From time to time “The Monty Heat Treat News” goes down to the basement and rummages through photos to come up with some of the most fascinating heat treats in the world. Today we look at one of the most unusual that we have run across in our 55 years in business-Aberfoyle Metal Treating in Ontario, Canada. What makes the firm so interesting is that the furnaces are enormous in size with the largest 82 ft (25.0 m) long by 21.5 ft (6.6 m) wide by 23 ft (7.0 m) high, and capable of 2000F making it one of the largest car bottom furnaces in North America. Another very unusual factor is that this is the only heat treat in the world where we have almost frozen to death as the furnaces are generally located outside which in the middle of a cold Canadian winter makes it very cold idea.
“In 1989, Aberfoyle Metal Treaters broke ground to build the first part of what is now an expanded 5-acre facility. Adding one furnace after another, Aberfoyle grew to accommodate a diverse range of client needs and components. The real history of Aberfoyle did not start there, however. Harry Hall, Aberfoyle’s founder, had been involved in heat treating of materials for about 15 years prior to the founding of Aberfoyle Metal Treaters Ltd. It was during those years that he gained the valuable hands-on experience and knowledge to recognize there was a definitive need in the marketplace for a better commercials heat treat facility; hence Aberfoyle Metal Treaters was created.
Enthusiastic attention to the needs of our customers has been one of the key factors in our rapid growth rate. We have added additional equipment and facilities to accommodate the growing requirements of our clients while venturing into uncharted areas to provide unique and custom heat treating and blast and coat solutions. As we move forward, the need for the constant innovation of our processes and services is the key to our continued success.”
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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 25th spot we have Metex Heat Treating, Mississauga, Canada, CA.
Metex Heat Treating Ltd. In 1983, Metex Heat Treating Ltd. was founded by Mr. Surjit Bawa to serve the heat treating needs of the manufacturing industry in the Greater Toronto, Canada Area. Since that time Metex has grown into the largest commercial heat treater in Canada and the company services customers as far as Montreal, Cleveland and Michigan. We specialize in Continuous and Batch Neutral Hardening, Carburizing, and Carbonitriding. We also have 10 state of the art induction hardening systems.
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The press release can be found below and further down this page you will find a press release issued by “The Monty Heat Treat News” from March of 2020 when we announced that the company had found new owners.
“MARCH 22, 2022: DEEP CRYO FOR KNIFE MAKERS DCI LEASES CP-200 TO HEAT TREATER Metalex Thermal Specialties in Berthoud, CO has expanded their HT capabilities by leasing a CP-200i from DCI. Within days after installing the 200, they began processing thousands of knife blanks to meet production demands. Metalex General Manager Chris James also intends to support local machine shops and injection mold makers with DCT – adding 30-70% increased wear life to D2, O1, H13, S7 and HSS tooling. You can reach Metalex at 970-532-3796 metalexts.com
“OCTOBER 12, 2020: Commercial heat treat Metalex Thermal Specialties in Colorado, USA has new owners. This is a plant which has been in business for quite some time offering vacuum heat treating, oil hardening, stress relieving, annealing and many other processes, under the direction of Greg Alexander. The new owners are Debra James, CEO, Bruce James, Vice President, and Chris James, General Manager. Chris and Debra have been involved in the heat treatment field in California for several years. Greg plans to stay on for awhile as a consultant. The James Family have ambitious plans for expanding the business in Colorado.”
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“Solvera Gawel Technology S.A., a supplier of fasteners, chose SECO/WARWICK as their vacuum furnace supplier. The equipment on order is a VectorR vacuum furnace based upon their previous experience with SECO/WARWICK’s atmospheric furnaces. The new furnace will be used for vacuum heat treatment and high-pressure gas hardening of tools for fastener production. As a result, the company will significantly shorten the production process cycle for screws.
The ordered Vector vacuum furnace has a compact design, which makes it an ideal solution for manufacturing companies that need to create their own small in-house hardening plants. The heating chamber is equipped with a compact hot zone (400x400x600) that is large enough to enable efficient heat treatment of many elements at the same time. Solvera Gawel Technology selected this solution as an addition to their facility due to the Vector’s unique features including a round heating chamber with very good temperature distribution, an efficient and ergonomic pumping system, as well as the cooling system based on a gas blower ensuring a maximum hardening pressure of up to 15 bar abs.
“We are glad that SECO/WARWICK’s long-term partner has purchased a system from a different product and technology segment. Our proven vacuum device, the design of which ensures long-term and reliable operation in industrial operating conditions, will show the great advantage of this technology. The product advantage is the ability to carry out very efficient hardening processes thanks to the utilization of high -pressure cooling gas” – said Maciej Korecki, Vice President Vacuum Segment, of SECO/WARWICK Group.”
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It would appear that McLaughlin Furnace Group and Rohde GmbH are getting closer to marriage as we can see in this press release.
“McLaughlin Furnace Group of Avilla, Indiana, USA and ROHDE Schutzgasöfen GmbH of Hanau, Germany are pleased to announce that moving forward the two companies will be working more closely together, specifically on Rohde’s line of SRU’s (Salt Recovery Units).
Jörn Rohde, CEO of Rohde had this to say; “While we have a number of our Salt Recovery units installed in North America we realized that moving forward we needed a partnership with a US company to service, support and install our systems. After two years of discussions we decided that the ideal partner in the US would be McLaughlin Furnace Group”.
The photo below shows Jeff McLaughlin on the left and Raphael Nees of Rohde standing beside a system recently brought into operation at a chain saw manufacturer on the US west coast.
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Hunting for the superior scratch resistance. Aerospace engineer Zsolt Pataki got a crazy idea; he wanted to create a unique fountain pen using his experience from aerospace in design, materials, and manufacturing. He chooses titanium grade 23 from the very beginning of the development process, but also knew that he wanted to go further. Mr. Pataki states: “In my search for increased wear resistance of the titanium, I was eager to avoid the hurdles of a coating; adding layers affecting the dimensions combined with the risk of layers chipping off – as I preferred a monolithic design with the original titanium surface instead of a coating”.
In the search for alternatives to coating, Mr. Pataki attended a webinar with Expanite presenting their unique hardening solution for titanium. “I soon realized that the ExpaniteHard-Ti process was the only matured and commercially available interstitial hardening technology for titanium. The webinar combined with the details of the technology on their web site helped me to develop realistic expectations and I reached out to them”, Mr. Pataki continues.
The ExpaniteHard-Ti process has a significantly greater level of protection against scratches than that afforded by the hardness of the base material and the hardened parts retains the design colour or as Mr. Pataki describe it: “I tried hard to scratch the pen after the process, but it is practically impossible – I made before and after comparison and the results are spectacular; the pen is now virtually unscratchable”!
Professional knowledge sharing. Through the dialogue with the Expanite team, the optimal solution to increase scratch resistance of the fountain pen was found – Mr. Pataki states: “Throughout the whole process, the Expanite team has been very supportive and open to discuss questions and possible issues ensuring that I got exactly the solution that suited my requirements for the pens and the fact that the results were much better than advertised in terms of case depth of the hardened zone!”
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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.”
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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.”
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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!”
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