In our continuing series entitled “Supply Chain Issues & The Heat Treatment Industry” we are asking industry suppliers what they are seeing these days and how they are reacting. Today we have comments from Mr. Ben Gasbarre, President of furnace builder “Gasbarre Industrial Furnace Systems” and Mr. Frank Thiesen , Managing Director of global controls company  “Stange Elektronik”.

“For Gasbarre, after the COVID shutdowns in early 2020, our backlog really took off in the fall of 2020 and has remained strong since.  This posed challenges for us with both personnel and space within our manufacturing facility in St. Marys, Pennsylvania.  While nothing is perfect, we have effectively implemented incentivized employee referral programs, completed employee engagement surveys, and implemented changes based on feedback to support employee retention.  We have also gotten lucky (you need some of that from time to time) with talented personnel becoming available based on restructuring of other businesses in our area.  As well, with our multiple manufacturing locations, we’ve been able to share resources between facilities, and are building a complete furnace in our DuBois, PA facility where our compaction press, automation, and contract manufacturing is done.  While we do have positions open, we have been fortunate in our ability to staff and remain flexible over the last 9-12 months.

With our large capital equipment projects, the component shortage has created a different kind of strain on our resources.  It is typical for our engineering department to release long lead items very early in a project, but wait on more standard components until the final designs are complete and approved.  We don’t have that luxury anymore as what was considered standard in the past, now can carry a much longer lead time.  We’ve seen items such as relays, contactors, disconnects, VFDs, PLCs, HMIs, belts, burners, spark igniters, etc… having lead times into 2022 and beyond.  This puts a strain on our engineering and purchasing departments to, not only get things released quickly, but also finding alternatives that are available in our required time frame.  We’ve been fortunate based on our multiple offices, that we are able to work with suppliers and distributors in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New England for available inventory.  It truly does take a team effort to combat these shortages that impact all of our businesses.

While we’ve all had our challenges in 2020 and 2021, we are no exception, we are excited about the position we’ve been able to put ourselves in as we go into 2022.  We are able to remain competitive with our pricing and lead times, we are finalizing plans to expand our manufacturing facilities Pennsylvania, and are enhancing our testing and R&D capabilities at our technical center in Michigan. Ben Gasbarre, President Industrial Furnace Systems”

Mr. Frank Thiesen, Managing Director of Stange Elektronik has these comments about the situation these days;

“Well, the situation with the supply chains is absolutely crazy at the moment. Up to now electronic components were mostly in stock. Printed circuit boards with components were generally less than 12 weeks and prices were stable.

Today we order with delivery times of 52 – 57 weeks. This means we are ordering for 2023 based on expectations at the moment.

But it is not guaranteed that the suppliers will deliver. We have already received terminations from suppliers where we had running orders and who we have done business with for many years. They tell us that they can’t get the parts.  Additionally, at the economic crises at beginning of the decade special electronic parts like CPU’s were a problem to get. Now, really everything could become a problem like simple plugs, resistors, capacitors etc. This is followed by suppliers who increase their prices up to 300 percent!  So, our purchasing works around these issues every day around and we are really happy and proud that we can deliver our goods from stock (at the moment). Who knows what will come up tomorrow?” Mr. Frank Thiesen, Managing Director of Stange Elektronik

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In Krasnik, Poland we find the headquarters of Tsubaki Nakashima, a manufacturer of a wide range of products including balls, ball screws, cages and rollers. The company has 19 locations around the world, many featuring in house heat treatment departments. This press release from Nitrex tells us how the company is upgrading their heat treat equipment including replacing the controls on an endothermic generator.

“The G-42ET endothermic generator, obtained in 2004, was devoid of automatic regulation of the efficiency and composition of the mixture, and therefore generated high operating costs. Its start-up and setup after a production break were also extremely time-consuming. In addition, the age and degree of wear of the device, as well as poor quality water cooling, forced the replacement of components with new ones.

