It has always struck us as a contradiction in terms that very low temperature cryogenic systems can be considered to be part of the heat treatment process. In this rather interesting article Mr. Jack Cahn of Deep Cryogenics International explains to us the success he has had in the treatment of Crusher Cones which are used in the mining industry.

ATLANTIC MINING IS A profitable gold mine operating in Nova Scotia, Canada. Owned by the Australian firm St. Barbara, they constantly work to improve miner safety, increase environmental stewardship, and lower operating cost. One method they chose to achieve these goals embraces an innovative technology called deep cryogenic treatment (DCT).

DCT is a cold thermal process that increases the abrasive wear life of metal items such as ground engagement tools, conveyers, and gears. The process is similar to heat treating, but in the opposite thermal direction. Items are placed in a highly insulated tank and slowly cooled to the optimal temperature – near -196°C – using alloy-specific recipes. Following a return to ambient, items are tempered to increase fracture toughness and eliminate hydrogen embrittlement.

DCT is low cost, permanent, carbon neutral, and very effective. It is normally done after heat treating but it can also be performed after an item has been manufactured and shipped to an end customer. In production, it costs about 10 to15 per cent of the original item to increase wear life by 20 to 40 per cent. Challenges to adoption

In prior years, obstacles to commercializing DCT were small sized equipment, few service providers, and no testing or research support. No one knew how to certify DC-treated parts since, unlike heat treating, the process doesn’t increase part hardness, leave visible high temp colour bands, or change an item’s dimensional size. As a result, mining equipment original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) often made improvements based on material alloy, heat treat protocols, or surface treatments. Without DCT, only the ‘hot side’ of thermal processing was being employed – leaving much of the potential benefit still on the table.

Technology advancements. In 2018, Deep Cryogenics International (DCI) opened the world’s only DCT research lab, quietly tucked into a small oceanfront town in eastern Canada. As demand grew, they added more treatment capacity. Atlantic Mining was an early technology adopter when they discovered that DC-treated core saw blades yielded two times the wear life of untreated saw blades. Other mining customers began to use the process on gears and slurry pump seal plates. Saw blades, gears, and tooling are relatively small, low-cost items made of martensitic steel, which is easily improved by both heat treating and DCT. The bigger question is how can we improve the wear life of higher cost and much larger parts that are at the heart of critical, non-redundant platforms such as cone crushers?

Cone crushers rely on impact force and abrasive wear to crush rock, which are also the key failure modes associated with the short
life of the two primary components – the mantle and bowl liner. Unlike ground engagement tools, ball media or mill liners made from carbon steel, cast iron, or chrome moly, cone crusher wear parts are cast from manganese austenitic steel. Usually supplied as 13 to 22 per cent manganese castings, this material exhibits a unique wear property called work hardening – the ability to harden under compressive load. This phenomena, also known as TRIP or TWIP, is the result of:

• The chemical/physical percentage of manganese, carbon, and chromium;
• The temperature and method of heat treating;
• The final grain structure of the casting; and
• Precise control over the size, quantity, and location of carbides within the matrix.

The breakthrough. Beginning in 2019, DCI conducted several mechanical property tests on DC-treated manganese steel. After demonstrating significant wear improvement in crushing granite using their ASTM G81-97(a) Gouging Abrasion Wear Tester, DCI developed a proprietary thermal formula that controls material grain growth and carbide distribution while maximizing the TWIP effect. DCI generated a prediction model that compared baselinesupplied items against DC-treated items and then against DCtreated and surface modified items, using a special process (SP). When they shared the results with Atlantic Gold, the first purchase order to DC-treat full-size mantles and liners was generated.

Houston, we have a problem… and a solution! Unfortunately, no existing DC tanks were large enough to process mantles or liners of this size. Scaling the technology from DCI’s round tanks (seven cubic feet and 42 cubic feet capacity) to work in a large rectangular unit 30 times bigger (1,280 cubic feet) is a complex scientific, engineering, and manufacturing problem. Undeterred, and with a generous grant by Canada’s NGEN and additional funding by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), DCI set out to build the largest and only industrialsized deep cryogenic tank in the world. Cryogenics scientist Dr. Jeff Levine consulted on the thermo-kinetic design and tank construction that is taking place at CTS in Nova Scotia.

