating Services Corporation of America (HTS).
Based in Pontiac, Michigan HTS is a privately owned commercial heat treater founded in 1978. The company has 4 plants in Michigan and serves the ferrous metal industries with thermal process and clean capabilities, which exceed sixty-four (64) million pounds per month.
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A US based manufacturer of sporting equipment recently installed a furnace line with salt quenching to compliment their existing heat treat capacity. The system was designed built and installed by a Swiss Company “Solo Swiss” based in Switzerland. This is how the company describes themselves; “SOLO Swiss SA, founded in 1924, manufactures advanced industrial furnaces for the heat treatment of metals. Headquarters are located in Bienne, Switzerland close to Bern and manufacturing facilities are located in Porrentruy, Switzerland, close to Belfort in France and also in Guangzhou, China. SOLO Swiss is one of the oldest furnaces manufacturer in Europe and exports its equipment all over the world including a strong activity in Asia.”
Solo Swiss is one of two substantial furnace builders in Switzerland which are very well known in Europe but rather uncommon in North America.
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For over 25 years “The Monty Heat Treat News” has been very proud of the fact that we are one of the largest brokers of used heat treatment equipment in North America https://themonty.com/used-equi
On the other side of the ledger we are always looking for additional high quality equipment listings. The fact that “The Monty Heat Treat News” uses a non exclusive sales agreement means that vendors always get a fair price for their equipment. If you would like a free appraisal of your items let us know at [email protected]
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(Editors Note; This was written by Mr. Duane Heinrich Thermal Processing General Manager with Metal Finishing Company in Witchita, Kansas, USA. In the photo below Duane is on the left and John Hubbard of Bodycote fame is on the right).
In 1997 I had come to cross roads personally and professionally. I had started my Heat-Treating career at Frank’s Hard Facing at the ripe age of 15 and worked 21 years for Williams Rock Bit/Smith Gruner/Smith International acquiring more advanced heat-treating skills under the tutelage of Jack Wintermute and Wayne Quantz, 2 of the finest metallurgists I have ever met, in an in-house heat-treating environment.
I met an excellent instructor, mentor, and metallurgist during a class “Metallurgy for the Non-Metallurgist”. His name was David Pye. David and I became friends very quickly. Mr. Pye called one day with an opportunity in the captive heat treating located in Gladewater Texas for a company named Sampson Industries.
Sampson Industries had decided to get into the heat treat business to be able to heat treat H13 extrusion tooling made for various industries, but soon came to the realization that they would need to find other heat treat to process to cover the cost of their substantial investment. They contacted David Pye on training members of their team to become heat treaters and after accessing the skill sets of selected team members David convinced them that they needed an experienced heat treater to be on site to build the heat-treating team. They agreed and David scheduled an interview with the Sampsons.
I arrived in east Texas on 7/11/97 for the interview. We met at the proposed site for the heat treat facility which was a 200’ x 400’ lot. The lot was grown over with weeds and brush. They explained that they had ordered a 36x72x36 Surface All Case integral batch furnace with oil quench and top cool, 2, 36x72x36 tempers, 36x72x36 spray/dunk washer, and a Surface 2500 CFH Endothermic Generator in April and equipment was scheduled for delivery in October. They had several employees they were volunteering to operate the equipment, but there was zero heat treat experience to draw from. After hearing their offer, I saw a tractor with a brush hog attached and asked them if they minded me mulling over the situation and offer while mowing the lot. After clearing the lot of weeds, brush, and debris I accepted the challenge.
As the building went up and we waited on the equipment to arrive, we put ads in the area papers for personnel. We found 3 gentlemen to fill the 3 shifts and put them on various duties around the parent company and working with the contractor erecting the building. We hired a local gentleman to drive our truck, as we got closer to the equipment being installed and ready to process materials. The day came when all was ready to begin processing material, but we had no orders in house. I gave the driver my card and told him to hand them out at all the machine shops in the area and ask if they had any heat treat to pick up. He came back the 1st day with 2 pallets on the truck. I called the companies and let them know that we had the parts. I asked if I could quote the parts, as we were capable of processing and they took a verbal quote over the phone, we proceeded with processing our first commercial order. This continued for several weeks and word of mouth got around that we were competitive on pricing and turned parts faster than the other options available.
David Pye was essential in setting our lab up and I basically created the router and quality system with the help of an IT expert that worked for Sampson industries. We had a part time receptionist who also took care of our billing. Our staff was very lean, but highly efficient operating 5 days a week with weekend expediting an option if given enough notice. We were breaking even after the first 30 days of operation and were now making a weekly run to Houston picking up a truck load of fasteners to be processed.
We determined we needed a logo for the heat treat facility. After several nights discussing the design which started out with a Texas Ranger badge look it progressed in to the one below with the state of Texas and a flame over where Gladewater was located. Ken Sampson came up with that final piece – “East Texas Heat Treat”, we created our logo. The sign was cut out by hand with a cutting torch and hand ground where possible with a hand grinder. The rustic coating was one used in corrosion coating building beams and bridge beams the parent company built.
Jerry Luce of Metroplex Heat Treating (Now Bodycote) fame helped our little heat treat out by vacuum processing 400 series stainless material for us. We did not have vacuum capability, so myself and Ken Sampson drove to Metroplex and met with Jerry. Listening to his story on how he got started with his business and how it was grown was an awesome experience and let us know that what we were doing was possible. We came to an agreement that day and never forgot the help Mr. Luce offered us.
