Since 1958, Sun Steel Treating has specialized in providing our customers exceptional quality, expertise, and timeliness. Whether it’s hardening alloys, carbon steels, tool steels or high speed specialty steels, our engineers know the precise metallurgical processes to apply. Sun Steel Treating continually strives to be the most environmentally responsible heat treating facility.
In 1981, Sun Steel Treating pioneered the use of plasma Nitriding as a viable surface hardening treatment. Sun Steel Treating has Trade-marked and registered this process as Ionitriding®. Sun Steel Treating has also pioneered combining the benefits of Ionitriding® and Steam Treating to develop IonWear®. Sun Steel Treating continues to make improvements in equipment, technology, and processes to meet the diverse application needs of modern manufacturing. Sun Steel Treating continues to lead the field in both capabilities and quality.”
Did you like this article? Click here to subscribe to The Monty.
View our recent magazines and podcasts by clicking the following link. https://themonty.com/magazine/
This is SECO/WARWICK’s first contract with this client, but the Vector has been known on the Chinese market for years. “Last year definitely belonged to the Group’s Chinese company, for which it was a historic, record-breaking time full of new orders. The portfolio got bigger by eight new clients, including global companies from the FORTUNE GLOBAL 500 list,” praised Liu Yedong, Managing Director of SECO/WARWICK China. Delivery of the furnace is scheduled for June this year.”
Did you like this article? Click here to subscribe to The Monty.
View our recent magazines and podcasts by clicking the following link. https://themonty.com/magazine/
10 Largest Single Location Captive Heat Treats-North America
For the past several weeks “The Monty Heat Treat News” (with the help of a number of our readers) has been researching the largest single location captive heat treats in North America for our list of the 10 largest. And how did we decide who should be on the list? The basic criteria includes these points;
- This is based upon the total number of furnaces (or cells in the case of vacuum carburizing applications) at each location as opposed to total throughput in terms of pounds.
- The main criteria is that each be a single location or campus. As an example Schaeffler Bearing ranks amongst the largest overall in terms of the number of furnaces in North America, however they are spread over quite a few different locations such as Stratford, Ontario, Canada, Joplin, MO, USA, Cheraw, SC, USA and Irapuato, Mexico to name a few. Spoiler alert-they are not be on our list for that reason.
- We want to emphasize that our list only includes captive (in house) heat treats. We received several suggestions about ALD in Port Huron, Michigan, USA who has a total of 37 vacuum carburizing cells under one roof, however this is a commercial heat treater rather than a captive heat treat and they are not included on this list.
- It is really no surprise that the vast bulk of companies on this list are automotive suppliers and in particular suppliers involved in drivetrain components-no other industries rival the sheer volumes that the auto industry handles each and every day.
- We looked closely at the aerospace industry, in particular at some of the Pratt & Whitney plants in the US Northeast and the southern states, however while a number have very substantial heat treat departments typically featuring vacuum furnaces none came close to the auto parts suppliers.
- “The Monty Heat Treat News” also looked at the oil and gas industry, however again while some suppliers such as Haliburton maintain large in house heat treats none compare in size to the firms on our list.
- It’s interesting to see how much the industry has changed over the past 20 years-an example being pusher furnaces. In 2000 we can guarantee that the largest captive heat treaters would have been very heavily weighted towards auto parts suppliers with pusher furnaces-this is no longer the case. Since then pusher furnaces have largely been pushed aside in favor of vacuum carburizing systems and batch IQ units.
- Disclaimer time. Not for a second do we claim that this list should be considered 100% accurate, however we will say with certainty that every single manufacturer on this list ranks amongst the largest in house heat treaters in North America.
Number 10 Caterpillar, East Peoria, Illinois
In years gone by we have rated Caterpillar, the world’s large construction-equipment manufacturer as one of the largest captive heat treaters in North America based on their various facilities throughout the USA many of whom have in house heat treating. Our criteria this year is slightly different in that we are looking at single location captive heat treatment facilities. However having said that we would rank the Caterpillar facility in East Peoria, Illinois as the 10 largest captive heat treat facility in North America.
