To add to this news item we can say that Marco has worked with North American alloy suppliers Cronite, Wirco and Alcon over the years. We wish him the best of luck.
“Friedr. Lohmann GmbH, Germany is pleased to announce that Marco Möser has accepted the position of Sales Director North America. Marco Möser will be responsible for developing new business and supporting the sales team. He will draw on his global knowledge of the heat treatment market and its changing requirements to support the Lohmann team. Marco has worked for more than 20 years in the industry in Europe, Eastern Europe and North America as sales manager, area manager and lately as an executive and has an extensive knowledge of the Heat Treat Market and its requirements, especially in the automotive sector. We are pleased that Marco Möser will support the Lohmann team in North America. Marco Möser can be reached at 312 918 2447 or by email at [email protected]. For further information, please contact Thorsten Kutsch (Germany) at 0049 2302 890613 or by email at [email protected]. Witten, Germany January 01, 2022”
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Solar AtmospheresSouderton, Pa facility commissioned a new high-production vacuum furnace, doubling hydriding and de-hydriding capacity in the reclamation process of high-value titanium and tantalum materials. For decades, Solar Atmospheres has been a globally-recognized leader and innovator in the process of reclaiming titanium and tantalum materials through vacuum heat treatment solutions. The installation incorporates Solar Manufacturing’s latest and most advanced vacuum furnace technology, aimed at safety and efficiency. The qualified working zone is 48” x 48” x 72” with a weight capacity of up to 7,500 pounds per batch.
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COVID-19 has reared it’s ugly head at “The Monty Heat Treat News” with the result that 3 team members are feeling the effects. While at the end of the day it is no more than a very bad cold or a mild case of the flu it is certainly slowing the team down. Doctors have suggested that time in a hot, dry climate will help, perhaps David Brown in the UK.
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With great sorrow we announce the death of Dr. Ing. Klaus Hemsath. With joy we celebrate in the life of Klaus Hemsath. Born 1/30/35, in Muenster, Germany, he was preceded in death by father Heinrich Hemsath (Labor and Social Minister from the State of Hessen, Germany) and mother Ilse Hemsath (born Moehle ). He is survived by his beloved wife of over 62 years, Edeltraud, brother Rolf (in Germany) and sister Edith, Sons Randolph (Debra), Mark (Amelia), and Dirk (Emily), grandchildren Devan, Marisa, Dylan, Della and Henry, great granddaughter Cambria.
Klaus and his family emigrated to the United States in 1967 to work for Surface Combustion/Midland Ross in Toledo, Ohio. He worked there in various positions, including Director of Research and Vice President/General Manager, Thermal Systems Technical Center of Midland-Ross Corporation.
He received his Doctorate in Chemical Engineering (Dr. Ing) from University of Stuttgart, Germany, after graduating from the prestigious Technical University Berlin and then receiving a position in The Netherlands at the International Flame Research Foundation. He holds approximately 60+ US Patents and has a long life of inventions, forming and growing companies, and guiding engineers.
He founded Indugas, Inc. in 1985, in Toledo, to consult with the gas industry in order to develop novel natural gas equipment, such as various heat treat furnaces, low pollution burners, and a mineral wool rock melter. In addition to Indugas, he founded or acquired Lee Wilson Engineering, a steel furnaces company, Thermotech Industries (furnaces) and Climatron (a novel heat pump start up company). He loved Opera and was involved with The Toledo Opera for many years on its board.
In his retirement years he focused on Climate Change and has written 4 books on the subject, with another manuscript in the works. He was relentless in using his knowledge, training, and talents in trying to help mankind. In the last months he was convinced he had the solution to Global Warming and was working on four provisional patents at his passing.
His one passion was sailing and boating. He owned, for three decades, a 41’ Formosa-built Ketch, Escapade, which he and his family enjoyed on the Great Lakes. Today, his sons are all active boaters. He was a long time member of North Cape Yacht Club in LaSalle Michigan and Bradenton Yacht Club, Florida.
Klaus grew up in World War II Germany. On the eve of his birth in 1935, a small group of men met to discuss how to keep Adolf Hitler from continuing his rise to power in Germany. During that meeting, Heinrich Hemsath, one of main organizers of the underground resistance, was called away as his wife was about to give birth to his first son. That night, Klaus Heinrich Hemsath was born. The next day the other men had disappeared never to be seen again. The birth of Klaus had saved the life of his father.