In the TN generator, all elements responsible for the correct composition of the endothermic protective atmosphere have been changed. The lambda probe has been replaced by the more powerful dew point measurement system AtmoSense™, and the water coolers have been replaced by a cooling system that uses air as a coolant. The Internet connection provided by the client enables the system operation in real time.

“The EndoInjector™ is an ideal way to modernize the old endogenerator,” says Zbigniew Terelak, shift manager at Hartownia TN Polska Sp. z o.o. “Thanks to the precise regulation of the gas mixing ratio, it allows for precise regulation of the efficiency even with a small demand for the endoatmosphere and it constantly ensures the optimal composition of the mixture for its production, improving the efficiency of the device and extending its life. Thanks to the use of the EndoInjector™, the generator significantly reduces the level of pollutant emissions, which is noticeable even when used for a short time. Another issue related to the day-to-day operation of the endogenerator equipped with the EndoInjector™ system is not without significance: the employees operating the device do not have to correct the settings on an ongoing basis. With many operators onboard, we eliminate any possible, unwanted changes in settings.”

TSUBAKI NAKASHIMA, which has its headquarters in Krasnik, Poland, fabricates and sells a broad range (over 20,000 product types) of high-quality industrial precision balls, ball screws, rollers, cages and sheet metal parts used for bearing, large scale blowers and other applications. It operates 19 factories in 11 countries.”

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In our continuing series entitled “Supply Chain Issues & The Heat Treatment Industry” we are asking industry suppliers what they are seeing these days and how they are reacting. Today we have comments from Mr. Carlos Torres, President of furnace builder “Mattsa” and Mr. Greg Steiger, Segment  Manager Quench Products, Industrial Lubricants, Idemitsu Lubricants America Corp.

From Mattsa Furnace Company we have these comments;

“Gord – I can share that right now the market is very strange, there are very substantial reductions in production volumes but companies still need to purchase components. It all comes down to the law of supply and demand which means available items are very expensive which makes them profitable to the supplier, many companies have no choice but to pay a premium for available items rather than wait on an unrealistic delivery schedule. 

What the lean manufacturing theory claims is that just in time production is the best way to save money by not having a large inventory, however the companies that had inventory previous to covid and the chip shortage are the ones that are making money right now. Raw materials like steel, alloy and even electronics have been very volatile over the past years but it is not market price but availability that is dictating  the market right now so companies have to get out of their confront zone as far as their supply chain goes;

I don’t see the market stabilizing in the short term so this will be the STATUS QUO for the next few years, companies that are flexible and can adapt and improvise by taking calculated risks will be the ones that will succeed, companies that will only sit and wait will loose this battle.” Carlos Torres, President, Mattsa Furnace Company

From Idemitsu Lubricants America Corp., we have these thoughts; 

“As a supplier of oil and polymer based quenchants along with alkane cleaners and rust preventatives, Idemitsu is not immune to many of the issues facing commercial and captive heat treaters.  As everyone has seen the price of oil increase over the last several months.  These increases are simply a factor of supply and demand.   During the pandemic peak, oil refiners were not producing as much fuel as before the pandemic.  This meant that the amount of finished base oils and finished lubes also dropped as the refining of base oils is proportional to fuel production.  With the slow increase of the economy the demand for fuel didn’t increase substantially.   However, the demand for finished lubricants and oil related products such as quench oils remained steady.  This demand coupled with a lower supply initially drove prices of base oils higher.  Now coupled with unprecedented winter storms and maintenance outages at various refineries, the cost of base oils has increased 6 times in 2021 alone.  It is not only base oil price increases that lubricant companies such as Idemitsu are seeing.  Many of the additives used in both water-based chemistries and oil-based chemistries are a byproduct of oil refining and the limited supply we are seeing.  Idemitsu is also seeing the same increase in other costs that all manufacturing companies are seeing.  The increasing cost of steel has increased the price of new drums.  The reduced availability of plastic for totes has increased the cost of obtaining totes.   Idemitsu is also not immune to increasing freight costs.  As a blender of heat treatment products, we pay for the inbound freight of our raw materials and we face these increases as well. 