Number 9 Amsted Rail – BRENCO Bearings, Petersburg, Virginia
A newcomer to our list of the 10 largest single location captive heat treaters is a bearing company, BRENCO Bearings a division of Amstead Rail, located in Petersburg, Virginia. Amsted Rail’s Brenco® Bearings was founded in 1949 to manufacture bronze journal bearings for railroad freight cars. In 1959, Brenco received conditional AAR approval for the product it is known for today throughout the worldwide railroad industry,the tapered roller bearing-in short the company makes bearings for the railroad industry. The company has locations around the world, at least two of which have in house heat treatment departments. While the heat treatment department in Petersburg is not as large as it once one it still includes multiple pit carburizing furnaces and rotary hearth units.
Number 8 Dana Corp., Queretaro, Mexico
Number 8 on our list is yet another large auto parts maker, Dana Corporation, Queretaro, Mexico. While Dana has numerous facilities around the globe that include heat treating the largest is an enormous complex in the Mexican city of Queretaro with several large, separate in house heat treating departments. There are 3 separate facilities here, Dana Forja which has a heat treating department doing annealing in continuous furnaces, Dana Cardanes which has 7 batch IQ furnaces, roughly 40 induction lines and 11 tempers and Dana, ENCO which has 2 AFC-Holcroft UBQ furnaces along with 4 pusher furnaces (as of 2020).
Number 7 Stellantis, Kokomo, Indiana
In 1956 Chrysler invested in a transmission facility in Kokomo, Indiana, a facility which now covers 3.1 million square feet (please note that there are several facilities in Kokomo, our interest is in the transmission facility). For many years now this plant which originally was called Chrysler, and subsequently FCA Kokomo before being renamed Stellantis had what was probably the largest captive heat treat in North America. At one time it included 7-Three row Holcroft Pusher Furnaces, 6-Lindberg 36 X 72 X 36 Batch IQ furnaces, 6-AFC 36 X 72 X 36 batch Austemper Furnaces, 3-Holcroft single row pushers, 2-Surface rotary furnaces, 2-Seco Rotary Furnaces, 4-ECM vacuum nitriding furnaces, 30-tempering furnaces and several ECM vacuum carburizing systems. While the heat treat department is smaller than it once was it is still one of the larger in house heat treat departments in North America.
Number 6 American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings (AAM), Silao, Mexico
In 2012 auto parts supplier American Axle & Manufacturting (AAM) formally opened a new location in the city of Silao, Guanajuato, Mexico. The Silao facility was AAM’s second manufacturing facility in Mexico, joining the Guanajuato Manufacturing Complex. The opening of these facilities marked a real change in the firms philosophy as previous to this most manufacturing was in the USA including a large facility in Buffalo, New York which featured 5 single row pusher lines. Each AAM facility (including Poland) has a varied mix of heat treating equipment which includes pusher furnaces, batch IQ’s and Induction to name a few. Each of the AAM heat treating departments is very impressive, mainly because they are relatively new and obviously no expense was spared. AAAM globally can be considered one of the larger captive heat treaters in existence.
(Photo source: American Axle and Manufacturing)
Number 5 ZF Transmission, Grey Court, South Carolina
ZF is a German company which ranks amongst the largest suppliers of automotive transmission components in the world. The location in Grey Court, SC opened in 2012 and became a hub for ZF’s work in large-scale transmission production, including eight- and nine-speed automatic transmissions. Almost exactly one year ago the company issued this press release about an expansion of the facility (an expansion which did not include more heat treating by the way), “Germany’s ZF Friedrichshafen said it will invest $200 million to build another production line at its commercial vehicle transmission plant in Gray Court, S.C. The new line is expected to begin production in 2023. More than 500 jobs will be created, the company said. The supplier on Thursday said it plans to expand production of the PowerLine, an eight-speed automatic transmission for medium-duty commercial trucks, heavy pickups and buses.”
ZF is another company which made the decision to go with vacuum carburizing and the end result is that this facility has two ALD “Modultherm” systems in place with a total of 16 carburizing cells and 2 Pusher lines for annealing supplied by Ipsen.
Number 4 Linamar, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
In our fourth position we find a Canadian company, auto parts supplier Linamar. Linamar is a global company with many locations around the world doing heat treating however their largest heat treat department is in Guelph, Ontario. Roughly 15 years ago the firm made the decision to bring heat treating in house while at the same time deciding that going forward they would concentrate on batch processing as opposed to continuous. In 2022 we see that this plant now has twenty five 36” X 48” X 36” batch IQ furnaces in place combined with several vacuum nitriders and a rotary hearth furnace. Current plans include future additions to the heat treating department.
