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Furnace manufacturer SECO/WARWICK has appointed Grammer Vacuum Technologies as their exclusive representative in the US states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Nevada and Northern California. Grammer Vacuum Technologies was founded in 1992 by Bob Grammer to service the thermal processing industry in the US Northwest and represents some of the best known names in the industry. http://www.gvtinc.Did you like this article? Click here to subscribe to The Monty.
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“At over 95,000 square feet, this is the largest single-site heat treating facility in the UK with this level of aerospace scope. From a wide range of available treatments, we provide aerospace engineers with a one-stop-shop, backed by extensive laboratory, quality testing and technical expertise. We work with them to create specific processes that meet their exact requirements and unique needs,” explains Wallwork director, Simeon Collins.
As a key supplier of metal heat treatment processes to aerospace engineering primes such as Airbus, BAE systems and Rolls Royce, many commercial and defence aircraft are flying today with components that have been heat treated by Wallwork. From complex jet engine and landing gear parts, to fasteners and fixings, the company provides the same attention to detail, quality and customer service across all its sites based on the high standards of its aerospace approvals.”
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Centorr Vacuum Industries of Nashua, NH, USA received orders for six high-vacuum furnaces for the precision processing of metals in heat treating, annealing and brazing applications. With working dimensions from 12 x 12 x 24 inches to over 48 x 48 x 48 inches and from 1 cubic foot to over 100 cubic feet, Centorr’s furnaces can handle a variety of customer loads in either high vacuum or partial pressures of inert gas. The furnace design has a refractory-metal hot zone and high-vacuum pumping system for the processing of advanced materials requiring an extremely clean high-vacuum environment.
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Since time immemorial heat treaters have basically had two options for carburizing atmospheres; endothermic generators or nitrogen/methanol systems (we are ignoring pack type carburizing and drip feed systems as they occupy such a tiny percentage of the overall heat treatment market). The relative merits, drawbacks and history of each can be found in the articles below which include excellent comments from individuals such as Joe Greene of Boeing and Rob Wilcox of Super Systems Europe. The message to be taken away from these articles is that the entire advantage goes to endothermic generators largely for economic reasons. However recently a new factor has popped up which is leading a few heat treaters to reconsider and take another look at Nitrogen/Methanol-the new factor being climate change and green house gas emissions.
In an effort to reduce their carbon footprint a growing number of manufacturers around the world are taking a close, hard look at their manufacturing processes trying to find ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and meet “carbon targets”-either current targets or potential targets. Heat treatment being so energy intensive makes it an obvious starting point for any manufacturer looking to reduce energy consumption and consequently greenhouse gas emissions. I am sure our readers can see where this is going-endothermic generators operate at 1950F, Nitrogen/Methanol systems do not making a Nitrogen based system very attractive if you want to reduce energy usage.
The end result is that some captive and commercial heat treaters with a mandate from their customers and management to reduce their carbon footprint are casting their eyes upon nitrogen/methanol systems and reconsidering their use of endothermic generators. This of course ignores the fact that a nitrogen/methanol atmosphere is roughly twice the cost of an atmosphere from an endothermic generator but like so many decisions having to do with climate change issues reason seems to largely go out the window. Whether this will result in a substantial shift in the industry is hard to say-certainly it wouldn’t be a fast change but the fact that the topic is popping up more and more often tells us this is a subject we will be hearing more about.
Why Would Anybody Run a Nitrogen/Methanol System?
Once upon a time in North America gas fired Endothermic Generators reigned supreme when it came to atmosphere heat treating. Unreliable and problem plagued they were an easy prey to Nitrogen/Methanol systems which promised to be clean, reliable, simple and low maintenance and consequently 30-40 years ago Nitrogen/Methanol systems slowly captured a larger and larger share of the market. However Advancements in Endo Generator technology removed virtually all of the original headaches and combined with the far lower cost of endo gas as opposed to Nitrogen the end result is that Generators again reign supreme. This is of course largely ancient history now but what prompted us to mention it today is that we ran across a large captive heat treat earlier this week who were largely unaware of the relative costs of the two systems. In an effort to prove our point that endo generators are a far more cost effective way to go we reached out to one of the largest furnace builders in North America who provided this handy/dandy Nitrogen/Methanol vs. Endo Calculation which shows the relative costs. Why Would Anybody Run a Nitrogen/Methanol System? | The Monty
Why Would Anybody Run a Nitrogen/Methanol System-Industry Reactions
Even after all these years of publishing “The Monty” we are still puzzled why some articles attract so much attention and others do not. For instance September 23 we had an article entitled Why Would Anybody Run a Nitrogen/Methanol System-the basis of the article was that Endo generators are a much more cost effective way of creating a furnace atmosphere as compared to a Nitrogen/Methanol system. Well as it turns out this is a hot topic for many, and we have received a very substantial number of comments, two of which are below. The first which comes from a fellow in the UK by the name of Rob Wilcox of Super Systems Europe, makes the point that you have to be running an Endo Generator to be competitive. The second from Joe Greene of Boeing in the US looks at the two technologies more from a technical aspect-both make for interesting reading.