The complex platform control requires multiple cryogenic valves, blowers, and thermocouples to sample part temperature and an ability to precisely meter the flow of liquid nitrogen before expansion into gaseous state at -196°C. Future Designs is supplying controls and Chart Industries is building a large storage dewar for liquid nitrogen. Third-party independent testing will take place at Red Deer Polytechnic by Dr. Tonya Wolfe and her CIM team. Lloyd’s Register will qualify both the deep cryogenic process and the equipment for international registration and approval. DCI will use a variety of methods to certify parts that have been DC treated.

At 8’ x 8’ x 20’ and with a 30,000 lb DCT capacity, the CP-36K is the largest cryogenic processor built to date and will be operational this fall. Induspec, a new DCT production facility in North Bay, Ontario, may add this capacity to support the mining and forestry communities. Made in Canada and launched first for mining use in Canada, the CP-36K will serve DCI’s charter of “making things last longer” – no matter how large the parts may be.

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“L&L Special Furnace Co., Inc., has shipped a large gas-fired normalizing furnace to a worldwide manufacturer of pipe, tube and fittings used for various military contracts. The furnace was scheduled for delivery at the end of Q4 2021 and ran about four weeks behind schedule due to various supply chain issues.

It is rated to operate at temperatures from 1,300°F / 704°C to 2,200°F / 1204°C and heated with six medium-velocity burners. The furnace will be able to maintain uniformity of ±25°F / 12.5°C at temperatures above 1,300°F / 704°C. The L&L model FCG4410 has working dimensions of 48” wide by 48” tall by 120” deep.

The car-bottom-style furnace features a load car that moves in and out of the unit on supplied railroad-type rails. The door is mounted to the car, which is motorized with all required stops and clearances. The side seals are pneumatic and seal to the car bottom once the car is inside the furnace. Castable piers provide good support for up to a 10,000-pound load. The furnace is completely insulated with ceramic fiber modules. The control is a floor-standing NEMA12 panel with fused disconnect at the source. All fusing and interconnections are included. The furnace is controlled by a Eurotherm Nanodac program control. Three-zone burner control is provided to promote uniformity. Overtemperature protection is included along with a six-input paperless chart recorder and jack panel.”

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Metex Heat Treating just finished installing a new Batch IQ furnace and you can watch the full video below.  Metex is ranked as the 25th largest North American commercial heat treat and you can see the full list by clicking the following link: 50 Largest North American Commercial Heat Treats 2021. Raman Bawa of Metex recently did a podcast about fasteners which can be found below the timelapse video.

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February 14^th of this year we had a news item about captive heat treater Apex Tool Group in Sumter, SC auctioning off their in house heat treatment department. We speculated on the value of the equipment, specifically an old Ajax Austemper line which we suggested was probably only worth scrap value-well we were off by $250.00 USD.

The auction has been completed and we can now tell you what the heat treat items sold for, in some cases prices were shockingly low. Granted the equipment was only in fair shape however it was all operational so we are puzzled as to why as an example a Surface washer would sell for only $25.00. Here is the summary (all prices in US funds).

• Surface Combustion 36x48x36” Batch IQ -$10,250
• Ajax Austemper Line – $250
• Surface Temper – $4000
• Other Tempers (Sunbeam, Lindberg) – $300 to $1300 
• Surface Washer 36x48x36” – $25
• Wheelabrators – $100 ea

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“McLaughlin Furnace Group is excited to welcome Controls Engineer Nelintun “Nay” Yeelin to the team. Nay has brought an exceptional amount of experience to the McLaughlin team including extensive heat treat knowledge from his previous positions. Nay will play a major roll in McLaughlin Furnace Group’s growth.”

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As a global provider of turnkey systems (nitriding, nitrocarburizing, vacuum), heat treatment services, as well as instrumentation and automation solutions, Nitrex is proud to announce that its facility in Querétaro, Mexico, has been awarded its heat treating Nadcap accreditation.