Number 3 GKN Driveline, Newton, North Carolina
In our number three position we find another automotive parts supplier, GKN in Newton, NC. While not one of the first to invest in vacuum carburizing systems they certainly jumped on the bandwagon after vacuum carburizing proved it’s value. With approximately 30 cells in operation this location clearly deserves to be on our list.
Number 2 John Deere Waterloo, Iowa
As one of the world’s largest manufacturers of agricultural machinery, heavy equipment, forestry machinery, diesel engines, drivetrains used in heavy equipment, and lawn care equipment we are sure the company needs no introduction. Their location in Waterloo, Iowa would appear to be the second largest captive heat treat in all of North America with a total of 31 furnaces (we will qualify this statement slightly by saying that 10 of these furnaces are dual chamber which we are counting as two furnaces each). The equipment comes from a variety of furnace suppliers including Surface Combustion as can be seen in this photo.
Number 1 Ford Motor Company Sharonville Transmission Facility
We are quite comfortable in suggesting that the Ford Sharonville, Ohio Transmission facility is the single largest captive heat treat facility in North America. Ford was one of the first automotive companies to embrace vacuum carburising and the end result is that this plant now have over 40 carburizing cells in operation. It is worth noting that this facility has almost 2.5 million cubic feet under roof with almost 2,000 employees; “The Ford Motor Company Sharonville Transmission plant is a transmission manufacturing facility located in Sharonville, Ohio, United States. Established in 1958, Sharonville has long been the backup site for overflowing work at the Ford Motor Company Livonia Transmission plant. It is also where the Ford Crown Victoria’s transmission was once assembled for over three decades. With the Crown Victoria now discontinued, the Sharonville transmission plant currently overseas production of the 64140 6-speed automatic transmission – also known as the Torqshift – destined for the Ford Super Duty line of heavy duty trucks. Sharonville is where the Ford/GM 10R80 10-speed transmission is assembled. The facility also manufacturers individual gears for the 6R80, 6R140, 6F35, 6F50/55, 8F57 transmissions. These gears are then shipped to other Ford manufacturing plants like the Ford Motor Company Van Dyke Transmission plant and the Ford Motor Company Livonia Transmission plant.”
In California, USA we have learned that commercial heat treater Newton Heat Treating in Rowland Heights, CA is just about to install two brand new, state of the art solution heat treating furnaces-this represents an investment in the millions of dollars. In the past we have described the owner of the company, Mr. Greg Newton as the most enthusiastic heat treater we have ever met and our opinion has not changed.
We will now turn the floor over to Greg who has these comments and photos and we also include a press release which we did about the company way back in 2010.
“Hi Gord, these 3 photos show you my new state of the art, ±5°F fast quench, solution heat treat furnaces that are now being tested at the manufacturer’s facility. CHE (California Heating Equipment) is the company we have contracted with for the manufacturing and installation. The president of CHE John Tittelfitz has been a pleasure to work with and really understands the difficulties of replacing old equipment with new. The goal being the removal of the old furnaces and the installation of the new ones in 3 weeks!”
Did you like this article? Click here to subscribe to The Monty.
View our recent magazines and podcasts by clicking the following link. https://themonty.com/magazine/
In this weeks, super suspenseful, very exciting edition of “The Heat Treat Podcast” our handsome and very articulate host, Carlos Torres talks about heat treating for the oil and gas industries with Mr. Sam Moore. Sam is CEO of Specialty Heat Treat in Houston, Texas which “The Monty Heat Treat News” has ranked as the 29th largest commercial heat treat in all of North America 50 Largest North American Commercial Heat Treats 2021 | The Monty
Did you like this article? Click here to subscribe to The Monty.
View our recent magazines and podcasts by clicking the following link. https://themonty.com/magazine/
From well known heat treat industry supplier Thermcraft of Winston-Salem, NC, USA we have this press release about how they have just appointed Mr. Andy Belling as General Manager. “Welcome Andy Belling! We are pleased to welcome Andrew Belling to the Thermcraft team as the new General Manager. Andy comes us to us with a diverse career in manufacturing leadership. He also has a strong history and degree in Ceramics Engineering. We look forward to Andy propelling Thermcraft forward!”
