Kody Kottke will oversee operations at MidPort location in Waterloo, Iowa. To find out how Advanced Heat Treat Corp., compares to other North American commercial heat treaters we would suggest this list compiled by “The Monty Heat Treat News”. 50 Largest North American Commercial Heat Treats 2021 | The Monty
AHT Vice President of Operations Bill Cowell commented, “Kody has been a vital part of our team for 19 years. He has a well-rounded and extensive understanding of our nitriding equipment, customers and our processes. I have great confidence in his ability to drive efforts at the MidPort facility as we continue to grow and exceed our customer expectations with UltraGlowing results.”
Cowell, who previously served as plant manager at its MidPort location, will now focus more on the overall operations across its four locations in Alabama, Michigan and Iowa. The MidPort location that Kottke will oversee offers UltraGlow® ion nitriding, gas nitriding, UltraOx®, ferritic nitrocarburizing, stress relieve and more. Learn more about Advanced Heat Treat Corp. and its employees at www.ahtcorp.com or by calling (319) 232-5221.
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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 upcoming list of the 10 largest. And how are we deciding which are the largest? The basic criteria includes these points;
- This will be 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 will not be on our list for that reason.
- We want to emphasize that our list only includes captive (in house) heat treats. We have 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 will not be included on this list.
With this background out of the way we will be presenting our final list Monday January 31, 2022. For today we leave you with photos of two of the companies who will appear on our list, Dana, Cardanes, Mexico and Linamar in Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
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“Nitrex has secured additional business with one of the biggest automotive manufacturers in China. This is the third order from the customer, and in this phase of development, the company will install a second automated heat-treating cell for nitriding automotive parts.
As part of the company’s third phase of growth, the new Nitrex automated cell, which will be placed adjacent to the first cell, aims to expand production capacity to meet increasing market demand. The investment in capital equipment will allow the customer to bring the production process in-house for greater control, flexibility, and enhanced effectiveness.
The decision to choose Nitrex as the single contractor for the full scope of the project was based on Nitrex’s holistic approach and expertise in plant automation solutions and capabilities as well as the quality and dependability of previous system installations. Additionally, the Nitrex eco-friendly solution met the customer’s requirements for green manufacturing and responsible growth now and into the future.
Nitrex will undertake almost all aspects of the cell for 24/7 lights-out manufacturing: furnaces, charge cars, loading/unloading and magazine tables, and auxiliary equipment (e.g., atmosphere neutralizer, water cooling stations, charge cooling station, etc.). All equipment will be connected to the Protherm 9800 automation platform for automatic handling and processing, which improves workflow efficiency, process reliability, furnace utilization, work order tracking, and real-time performance metrics.
For this latest order, six continuous flow-through nitriding systems, furnace model NXHL-910512, were ordered to create the fully automated cell. Delivery is planned for August 2022, and the cell should start operating in autumn.
Previously, during phase 1, three nitriding furnaces were delivered in August 2021 to create the first automated cell. Satisfied with the development and cooperation with Nitrex and the turnkey systems and NitregR technology, the customer ordered three more furnaces for phase 2 to complete the cell. These last three nitriding systems are currently under production and will be delivered in April 2022.
How Does the Automated Cell Work? The complexity of this project is what makes it unique and interesting, as the automated cell is responsible for automatic loading/unloading, processing, and transport.
“A cell means that there is a dedicated area in the facility with entry and exit points,” describes Marcin Doroszko, Engineering Manager at Nitrex. “The cell controls the entire operation and smartly organizes the transport of charges between these points and the process stages in between. Upon entry, a trolley/charge car takes the charge to the washer, where the load is automatically cleaned. The charge is then moved to the furnace to be nitrided. With this stage complete, the load exits the cell and is transferred to the warehouse.”
“This chain of events helps increase the plant’s efficiency and productivity: the cell selects the furnaces in which it is possible to place consecutive batches or delivers the batches to several furnaces to process. Since charges are transferred to a cooling station outside the furnace, the furnace can continuously process batches without affecting the workflow and productivity,” adds Nikola Dzepina, International Account Executive. “This is a huge process simplification for the furnace operator and enables an automatic and autonomous operation of the area of the plant that controls surface treatment, allowing to increase productivity but also to maintain the repeatability of results. This deeply integrated and optimized approach is the future of heat treatment.”
