Back in late 2020 we had a press release about German Gear Manufacturer Wolfgang Schmahl GmbH & Co., expanding their in house heat treating department to include 3 Low Pressure Carburizing (LPC) systems (press release below). We now have this update from the company showing one of the furnaces arriving.
Wolfgang Schmahl GmbH & Co. is a highly specialized manufacturer of gearwheels and gear units used around the world. Today, the company employs more than 180 people on a production area of 10,000 m2. From the outset, the company has specialized in the production of gearwheels and transmission parts as well as the assembly of complete gear units.”
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“What we do is take steel parts, stamp parts and machine parts, and we heat them up to what we call the austenitizing temperature, so when we rapidly cool it we change the atomic structure,” Vanas explained. “It makes them stronger, harder and more wear resistant.” He said the majority of their customers are machine shops, stamping houses and tool-and-die shops, which send their parts to Euclid Heat Treating for strengthening. “We cover the gamut of the metalworking field, and there’s a lot of that right here in Cleveland,” he said. Vanas grew up learning about metalworking and heat treating from a very young age as he watched his father’s company grow.
“My dad would bring me in here on Saturdays when I was a kid and I’d sweep the floors, take pipes apart and carry things back and forth for the maintenance guys,” he recalled. “And then at about 15 years old I started working actually running furnaces during the summers. So, I’ve been here about 61 years in total.” Euclid Heat Treating currently employees about 62 people, including Vanas’ three adult children, who’ve all been working with the company for at least 15 years themselves. Many other employees have been there for decades as well.
While Minerd oversees operations now, she didn’t start out that way. She recalled learning a lot through working on the shop floor every summer during college, which she noted is certainly the hottest, hardest time of the year to be working around furnaces, but she got plenty of experience. Like many manufacturing businesses across the country, Euclid Heat Treating has seen a decline in applicants from younger generations seeking careers in the trades, but Vanas and Minerd agreed they hope to see that trend turn around.
They believe the best way to help is to begin making sure high schoolers are shown that if they don’t want to go to college, or it’s not an option for them, or maybe they just prefer working with their hands — there are plenty of viable career options within the manufacturing industries. “We’re excited because we’ve been struggling trying to find employees, but we actually have a handful of new ones that show a lot of promise,” Minerd said. “For younger people we’d like to show that this, and manufacturing, could be your career. Even if you didn’t grow up knowing that it was an option.”
In an effort to help give a boost to manufacturing education, the company will be donating some heat treating equipment, along with expertise from staff who will teach a class on how to use it, at the new Transformation Training Center currently being built on Tyler Boulevard in Mentor. Spearheaded by the Alliance for Working Together organization, the training center will be devoted to providing hands-on manufacturing education to high schoolers and unemployed or incumbent workers.”
Euclid Heat Treating is celebrating its 75th anniversary as a family-owned business this year. Second-generation owner John Vanas (right) runs the company with help from his three children, including Deidra Minerd who serves as operations manager.
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In the very substantial Brazilian commercial heat treating market furnace builder SECO/WARWICK has flourished over the past year. Certainly this has a great deal to do with the firm’s offerings, but it is also a credit to their local partner, Combustol, a company which “The Monty Heat Treat News” has visited in the past and found to be a very competent organization. .
SECO/WARWICK Group has delivered multiple shipments of advanced metal heat treatment equipment to South America. The primary customers for this equipment are Brazilian commercial heat treaters. This year, SECO/WARWICK equipment has shipped to three heat-treating plants in this country. Last month, a Vector® vacuum furnace was delivered to Supertrat in Santa Bárbara D’Oeste. The Vector vacuum furnace ordered by the Supertrat heat treating plant is a medium-sized device, but it offers huge opportunities. Its working space (600x600x900) is optimal and it is the most frequent choice of commercial heat treaters. The equipment will streamline and improve the capacity of heat treatment processes and will improve process economics. This is all thanks to energy savings, the graphite chamber, and precision performance providing process purity and speed.
“Vector is our standard equipment adjusted to individual client needs, designed to be as versatile as possible and to have the widest application in the heat treatment of various steel types. Each new contract means many consultations and challenges. Years of experience have led us to the development of a very universal furnace widely used in heat treatment that, can be modified by adjusting the range of possibilities it can offer to client needs,” says Maciej Korecki, Vice President of the Vacuum Segment, SECO/WARWICK Group. “We are very familiar with the South American market as we have supplied vacuum furnaces not only to the largest commercial heat treating plants on this continent but also to the military and aviation sector enterprises. On the Brazilian market, we have handled the fastest delivery of a vacuum furnace this year, taking just 8 weeks. Recently, the Brazilian government has introduced a grant program that allows for as much as 50% of the funding to be granted for the type of equipment manufactured by SECO/WARWICK,” adds M. Korecki.
South America is important to SECO/WARWICK; SECO/WARWICK has been active in the South American market for many years. For six years now, SECO/WARWICK has cooperated with a Brazilian firm COMBUSTOL FORNOS IND COM LTDA and through this cooperation, it can fulfill orders covered by government subsidies for the equipment when at least 50% is manufactured in the territory of Brazil.