“Endothermic Gas against Nitrogen Methanol – your competitive edge. Your service and quality are comparable to your heat treat competitor, so why is a potential customer going to choose you over them – PRICE. Heat treatment is a high energy process and there is a constant battle for efficiency while maintaining quality. You have streamlined your process flow, automated everything possible, highly maintained your equipment and your furnace utilisation is a dream. So where do you go next? Well, if you are using nitrogen methanol / propane as a process gas, then you could be at a huge disadvantage to your competitor. You may have seen articles which mathematically show that endothermic gas, is on average, 3-4 times less expensive than using nitrogen. Why Would Anybody Run a Nitrogen/Methanol System? | The Monty
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(Livonia, MI, September 17, 2021) – Dr. Kathy L. Hayrynen, Vice President of Research & Development, Applied Process Inc., Livonia, Michigan, is the recipient of the John H. Whiting Gold Medal. This was presented to her by Bruce Dienst at the 2021 AFS Foundry Leadership Summit banquet in Scottsdale, AZ on Monday, Sept. 13, 2021. The John H. Whiting Gold Medal is presented for her exemplary work in the ferrous sector of the metal casting industry, cast iron research and standards, chairing the AFS Technical Council, leadership in streamlining the AFS Cast Iron Division, as well as for advocacy and mentorship of students and women in metalcasting. Dr. Kathy is the first to receive the Whiting Gold Medal since George M. Goodrich in 2008. The Gold Medal is the highest award presented by the American Foundry Society to an individual.
Hayrynen graduated with BS, MS, and PhD in Metallurgical Engineering from Michigan Tech in 1986, 1989, and 1993, respectively. She was inducted to the Department of Materials Science and Engineering academy in 2006.
Applied Process is a group of commercial heat treaters that specialize in the Austempering process. We get paid to heat treat people’s parts, but what we really do for a living is help our customers to replace one material/process combination with a better, faster, cheaper one. www.appliedprocess.com
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Century Sun Heat Treat Treat Sold-31st Largest Commercial Heat Treater in North America. Recently “The Monty Heat Treat News” put together our annual list of the largest commercial heat treaters in North America-in 31st position on this list is Century Sun Heat Treat in Traverse City, Michigan. According to this press release the firm was recently sold to a Michigan based Investment Group. 50 Largest North American Commercial Heat Treats 2021 | The Monty
“PMCF is pleased to announce that it served as the exclusive financial advisor to Century, LLC (“Century” or “The Company”) in a sale transaction to Hillcrest Investment Partners, LLC, a private investment group. Headquartered in Traverse City, Michigan, Century is a leading supplier of heat treating and machining solutions.
Bill Janis, former Owner and Chairman of Century, remarked, “Century has established a strong reputation in the market over multiple decades based on our focus and dedication to customer satisfaction. The Company has found a great home with Hillcrest Investment Partners. Their ability to leverage industry experience and continued investment in capabilities and technology will accelerate Century’s growth trajectory and result in even better service for our customers.”
Century selected PMCF to serve as the exclusive investment banker in the transaction. Bill Janis added, “We couldn’t be happier with our decision to hire PMCF as our M&A advisor. The team was instrumental in achieving a successful outcome and was heavily involved in each phase of the process. PMCF’s industry expertise and ability to effectively communicate our story to the market was impressive, and I would highly recommend PMCF to any company considering a transaction.”
The transaction closed in June 2021. Honigman LLP served as the legal advisor to the Company.”
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Today we are visiting (virtually) Accurate Brazing in Greenville, SC, USA which is part of the Aalberts Group of companies based in the Netherlands. This is quite an impressive facility with some of the newest technologies out there including Plasma Nitriding, HIP’ing, Vacuum Brazing and Heat Treat with 12 bar quenching. Their name comes up today as their long time President, Mr. Steve Francis recently retired (perhaps semi retired is a better term as he will remain a part time business consultant) and he has been replaced by Mr. Brent Davis, who most recently was Vice President and is another long time employee of the company.
At the same time Mr. Craig Beaumier was hired as Director of Business Development. If his name rings a bell it is because he worked for Quintus, the HIP’ing people for quite some time. You can tell from this photo of Craig that he is not a shy guy. Our readers can look forward to hearing a lot more about Accurate before the end of the year.
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We have a special treat for you, our viewers today, a “Heat Treat Podcast” with Mr. Andreas Fritz of “HEMO”, a company which makes quite possibly the most advanced cleaning systems on earth; Cleaning Technologies for Heat Treating | Andreas Fritz | THE HEAT TREAT PODCAST #029 – YouTube “The Monty Heat Treat News” had the privilege of visiting the company’s headquarters in Germany in 2019 and what we saw left us very impressed. This photo shows what is a typical system for HEMO but certainly not a typical system for the industry.
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