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North America’s 7th largest commercial heat Treater (as ranked by “The Monty Heat Treat News”) family owned Braddock Metallurgical has made two changes to their management team at the firm’s Bridgewater, NJ location;
We are also proud to announce Stanley Lopacinski as the new General Manager in Bridgewater. Stan has been with Braddock Metallurgical for 17 years and has over 40 years of heat treating experience. With the combined knowledge and expertise of Stan, Jeff, and the entire team at the Bridgewater facility, we can continue to provide the high level of quality and service you demand.”
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“Precision Heat Treat Precision Heat Treat in Surrey, British Colombia, Canada one of the province’s most established commercial heat treaters has announced that they will be investing in a Batch IQ line from McLaughlin Furnace Group of Avilla, Indiana, USA. The line will consist of a gas fired batch IQ furnace, tempers, charge car and washer McLaughlin Furnaces | American Made | Global Reach (mclaughlinsvc.com) This line is part of a major investment being made by Precision which will include new, larger premises, and upgrades to existing equipment”.
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“The Monty Heat Treat News” is very proud of our social media presence which is one of the largest in the heat treatment industry. Over the course of our 25 years of publication we have amassed almost 8,000 followers on LinkedIn which compliments our strong followings on Facebook and Twitter. We look forward to telling you more about the 25 year history of “The Monty Heat Treat News” and our 53 year history in the heat treatment industry which spans 3 generations.
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Gas Nitriding continues to be a very strong growth area for new furnace builders and this is yet another example. Rubig of Wels, Austria is preparing to ship this new gas nitriding unit to a captive heat treater in the Middle East. This marks at least the 6th new gas nitriding furnace shipped in the past few weeks that “The Monty Heat Treat News” is aware of.
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“It is always a good sign for Nitrex when a customer comes back after their first experience with the company’s products and services. VIVA ALUMINIUM SYSTEMS – a Vias Group member – is now a repeat customer of Nitrex, having recently purchased an NX-1015 turnkey system for nitriding extrusion dies.
With VIVA experiencing a heightened demand for its extrusion profiles from the industrial and construction markets, the company expanded its manufacturing capacity, installing an additional extrusion press and nitriding equipment. “We are delighted to do business with VIVA again. Fostering customer loyalty is a top priority at Nitrex and key to building an ongoing partnership for future growth. This is the second Nitrex system at the company’s facility in Bulgaria, and while it confirms the continued market demand for VIVA aluminum extruded profiles in Europe, it is also a clear sign that Nitrex nitriding system is providing VIVA with batch-to-batch production consistency and repeatable product quality in the manufacturing of extruded parts,” states Marcin Stoklosa, Product Manager at Nitrex.
The new pit furnace has an effective work zone of 39″ diameter by 59″ high (1000 x 1500 mm) with the capacity to nitride a 4400 lbs. (2000 kg) load. The NitregR process technology adapts to the application requirements to deliver improved performance of extrusion dies, achieving a higher throughput per extrusion run and scoring a higher number of runs per treated die, which in turn optimizes tool life and lowers tooling cost for a faster return on investment. The turnkey system also features a Nitrex HMI configured with multiple languages including other integral hardware such as a high-efficiency eco-friendly neutralizer, an H2SmartTM hydrogen sampling system and SGSTM gas sensor for high accuracy readings of the nitriding atmosphere.”
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It is now exactly 5 years since the first chapter of ASM International was formed in Mexico. Mexico has proved to be very fertile ground for ASM and as heat treating in Mexico has continued to grow so has ASM Mexico. In the first picture below you can see the founding members from left to right: Vic Zacarias – Director of GTS Mexico, Francisco Granados – Director of Electroplating & Surface Engineering SA de CV, Erika Zarazua – Advisory Board of Global Thermal Solutions, Carlos Carrasco – Director of Carrasco Hornos Industriales, Adriana Michaca – Sales Engineer of Carrasco Hornos Industriales and Mario Fabián MENDEZ – Director of Grupo ETSA, ESPECIALIDADES TERMICAS.
In the second picture you see Mr. Mario Fabian, Director of Grupo ETSA and part of his team. Grupo ETSA is one of the largest commercial heat treaters in the country.
In the last picture can be seen Mr. Carlos Carrasco of Carrasco Hornos Industriales. In this case he is standing in the heat treatment department a large aerospace company.
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