To help offset many of these increases, Idemitsu has taken numerous steps to help diffuse our increased costs .  We are using economies of scale by increasing our average batch size and purchasing many critical raw materials in larger volumes..  To help our customer base of commercial and captive heat treaters we are encouraging our customers to increase their purchase quantities.  For instance, the cost to ship one drum on a pallet is not that much different than to ship a full pallet with 4 drums.  We are asking our customers to switch from a 265 gallon tote to a 330 gallon tote.  This will lower their annual freight costs as well.  Because supply chains are lengthening for imported materials, Idemitsu took the initiative several years ago to reduce the amount, of products we imported from our Japanese operations.   Today in our heat treatment product line we can proudly state we do not import any finished products from Japan.  To help combat the lengthening of domestic supply chains, Idemitsu has been very upfront with our customers regarding the ability of common carriers to deliver products in a reasonable amount of time.  While our standard lead time of 5 business day has not changed, we have recently notified our customers of the additional transit days now required for most LTL shipments. 

Overall, Idemitsu is doing everything possible to work with our heat treating customers, our vendors and our preferred shipping companies, to provide our products to our customers to ensure there is no disruption in their manufacturing process.  We are doing this whilst striving to maintain a competitive cost with the shortest lead time possible.” Greg Steiger, Segment  Manager Quench Products, Industrial Lubricants, Idemitsu Lubricants America Corp.

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In this weeks very suspenseful edition of “The Heat Treat Podcast” our host Mr. Carlos Torres speaks with a very close friend of “The Monty Heat Treat News” Mr. Josh Harvey of CF Thermal. For over 20 years Josh has been serving the heat treatment industry in the fastest growing area of the US, the southeastern USA. CF Thermal is a long established independent manufacturers rep organization founded by Kyle Favors which represents a number of the best known industry suppliers in the world. And what did we learn from this podcast? That Josh is no mere salesman rather he is a “problem solver”.

“The Monty Heat Treat News” is proud to work with “The Heat Treat Podcast” and we look forward to presenting you with weekly updates from some very well known individuals in the industry. Between now and the end of the year we have numerous podcasts lined up which will cover the gauntlet from vacuum carburizing to additive manufacturing.

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From Aravind Jonnalagadda, CTO, Co-Founder at Synergy Additive Manufacturing, LLC., we have this interesting article about laser heat treating of dies. Over the years “The Monty Heat Treat News” has run across laser heat treating just a handful of times, one of the few concrete examples we can think of is “Laser Hard” in Pennsylvania, USA a joint venture founded in 2018 by Doug Peters of Peters Heat Treating and partners (these two photos show the facility as we saw it at the grand opening, Doug is on the right). According to this article laser heat treating of dies makes a great deal of sense. However having said that two points in this article puzzle us.

In this article the author mentions that dies are typically heat treated by “Conventional heat treating processes such as induction and flame”, rather odd that the most common method of heat treating dies, vacuum is not mentioned. The second point is that the author has zeroed in on Electric Vehicles-we would assume that heat treating of dies for internal combustion vehicles would be exactly the same. However aside from these two minor points we found the article interesting-whether this method of heat treating will take off is something only time can tell us.

The Electric Vehicle (EV) initiative and the efforts of automakers to overhaul their current vehicle lineups with electric offerings has many automakers and technology corporations rethinking automotive engineering to the most minute detail of manufacturing. The modern automotive industry not only effects automakers, but consumers, who will also transition into a diverse new market of emerging technologies. Deloitte Insight estimates that by 2030, EVs will account for 31 percent of total market share for new car sales. Currently EVs account for 2.5 % total new car sales. As per the report, the worldwide market for new EVs is expected to swell from 2.5 million in 2020, to 11.2 million in 2025, to 31.1 million by 2030. [1]

With a surge in demand for new EVs, OEMs are racing to bring new models to the market. This demand has prompted automakers to push towards shorter product life cycles for EVs compared to their Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) counterparts. Along with this, the recent supply chain disruptions fueled a renewed push towards new technologies and reliable partners who can accelerate the product life cycles while reducing the overall manufacturing costs. One such technology that gained strong hold in tool and die industry over the last few years is Laser Heat Treating.