Beginning in 1933 when his father was elected to local parliament, his father had been an avid and vocal opponent of Hitler, and was arrested and assaulted many times. After the war he was instrumental in the rebuilding, alongside the Allies, the city of Muenster, Germany’s oldest Catholic city, to what it is today.
One of Klaus’ favorite stories he told was when the war ended, in 1945, (he was 10) and the British and Americans were marching into Muenster, Germany. Armed with a weapon left by the fleeing German army, little Klaus went to confront them coming over the hill in their Jeeps. Fortunately, the soldiers were bearing cigarettes and chocolates and he thought for this reason they could not be all that bad!
We rejoice in Klaus’ full life, his accomplishments, and his love for life and his family, and his life-long pursuit of knowledge. We can report that he fought until the end, wanting to stay longer to continue to help the world.
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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 39th spot we have Applied Thermal Technologies, Warsaw, Indiana.
Applied Thermal is our second company based in Warsaw, Indiana to make our list of the 50 largest commercial heat treaters in North America. Like many of the companies on this list it is a family owned and run business started by Mickey Bradican-this is how the company describes themselves; “Applied Thermal Technologies Inc. is a metal processing company specializing in bright vacuum heat treating and brazing of stainless steel and exotic alloys. Founded in 1992 to service the medical and specialty products industries in Northern Indiana and has grown to over 30,000ft² with international sales. Our specialty furnaces feature temperatures to 2800°F, levels to 10-6 Torr, all metal hot zones and extremely rapid cooling.” Applied Thermal is NADCAP approved and works very closely with with the aerospace and medical industries.
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Largely because of the auto industry but aided by heavy equipment and bearing manufacturers the heat treatment sector in Mexico has grown by leaps and bounds over the years. While this does encompass commercial heat treatment it is more pronounced for in house heat treaters. Recently a US based manufacturer made a very large investment in a brand new heat treat department. The final installation will include 7 batch IQ furnaces, 2 rotary hearth furnaces and salt processing equipment.
Furnace builders around the world have been on a roller coaster the past couple of years as far as new equipment orders go, however at least for the time being most furnace builders are doing quite well these days. In this particular case the supplier is a US based firm.
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”Nitrex, a global provider of fully integrated surface treatment solutions, has announced that G-M Enterprises will be making its official market debut under the Nitrex banner as of January 2022. For the past two years, Nitrex and G-M Enterprises have worked closely together and have reaped the benefits of sharing experiences, skills, and values. With over 30 years’ experience and a strong market presence, G-M Enterprises has earned the reputation as a leading technological supplier of vacuum furnaces, servicing customers in the aerospace, power generation, energy, and commercial heat-treating industries.
As a global company with a market presence in over 55 countries, we are committed to our customers and partners. This new brand integration will allow you to benefit from a globally recognized brand, synonymous with premium quality in the surface treatment industry, and three complementary business units dedicated to sharing their technological knowledge and expertise with you.
“As the only integrated global solutions provider, Nitrex has the experience and expertise required to keep pace with our customers and meet the market’s evolving needs and expectations,” says Jean-Francois Cloutier, Nitrex CEO. “It allows the so-called synergy effect to be used more fully. Going forward, G-M Enterprises products will be marketed under the Nitrex brand and will expand our international presence by leveraging the resources, expertise, and capital of Nitrex. These advancements will deliver more value to our customers for years to come.” This new brand integration will be official starting January 4, 2022.”
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January 8th, 2021 a very remarkable individual passed away, Mr. Frank Hasenfratz founder of auto parts company Linamar. Linamar has been mentioned many times over the years on “The Monty Heat Treat News” as one of the largest captive heat treaters in North America. This obituary makes for fascinating reading as it shows how Frank built the company from nothing to become an international manufacturer.
“Frank Hasenfratz, a Hungarian immigrant who built Linamar Corp. into a $5-billion auto-parts company from a startup venture in his garage, died Saturday at the age of 86. Mr. Hasenfratz, who was executive chairman of the company at his death, was surrounded by his family, the company said in a statement. The cause of death was cancer, the statement said. “It was his vision and unrelenting drive that enabled us to build the company that Linamar is today,” said his daughter, Linda Hasenfratz, who has served as the company’s chief executive officer since she replaced her father in 2002.