As with all heat treats you have to put money back into the business to keep the growth going and to keep profits coming in. This required planning and focus on the goal. Unfortunately, the ownership was not able to commit to the long haul on this operation. The business was put up for sale and my duties were to find a partner or another company to purchase us. Hi TecMetal Group was one of many to look at the facility, with Terry Profughi himself visiting and meeting with ownership and John Hubbard (of Hinderliter Heat Treating) also visiting as well. At the end of the day no deal could be made and Jerry Luce ended up purchasing all the equipment, along with the sign on the building.
As history would have it, John Hubbard and Bodycote ended up with Metroplex Heat Treating and the sign ended up in his possession. In 2018 John made me aware of the sign being in his possession. He offered it to me, but I could not find my way to Dallas area to pick it up, but was always in the back of my mind that I needed to retrieve this sign, as it was my 1st heat treat logo I had been a part of designing and also was part of my heat-treating legacy that I needed to have in my possession.
I contacted John Hubbard and inquired if the sign was still available? He stated that he knew where it was and would check to see if there was a way I could acquire it. Mr. Hubbard stated that a friend of his Jonathan Maffeo had the sign and was displaying in his house as wall art and that he would indeed part with the sign. A date and time were set up for the pickup. The sign is now with me in Wichita, Kansas where it is now at home.
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In ” people news” we see that Aalberts Surface Technologies very recently hired a fellow by the name of Pat Wallis to be VP Sales & Marketing Aalberts Surface Technologies Specialized Heat Treatment US. We assume (but don’t know for sure) that Pat will be working with all of the Aalberts divisions in the US which is becoming quite a long list and includes.
- the 3 former “Applied Process” facilities in Livonia, MI, Oshkosh, WI and Fort Smith, AR
- Accurate Brazing with locations in Goffstown, NH and Greenville, SC and Ionic Technologies also in Greenville, SC
- 9 locations in Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio which were formerly known as Premier Thermal
In total the company has 17 locations throughout the USA. We wish Pat the best of luck in his new position. See where “The Monty Heat Treat News” ranked Aalberts USA as compared to other US commercial heat treaters https://themonty.com/articles/50-largest-north-american-commercial-heat-treats-2021-2/
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“AUGUST 18th, 2018; Applied Process, Fort Smith, Arkansas, USA; We promised you updates about the new Applied Process commercial heat treating facility in Fort Smith, Arkansas, USA and this is the first installment. This will be one of the largest new heat treating facility investments in North America in 2018. “Livonia, Mich.-based Applied Process opened its doors to the public to celebrate the beginning of operations in Fort Smith. The company purchased and renovated an abandoned building at 5400 North 6th Street for $2.751 million starting in January. The overall expansion has been between $8 million and $10 million, counting the addition of industrial equipment.
The location was once a spice warehouse for OK Foods. For Tim Allen, president and CEO of the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce, the process started “about a year ago.” According to the company’s recruiting brochure, the average entry-level production wage is $31,500 and the company pays up to 95% of health insurance premiums. After adding in another $3,600 in average entry-level bonus and profit sharing, the total compensation comes out to about $49,600, or roughly $23.85 per hour for new hires with no experience. Plant manager Rusty Rainbolt told Talk Business & Politics the facility had 20 employees when it officially opened last month, that it hopes to add “another 5-6 soon, and over the next five years, we’re going to grow that number up to about 50.” “We started as a half-size facility with three furnaces, and we’ll grow out to six,” he added. The current plant size is about 51,000 square feet. Applied Process specializes in austempering heat treatment processing. It has “a diverse industry base,” Rainbolt explained. “We work in everything from automotive to aerospace to mining and construction and agriculture. Big customers of ours would be Ford Motor Company, Fiat Chrysler, John Deere, Caterpillar, all the way to railroad companies.”
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KGO has recently commissioned its first Horizontal Nitriding Furnace in India at Harsha Engineers International Ltd. “With this installation, the
customer has gained more load capacity, lesser cycle time and more accurate Monitoring & Control on Power and Process gases.” Pictured here with the furnace are Mr. Chandrasekaran Subramanian, head of heat treat division of Harsha Engineers Ltd. and Mr. Subhash Kanse, the KGO representative in India.
About Harsha Engineers International Ltd. Since its inception in 1986, Harsha Engineers International Limited* (Harsha) has become the largest manufacturer of precision bearing cages in India in terms of capacity and operations. The company now ranks amongst the leading manufacturers of precision bearing cages in the world with a market share of approximately 5% to 6% in the global brass, steel and polyamide industries in terms of revenue. http://www.harshaengineers.com
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“Solar Manufacturing Inc. announces the receipt of a vacuum heat treating furnace order for a firearms manufacturer based in the United States. The furnace, Model HFL-5748-2IQ, has a hot zone of 36” x 36” x 48” deep with a weight capacity of 5,000 lbs., and maximum operating temperature of 2400°F, and heats to 2500°F for hot zone bake out. The furnace design also has a temperature uniformity of ±10°F and is AMS2750 compliant with vacuum levels in the low micron range.
For rapid turnaround for work cooling, a 100 HP gas blower is provided for operating at 15 PSIG (2–bar) in nitrogen gas. The furnace is complete with a SolarVac® Polaris fully automated and programmable industrial controls package, and a Eurotherm digital chart recorder.
The system also includes a Magnetic Specialties, Inc. (magspecinc.com) SCR–based dry power supply rated at 225 kVa.
Solar Manufacturing designs and manufactures a wide variety of vacuum heat treating, sintering, and brazing furnaces and offers replacement hot zones, spare parts, and professional service. To learn more about Solar Manufacturing contact Pete Reh, VP of Sales, at 267-384-5040 x1509, or via email [email protected] or visit us at solarmfg.com.”
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