“We are extremely proud of our team in Querétaro, Mexico, for their invaluable contributions in achieving this significant quality system accreditation for the aerospace sector,” said Jason Orosz, president of Heat Treating Services (HTS) at Nitrex. “Nitrex has had a long history of developing processes and methods for exacting surface treatments. A Nadcap accreditation is the apex of this achievement in the aerospace sector. We are happy to push our knowledge and quality systems to our worldwide facilities.”

Mark K. Hemsath, vice president of Sales at Nitrex Heat Treating Services Americas, noted: “This is a major accomplishment for our Querétaro team. A Nadcap accreditation requires a rigorous commitment to all aspects of the quality system. Our team’s expertise is built on a foundation of continuous improvement, which will undoubtedly benefit our facility’s customers from all sectors, not just aerospace.”

Nitrex HTS has a global presence, with service centers in Mexico, China, Italy, Canada and the United States. In Querétaro, Mexico, the facility focuses on gas nitriding and nitrocarburizing, with new equipment being added in vacuum heat treatment for its aerospace customers.

Currently, Nadcap has approved the operations of the Nitrex HTS facilities in Franklin, Indiana, and in Querétaro, Mexico.

About Nitrex. NITREX (www.nitrex.com) is the only fully integrated global provider in the surface treatment market. The company was founded in 1984 in Montreal, Canada, and operates three business units – Nitrex Turnkey Systems (NTS), with turnkey nitriding, nitrocarburizing, and vacuum systems; Heat Treating Services (HTS), a worldwide network of commercial heat treating service centers; and UPC-Marathon, a leading provider of controls upgrade and automation solutions for heat treating and combustion.

With more than 450 employees and a market presence in over 55 countries, Nitrex serves its customers globally from 14 locations across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, Poland, Italy, France, China, Japan, and through a global network of representatives and licensees.

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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 33rd spot we have Lake City Heat Treating, Warsaw, Indiana.

Lake City Heat Treating in Warsaw, Indiana is part of a very small select group in that for years the company has offered Hot Isostatic Pressing which only a handful of companies can say. With roughly 13 vacuum furnaces and 3 “Hip” Vessels the company focuses on the medical and aerospace industries. Major shareholder is Mr. Bill Davis. Lake City has made our news section several times over the years, each time when the company was making a new equipment investment.

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To this very interesting press release we can add this photo of Nitrex, Poland which we visited a few years ago. In this picture we see Gord Montgomery (The Monty Heat Treat News) on the left and the founder of Nitrex, Mr. Michael Korwin on the right.

Montreal, CANADA, February 23, 2022 – Nitrex, a global provider of fully integrated surface treatment solutions, has announced the completion of its Poland plant expansion. This expansion will allow the company to not only double its current European production capacity for both its Nitrex Turnkey Solutions, including gas nitriding furnaces, and UPC Marathon software and controls products line, but also manufacture its new advanced vacuum heat-treating systems (formerly marketed under the G-M Enterprises name). This expansion comes in addition to the existing vacuum furnaces assembly capacity in the United States. In this sense, Nitrex remains strongly committed to the US market.

“When we set out to grow the vacuum furnace business with G-M Enterprises and bring these value-engineered solutions to the rest of the world, we knew that we had to scale internationally,” says Jean-Francois Cloutier, Nitrex CEO. “We saw an outstanding growth opportunity to build that potential even further, using our newly expanded manufacturing base in Poland to tap into the European market. This aligns with our vision to deliver to our customers turnkey solutions globally, with agility and efficiency, all while maintaining high quality standards,” continues Cloutier.

Nitrex Vacuum Furnaces is a leading and world-renowned technological supplier, servicing customers in sectors such as aerospace, automotive, defense, medical, industrial, and 3D printing and metal injection moulding.

About Nitrex. NITREX is the lead provider of fully integrated surface treatment solutions and technologies globally. The company was founded in 1984 in Montreal, Canada and operates three business units – Nitrex Turnkey Systems (NTS) a leader of turnkey nitriding, nitrocarburizing, and vacuum heat treat systems; Heat Treating Services (HTS) a worldwide network of commercial heat-treating service centers; and UPC, a leading provider of controls upgrade and automation solutions for surface treatment and combustion. NITREX serves its customers globally from 16 locations across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, Poland, Italy, France and China, and sells in over 60 countries through a global network of representatives and licensees.