“He leaves a tremendous legacy on the Canadian business landscape, changed the lives of so many, and provided careers, livelihoods and opportunities for thousands of people. He inspired and taught so many, myself most profoundly, and his spirit will live on in each of us as we continue to build the legacy of Linamar.” The company said its board of directors has a succession and renewal plan in place for the executive chair position “which will be implemented in the coming weeks.”
As a young man in Hungary, Mr. Hasenfratz was training as a technical officer in the army when the Soviets roared in and crushed the country’s 1956 uprising. Realizing it was prudent to leave the country, he fled to Austria and then went on to Italy, where he worked as a translator inrefugee camps. He moved on to Le Havre, the French port. There he met some sailors who told him he could get passage to North America if he was willing to work on their freighter. Mr. Hasenfratz signed on. The freighter docked in Quebec City, where an immigration officer boarded and asked Mr. Hasenfratz to identify himself. “I told him that I was a Hungarian refugee,” Mr. Hasenfratz told The Globe and Mail in a 2005 interview. “It took him five or 10 minutes and he gave me immigration status, including $5 to spend. I filled out the paper, he said, ‘Sign here,’ and ‘Welcome to the country.'”
Mr. Hasenfratz ended up working on a farm near Guelph, Ont. His employer drove him into town each day so he could look for a job in his real line of work, tool-and-die making. Within weeks, he landed a job with a company making components for the Avro Arrow project, the attempt to build a Canadian interceptor jet that was infamously cancelled by the Diefenbaker government. Soon Mr. Hasenfratz was working in the machine shop of a firm whose products included fuel pumps for Ford Motor Co. Almost a quarter of the pumps were defective, which so frustrated Mr. Hasenfratz that he quit the company and landed the contract to supply the pumps himself. It was a bold move for a young breadwinner with two small children. But the auto pact came into effect, and he started getting more contracts out of Detroit. His auto parts business took off. Linamar, founded formally in 1966, took its name from Mr. Hasenfratz’s daughters Linda and Nancy and wife Margaret. It went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 1986 and began a global expansion in the 1990s. A series of acquisitions expanded its geographic reach and its number of product lines.
Today, Linamar has 26,000 employees in 60 manufacturing locations, 12 research-and-development centres and 25 sales offices in 17 countries in North and South America, Europe and Asia. In addition to a wide range of auto parts and components, Linamar also makes lifts for the aerial work platform industry and agricultural harvesting equipment. Over the past 12 months, it recorded $6.7-billion in sales and nearly $500-million in profit. At Friday’s stock market close, investors valued the company at just more than $5.1-billion. Mr. Hasenfratz served as chairman of the company’s board for 55 years.
Mr. Hasenfratz was honoured as the Canadian Entrepreneur of the Year, inducted into the Canadian Manufacturing Hall of Fame and the Canadian Business Hall of Fame, and was appointed to the Order of Canada. He donated to numerous philanthropic causes in Guelph and surrounding Southwestern Ontario, including the Guelph General Hospital, University of Western Ontario, St. Joseph’s Foundation and the local performing arts. Mr. Hasenfratz was predeceased by his wife Margaret Hasenfratz. He leaves behind his daughter Linda and son-in-law Ed and their four children, as well as daughter Nancy and son-in-law Mark. In its statement, Linamar said “we will continue to live by Frank’s words to strive to continuously improve, act quickly and decisively, set goals and track progress and always ‘Do What We Do Best, Better.’ “
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Our good friend Mr. Peter Schweighofer, CEO of Cieffe one of the largest furnace builders in Italy recently offered this interview with an Italian publication. We felt it interesting enough that we include it today. CIEFE offers most heat treating technologies and this includes vacuum furnace, an example of which is below.
“ If we’re not driven by customers, neither will our cars, ” argued the longtime engineer Ford. A concept that perfectly summarizes the importance of combining the customization of industrial products with the development of solutions designed for a wide audience. It is precisely these principles that today guide Cieffe Thermal Systems , an Italian company leader in the production of furnaces for the treatment of metallurgical products. The company puts innovation and attention to detail at the center of its production process, with the aim of automating a series of fundamental processes for the sector. We talked about this philosophy with CEO Peter Schweighofer, who illustrated the values and future prospects that distinguish this successful company.
How was the Cieffe Thermal Systems business model born?