Automotive dies often require all the male radii to be heat treated to reduce the wear and improve die life. Conventional heat treating processes such as induction and flame have high heat input, which distorts the die. To account for this, the die makers leave extra stock material to later comeback and hard mill the die to final dimensions. This additional hard milling step adds substantial cost to the die manufacturing process. Conventional processes are often performed by hand and lack precision and control. This results in poor quality and inconsistencies in the heat treated surfaces. Laser heat treating on the other hand, results in minimal distortion. The dies are machined to their final form and laser heat treated as a final step, thereby reducing the process steps such as hard-milling, 2D based machining, etc. This saves substantial time and costs for the die makers, not to mention improved and repeatable quality.

Laser heat treating process involves in a laser beam (with a typical laser spot size from 0.5” x 0.5” to 2” x 2”) to focus onto the metal surface. With proper control, the incident laser energy raises the surface temperature of the metal above its martensitic transformation temperature. The metal’s thermal mass aids in rapid ‘self-quenching’ (by removing the heat via conduction), resulting in the formation of the desired martensite microstructure. This gives the material its required hardness and wear properties.

By utilizing a laser beam, unrivaled precision is achieved by delivering the smallest possible energy to the metal part, resulting in minimal to zero distortion in large automotive dies. The unique characteristics of laser technology offer the following benefits:

Autodie LLC, when analyzing at over 100 applicable draw die castings (Post, Cavity and Binders) concluded that an average of 7 day reduction in Time to Market (TTM) was achieved by switching over to Laser Heat Treating process. By avoiding hard-milling operation, Laser Heat Treating resulted in 37% reduction in machining time. Substantial savings in cutter cost was observed as the castings are now finished by 3D machining while in soft condition. Over a 11 months period Kaizen savings had a benefit to cost average of 28.6 [2]

In summary, Laser Heat Treating offers substantial costs savings as well as reduction in Time To Market. This process is likely to expand in the automotive and metal part manufacturing sector. Laser Heat Treatment faces no significant barriers to adoption, aside from the ones that are common to any emerging technology. These include lack of familiarity and a shortage of reliable suppliers. The savings, measured by cost, schedule, quality, and energy reduction, are significant and well supported.

About Synergy Additive Manufacturing LLC:

Synergy Additive Manufacturing LLC is ISO 9001:2015 certified company specializing in high power laser-based solutions for complex manufacturing challenges related to wear, corrosion and tool life. Synergy Additive Manufacturing provides custom laser systems and job shop services for laser heat treating, metal based additive manufacturing, and laser welding.

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German fabricator Edelstahl-Mechanik, supported by Bodycote, a global thermal processing services company, manufactured the world’s first hydroformed tensile architectural façade. Designed by Behnisch Architekten, the newly constructed Science and Engineering Complex at the Harvard University campus in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, is a fine example of balancing sustainability and aesthetic goals.

A total of 12,800 steel panels in 14 different profiles were precisely fabricated and sculpted using hydroforming by fabricator Edelstahl-Mechanik. Commonly used within the automotive and aerospace industries, hydroforming uses water pressure to shape thin metal plates against a mould, creating custom pieces. The stainless steel panels were then annealed by Bodycote, a heat treatment process that alters the microstructure of a material to change its mechanical or electrical properties.

In keeping with the university’s dedication to sustainability, exterior stainless-steel façade panels were designed to minimise solar heat gain in warm weather months, capture thermal energy in cold weather months, and provide natural light to the interior spaces. Stainless steel can be used in all aspects of architecture, building, and construction and is widely used due to its attractive appearance, corrosion resistance, strength, ease of maintenance, low life cycle costs, and lightweight properties.

Bodycote Group Chief Executive, Stephen Harris, commented, “We are very pleased to have contributed to this project where sustainability has been at the forefront in all design aspects. The project demonstrates the value of how our thermal processing solutions can be applied to not only aerospace or automotive industries, but for architectural applications providing durable and sustainable solutions.”