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Industrial Heating Equipment Association (IHEA) always does a very good job with their regular Executive Economic Update & Analysis summaries and their January 2022 report is no exception. In it IHEA brings up the 3 main issues facing the industry this year, Inflation, Supply Chain and Labor. 

January 2022

It seems to be the economic equivalent of “lions, tigers and bears – oh my!” It is “inflation, supply chain and labor – oh my!” These have been the top concerns for several months now and that situation is unlikely to change soon. The good news is that there is a good chance that at least two of these issues will become less threatening as the year progresses. We can start with the outlook in regard to inflation. The headlines from the last few weeks have been near hysterical levels and there have been plenty of doomsayers that have made wild assertions regarding the imminent arrival of hyperinflation or stagnation. It is probably a good time to take a breath and calm down a little.

The inflation rate has indeed hit highs not seen in three or four decades – 7.5% at the last assessment. It is important to note that this is the only inflation we have seen in that period and it is important to understand why we are seeing it now. For the better part of the last four decades the US was able to essentially export inflation. This is what globalization was all about. If one was facing higher labor costs and higher production costs the easiest response was to either produce or source overseas where the costs were dramatically lower. Over the last few years, the appeal of globalization has faded somewhat as the costs have risen in these overseas markets at the same time that companies have started to shift back to the US to deal with the supply chain chaos. Then there are the usual culprits when it comes to the inflation issue – everything from higher commodity prices to the additional costs imposed by the supply chain breakdown and the higher costs of labor.

The three primary drivers of inflation include commodity costs, the cost of labor and the presence of too much money in the system. The money supply issue was a major factor last year as there was a significantly larger pool of savings than usually exists. The stimulus effort dumped the equivalent of the Japanese GDP into the hands of consumers at the very same time they were cut off from the places they generally spent their money. That cash just sat there for the bulk of the year and fed inflation. Today the majority of that cash has been drained from the system and that leaves the costs of commodities and wages. The price of commodities will always be volatile and will rise and fall with demand and production. Right now, the producers are still behind demand but will catch up in the months to come. Wages are the biggest threat now as once these labor costs rise, they do not easily come down.

The supply chain has been broken for the last two years and is only slowly recovering. There have been traditional issues as well as unique problems. The major factor has been that demand has outstripped the capacity to meet that demand. The recovery in 2021 was far more aggressive than anyone had expected and producers were unprepared. They are starting to gain ground and by mid-year they are expected to have caught up with the majority of current consumer demand. The primary issue now is China. The shipping congestion is at the origin ports rather than at the destinations in the US. Production has been severely affected by the pandemic and the Chinese “zero tolerance” approach. It is assumed the Chinese will gain control of this production sooner rather than later and the latest data shows they are starting to return to normal.

This leaves the stickiest part of the inflation issue and the most consistent challenge manufacturers have faced over the last few decades. Labor has been at the top of the list of worries for a variety of reasons. There has been a skill shortage for years, too many retirements of key workers and now there is the surge in wage demands. Skilled workers have more leverage than they have ever had and the number one means by which companies are expanding their workforce is by poaching from one another. That tactic means paying people more and paying existing workers more so they will not be poached. Labor costs soared by over 5.0% last year and these costs are heading in the same direction in 2022.

New Automobile & Light Truck Sales

The situation simply does not get much better for the automotive sector. The shortages of chips and other parts continue to interfere with production and that will likely continue for months to come. The shortages are affecting the entire upstream and downstream systems as the suppliers to the OEMs are as short of parts as the assemblers. The reactions to this supply chain fiasco have been consistent but it will take time to correct. There are chip manufacturing facilities in development in the US but it will be months before that production makes a dent. The makers overseas are racing to catch up but demand continues to overwhelm capacity and the issue of transportation still inhibits. There are millions of parts and assemblies that have been produced but are now stuck in transit. The crux of the issue is now in the producer nations as opposed to the destination nations. China has been hampered as far as output is concerned and that same issue has been affecting other suppliers in Asia. The best guess at this stage is that production levels will improve by mid-year at the earliest.

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