Want to know more about the company? “The Monty Heat Treat News” visited the firm just over two years ago and this is how we described the company at the time; “Thermcraft Incorporated. Winston-Salem, North Carolina; For years we have been running across Thermcraft at all the various heat treat shows but we have never known a great deal about the company, so when the opportunity presented itself to visit the company we jumped at it. Thermcraft has almost 80 employees in a 75,000 square foot building and what they are very good at is custom designed, electrically heated furnaces, control systems, ovens and high temperature heaters. We very much doubt that they are very often the low bidder because everything we saw was absolutely top end.”
Did you like this article? Click here to subscribe to The Monty.
View our recent magazines and podcasts by clicking the following link. https://themonty.com/magazine/
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 28th spot we have Flame Metals.
Flame Metals was founded in 1985 and operates a 100,000 square foot facility 7 days a week in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area. With eleven integral quench furnaces (9000 lb max capacity) and two pit furnaces (25,000 lb capacity), the company is best known for its ability to process large critical components. Additional capabilities include continuous processing, vacuum, salt bath nitriding, neutral salt, induction, aluminum and car bottom.
Did you like this article? Click here to subscribe to The Monty.
View our recent magazines and podcasts by clicking the following link. https://themonty.com/magazine/
This press release talks about furnace builder Aichelin receiving a very substantial order from a US company for preventative maintenance as part of their “Heatxpress” technology. “Heatxpress” is dedicated to those companies providing car body parts for passenger cars. We had the privilege of looking at this technology in Austria as you can see in the attached picture.
For over five years, the subsidiary of the technology group has already been successfully operating several AICHELIN plants in the US. The plants from the AICHELIN “heatXpress” series are successfully used for the production of car body parts for passenger cars.
AICHELIN Service as a globally operating competence partner; Aichelin Service GmbH in Ludwigsburg has taken on the coordination of this complex maintenance project as a service partner. Experts of the customer’s locations in Germany will also be involved in the project. Several AICHELIN service units from Mödling/Austria and Ludwigsburg will work together across locations and are coordinated via the central project management at AICHELIN Service GmbH in Ludwigsburg. Thanks to the long-term partner-ship, the customer chooses AICHELIN’s top competence and service readiness for their international sites as well.
The upcoming maintenance works are part of a large-scale maintenance project that was launched in November 2021 and is set to be completed by the end of 2022. The AICHELIN Group’s U.S. company, AFC-Holcroft, is also involved in this project and, together with its European service colleagues, is ensuring the provision of a high quality of service to the customer. At peak times, up to 20 AICHELIN service employees will be on site in the US within several project phases. The aim of the current maintenance project is to update the plants to the latest technological standards over the coming months. This will ensure delivery capacity of the US plant’s ability to supply its customers by way of a high production reliability. The focus of the maintenance measures will be on burner technology and productivity of the high-speed transport systems inside the 920°C press-hardening furnaces.”
Did you like this article? Click here to subscribe to The Monty.
View our recent magazines and podcasts by clicking the following link. https://themonty.com/magazine/
February 16th of this year “The Monty Heat Treat News” had a story about a metallurgist being sentenced to prison of falsifying strength tests (the original item is below). The interest in this story was absolutely astounding to say the least with over 33,000 views on “The Monty Heat Treat News” which would be a new record for us. It was a very disappointing story but one which obviously caught a lot of peoples attention in the heat treat industry.
“Metallurgist Sentenced to Prison for Falsifying Strength Tests “A metallurgist in Washington state was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison and
a $50,000 fine Monday after she spent decades faking the results of strength tests on steel that was being used to make U.S. Navy submarines. Elaine Marie Thomas, 67, of Auburn, Washington, was the director of metallurgy at a foundry in Tacoma that supplied steel castings used by Navy contractors Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding to make submarine hulls.
From 1985 through 2017, Thomas falsified the results of strength and toughness tests for about half the steel the foundry produced for the Navy. The tests were intended to show that the steel would not fail in a collision or in certain “wartime scenarios,” the Justice Department said. Thomas pleaded guilty to fraud last November. U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle sentenced her in Tacoma, calling her actions a “crime of pride and ego, that in some way she knew better than those who set the standards,” according toa news release from Seattle U.S. Attorney Nick Brown. The sentence was less than half the nearly six years sought by prosecutors.