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“The Monty Heat Treat News” is looking at how Global Supply Chain Issues are affecting the heat treatment industry-as part of these efforts we are speaking with industry suppliers. Mr. Tim Donofrio, Vice President Sales at Can-Eng Furnaces International, Ltd., offers these very insightful thoughts. At the conclusion of our series we will summarize what common denominators there are amongst all suppliers.

“With almost two years under our belts following the emergence of the Covid 19 pandemic, CAN-ENG Furnaces International, Ltd., feels that this experience has made us stronger as an organization and has contributed to improving our business fundamentals that have served us well and will guide us into the future.

Looking back at the Covid-19 Pandemic experience, hundreds of millions of people have lived through lockdowns, isolation and people were forced to abruptly shift from working from home and millions even lost their jobs.  This obviously created significant uncertainty and anxiety for people not knowing what the future would hold.  As an essential service, CAN-ENG’s was not mandated to close its operations during the early days of the Pandemic, however in an abundance of caution decided to  have office personnel work remotely if possible.  This obviously created short term technology and connectivity challenges, however this was quickly remedied with the deployment of remote hardware and conversion to virtual meetings.

Further challenges associated with supply chain support and timely deliveries ensued which resulted in an overhaul on how we managed suppliers. These changes included:

1) Increasing our number of suppliers

2) Advance procurement of common products and/or increasing stocking levels

3) Re-Design of system in cases where component deliveries could not be satisfied

4) Increased communications and planning with all suppliers

On the commercial side, additional activities took place to ensure heightened customers communications were maintained and included personal contact via virtual meetings and embedding of resources in regions for direct face to face contact was required.  In some cases, creative commercial solutions were developed to address the hyper-inflation of raw materials (Steel and Refractory) and overall equipment lead times were extended appropriately suit the delays being realized from the supply chain.

CAN-ENG does not believe the Pandemic recovery will be short and painless and as such, CAN-ENG has responded and has put the systems in place to address the lack of integrated component supply, extended supply chain lead times and resource shortages to ensure the on-time delivery of systems and satisfaction of our customers.  These Pandemic pressures have provided CAN-ENG the opportunity to re-think how we do things and in most cases improve and showcase how resilient an organization CAN-ENG Furnaces International, Ltd., is today and into the future.” Tim Donofrio, Vice President Sales, Can-Eng Furnaces International, Ltd.

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Last week we spoke of how ZF Windpower in Coimbatore, India https://themonty.com/how-are-windmill-gears-heat-treated/ was adding more heat treating capacity in the form of a number of pit carburizing furnaces. Several readers who are very familiar with this operation added that with the addition of these furnaces the company will have a total of 30 carburizing furnaces, 7 nitriders and numerous tempering furnaces. Clearly this can be considered a very large captive heat treatment facility.

“How Are Windmill Gears Heat Treated? Well we can’t speak for every manufacturer but ZF Wind Power in Coimbatore, India is pretty typical in that they are using large pit, gas carburizing furnaces. In this particular case Aichelin Unitherm of India is working with ZF to supply the company with an additional 7 electrically heated pit furnaces each with an operating temperature of 850C to 970C and a load capacity of 12,000 KG. The facility is equipped with advanced automation with customized software for the entire heat treatment process and complies with CE certification standards. While “The Monty Heat Treat News” has seen facilities using large batch IQ furnaces for heat treating of gears and shafts for the windmill industry, pit carburizing furnaces remain the choice of most manufacturers.

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Out in California we find a small commercial heat treater which recently came on the market. The company is Tri-J Metal Heat Treating in Pamona, California and the details can be found at https://empireoc.com/listing/heating-treating-company-specializing-in-small-high-volume-parts

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The November, 2021 issue of “The Monty Heat Treat News” is now available and can be found at The Monty Magazine November 2021 Issue – Flipbook by The Monty | FlipHTML5 This 87 page edition features the absolute latest news and trends in the global heat treatment industry and lives up to it’s billing as “The Largest Heat Treat Industry News Source” in the world.

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