Cieffe is active in the metalworking industry as a manufacturer of furnaces for the heat treatment of metallurgical products. It is a sub-sector that has not seen major technological changes or new customer needs emerge in the last few decades. Rather, what changed was our approach to the market. The company has always offered a very wide range of products, sometimes without developing a clear and distinct focus. In fact, Cieffe products were designed and sold on customer request. In defining the new strategy, and in adopting the existing business model accordingly, the challenge was to make the right changes to aim for a more dynamic final market environment and shift the scope from a pure pull-market to a pull-and-push approach.
A real revolution. What have your core values been over the years?
We have defined five criteria that are part of our new integrated business model to address the anticipated challenges. First of all, to focus on core competencies and reduce the product range. At the same time we have implemented an adequate IT infrastructure, which also includes an ERP platform at the enterprise level. Another priority has been to standardize and increase the modularization of key components used in a number of our products. We understood that innovation is not only that developed through internal research, but also that conceived through fruitful collaborations with other suppliers. Finally, we have increased awareness in our work, looking for solutions and changes to enter new markets.
By following these principles, what allows you to distinguish yourself from competitors?
We constantly try to help the customer integrate a fully automated and custom designed heat treatment process into his production chain.
The pandemic has put a great deal of Italian industry to the test. What development and relaunch plans have you identified for your company?
Integrated IT solutions and virtual communication have been two key criteria for customers and we believe they will remain the center of attention. It is important to understand whether services and products can be adapted to better address the new demand curves. Furthermore, in the last year the electric car trend has undergone a significant acceleration, which requires us to offer a similar model in our product proposal.
What interventions do you expect from the government to support the mechanical sector?
There are three main challenges, of which the provision of funds is the most important, followed by the adaptation of structural changes within the company to this ‘new normal’. Finally, the incentive to invest in new technologies or at least to adapt old and outdated production equipment to current standards should not be underestimated. All of these aspects address supply and demand equally and will get a positive feedback loop in the ecosystem.
Young people have also proved to be a central resource in this delicate moment of transition. Did it also happen in Cieffe?
Absolutely yes! We have identified several areas where there is a sizable age gap, where the skilled workforce will retire within the next five years. The transfer of know-how is a strategic element for the continuation of the success of our company. However, we are facing two challenges: young people don’t have the same motivation to travel abroad and stay away from home for more than a week or two. Furthermore, it is difficult to find young people willing to work in Colle Umberto because this area offers less attractive infrastructures and does not offer a wide range of leisure activities compared to cities like Padua or Milan.
Together with young people, the female component in the company is also often the subject of debate in some sectors. How much is present in your company?
Currently, 18% of our workforce is female. Except for one resource, all are active in historically more ‘feminine’ positions such as sales, marketing, human resources or administration. We do not have a stated goal to achieve, but we believe we can maintain a balance of 15-20%. In general, it is only the lack of available or suitable profiles for production, engineering and other tasks that motivates this limited percentage.
How do you see your company five years from now?
We aim to become a partner of choice for fully automated heat treatment processes, particularly in the transfer of manufacturing know-how from our European customer base to the Asian market. This is a challenge on which we focus with great strength.
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The Dow product line is now available on the Hubbard-Hall eCommerce site. Increasing digital offerings allows for competitive pricing, 24/7 ordering and product information at the touch of a button.
Dow brand heat transfer fluids arecost effective, propylene glycol products thatoffer excellent stability and high temperature process heating and coolingfor manufacturing. Inhibitors in Dow glycol-fluids are formulated to protect against corrosion and scaling that can lead to costly maintenance and expenses. Dow products are non-toxic and available at full concentrate or diluted to fit your system.
DOWTHERM is widely used within the HVAC industry wherever low freezing water-based heat transfer fluids are needed.
DOWFROST is propylene glycol that also contains food grade corrosion inhibitors. It is made to conform to FDA CFR 21 and NSF guidelines.
“Our main goal in expanding online services through the eCommerce site, Customer Portal and chat capabilities, is to constantly improvecustomer engagement.” stated Jodie Menze, Customer Service Manager.
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Largely because of the auto industry but aided by heavy equipment and bearing manufacturers the heat treatment sector in Mexico has grown by leaps and bounds over the years. While this does encompass commercial heat treatment it is more pronounced for in house heat treaters. Recently a US based manufacturer made a very large investment in a brand new heat treat department. The final installation will include 7 batch IQ furnaces, 2 rotary hearth furnaces and salt processing equipment.