“Our Sailors and Marines depend upon high quality products and services from our contractors to safely and effectively meet the worldwide mission of the Department of the Navy,” Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said. “We will continue to insist that our contractors must meet these high standards.” There was no allegation that any submarine hulls failed. But authorities said the Navy has spent nearly $14 million, including 50,000 hours of engineering work, to assess the parts and risk to the 30 submarines affected. The Navy says it will incur further costs as it continues monitoring the subs. Thomas’ conduct came to light in 2017, when a metallurgist being groomed to replace her noticed suspicious test results and alerted their company, Kansas City-based Bradken Inc., which acquired the foundry in 2008. Bradken fired Thomas and initially disclosed its findings to the Navy, but the company then wrongfully suggested that the discrepancies were not the result of fraud. That hindered the Navy’s investigation into the scope of the problem as well as its efforts to remediate the risks to its sailors, prosecutors said.
In June 2020, the company agreed to pay $10.9 million in a deferred-prosecution agreement. When confronted with the doctored results, Thomas told investigators, “Yeah, that looks bad,” the Justice Department said. She suggested that in some cases she changed the tests to passing grades because she thought it was “stupid” that the Navy required the tests to be conducted at negative-100 degrees Fahrenheit (negative-73.3 degrees Celsius). In a letter to the court, Thomas said she was mortified at what she had done. Her attorney, John Carpenter, noted in a sentencing memorandum that she did not gain financially by faking the test results. He asked for a sentence of probation. “Ms. Thomas is good person who let a number of work pressures cause her to make bad decisions,” he wrote. “Ms. Thomas never intended to place any sailor at risk and is gratified that the Navy’s testing compels the conclusion that she has not.” From “Defense News”
Did you like this article? Click here to subscribe to The Monty.
View our recent magazines and podcasts by clicking the following link. https://themonty.com/magazine/
Monday global commercial heat treater Bodycote released their preliminary 2021 financial results which we summarized yesterday. So what do the financial markets think? This article which appeared in a UK publication by the name of “Alliance News” is fairly typical of the general reaction, the general reaction being quite positive.
“TOP NEWS: Bodycote swings to profit and grows revenue in 2021; (Alliance News) – Bodycote PLC on Monday reported a swing to profit in 2021 and increased revenue on a strong recovery in general industrial markets and the completion of its restructuring programme that delivered significant cost savings.
For 2021, the Cheshire-based thermal processing services provider swung to a pretax profit of GBP77.5 million from a loss of GBP1.5 million in 2020. The result was helped as Bodycote booked no exceptional items in the year, versus a charge of GBP58.4 million in 2020.
Further, its completed restructuring programme delivered permanent cost savings of GBP20 million in 2021.
The swing to profit was also supported by revenue growth of 7.1% to GBP615.8 million from GBP598.0 million the year before.
Bodycote credited this to a strong recovery in general industrial markets. Revenue rose 14% to GBP254 million in this market sector. Meanwhile. revenue in the automotive sector grew 9% to GBP168 million in 2021.
Bodycote declared a final dividend of 13.8 pence, bringing the total payout to 20.0p. This reflects a 3.1% increase from 19.4p paid out in 2020.
Bodycote noted that it has no direct exposure to Russia, Belarus or Ukraine. “At this stage, it is too early to predict the broader potential impacts on the group but we continue to monitor the situation closely and will take any necessary actions warranted by unfolding events,” the firm stated.
The thermal processing services provider said that its General Industrial segment continued to perform “strongly” during the year, while growth in its Civil Aerospace sector accelerated. The firm noted supply chain disruption in its Automotive business but said “signs of improvements are evident.”
“We saw good progress in 2021, with margins increasing to 15%, as Bodycote benefited from strong recovery in general industrial markets and completion of the restructuring programme. The results also highlight the progress we are making in our strategic focus areas,” said Chief Executive Stephen Harris.
“In summary, the board expects further progress in 2022, but remains mindful of the current geopolitical and macro-economic landscape.”
Bodycote shares were trading 1.2% higher in London on Monday morning at 668.00 pence each.”
Did you like this article? Click here to subscribe to The Monty.
View our recent magazines and podcasts by clicking the following link. https://themonty.com/magazine/