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For 25 years “The Monty Heat Treat News” has been publishing an annual list of the largest commercial heat treaters in North America-the only heat treat publication to do so. This years list can be found at https://themonty.com/project/5
The first has to do with our rankings as opposed to those of Metal Treating Institute (MTI), an organization which consists of many commercial heat treaters in North America. Several commercial heat treaters asked us why they were rated in the 10 largest in North America by MTI but ranked substantially lower than that by “The Monty Heat Treat News”? The answer is simple, while MTI is the largest organization of its type in North America not all commercial heat treaters in North America belong including several of the largest such as Bodycote and Advanced Heat Treat Corp., to name just a couple. We can add that the 5 largest commercials each have annual sales of over $100 million USD.
The second group of comments concerned companies not making our list. While we are very proud of our efforts and consider this list to be the most accurate of its kind we do not claim that every company that should be on the list, actually made the list and this has to do with the fact that most heat treats are privately owned and sales figures are not readily available. Case in point would be Astro Aluminum Treating Company in Southgate, CA, USA https://astroaluminum.com/ Founded in 1967 this is a family owned business with an install base of 18 furnaces located in a 125,000 square foot facility. Do they deserve to be on the list of the 50 Largest? Most likely, however that will have to be a correction for 2022.
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Recently we had a news item about Wallwork Heat Treatment in the UK adding more plasma nitriding capacity, this press release gives us an update on the project. Later on this month “The Monty Heat Treat News Team” will be visiting a number of companies in the UK involved in the thermal processing industry. This will include industry suppliers such as “Vacuum & Atmosphere Services”, controls company “SSi” and a few captive and commercial heat treaters.
“Delivery Day – Today the first of our two Rubig Plasma Nitriders have arrived and to be installed over the next week. This will take the site to 6 available units and increase actual usable capacity by 60%. Driven by customer demand this is part of £650k of invest for the Cambridge site and the start of the organisations commitment to increase capacity across the group over the next 12 months. On top of this we have now committed to two new Vacuum furnaces for the Birmingham site, to help keep pace with the increased demand for vacuum processing in the midlands.”
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Sören Segerberg was one of the initiators of the development and sale of IVF’s Quenchotest/ivf SmartQuench, an equipment for quality control of cooling curve measurement, which even today, after 35 years on the market, is a leader internationally with customers and agents in about 40 countries. He was also a contributor in the development of ASTM D6200 and ISO 9950.
Sören Segerberg was awarded Fellowship by ASM in 2004, “for sustainable development of quenching technology and leadership in the global heat treating industry, including research leading to the understanding of quenching principles and for the development of testing equipment for gas and liquid quenchant characterization.” He was a member of ASM and IFHTSE. He was an early recipient of the Karl-Wilhelm-Burgdorf Prize given by AWT, the German Heat Treating Society.”
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IHEA July 2021 Market Report-“The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”
The July 2021 report from IHEA (Industrial Heating Equipment Association) came out recently and it points to 3 different, potential scenarios moving forward-as IHEA pointed out very succinctly “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”.
“July 2021. That sense of euphoria over the rapid growth sustained since the start of the year has started to fade and not for the reason that was expected. Let’s review! At the start of the year there was an expectation that there would be growth but it would be somewhat hesitant and slow. That was actually preferred as it meant that producers would be able to keep pace with demand and that would minimize the inflation threat. What we actually got was an economy on fire with a 6.5% growth rate in Q2. Suddenly the inflation threat was real as producers were quickly overwhelmed. Just about the time we all adjusted to the idea of really rapid growth and started to anticipate a really strong 2021 we discovered the pandemic was far from done with the economy. Now we see potential decline in the last half of the year as those protocols and restrictions reappear. Will there be another lockdown? Will consumers retreat again and send the service sector back into recession?
There were basically two possible responses to the surge in demand and both options had advantages and disadvantages. Both are highly dependent on what the consumer actually chooses to do. Option one was to add as much capacity as possible and as quickly as possible – buy new machines, add space, hire people and do it at a time when prices for all of this are at their highest levels in years. Option two was to stand pat and face the possibility of losing business to competitors or watching customers find substitute goods. If the choice is to expand to meet demand there has to be continued demand to justify that investment. If demand falls off the second option looks like the wiser one but what if the demand really does hold and expand. Now the decision to stand pat results in major declines in market share.
Until roughly a month ago it would have been a good bet to assume that demand would continue to grow – all the signs and indicators were pointing that way. Today the story is far less clear. The resumption of pandemic protocols has been an immense disappointment and has created significant tension. Those that have opposed the vaccinations have been held primarily responsible for the return of the pandemic and that has created intense hostility. Businesses are requiring vaccinations as a condition of employment and even consumers are being required to vaccinate. That creates even more tension and consumer growth and tension are not good companions.
There are now three scenarios in play for the rest of the year – a good, a bad and an ugly. The good one holds that people basically adjust to the protocols with some patience. It is assumed that there will not be lockdowns this time – the emphasis is on masking, distancing and hygiene. If that is the case the expectation is that growth rates will be relatively unaffected. This scenario also assumes that vaccination levels improve and the country gets measurably closer to that herd immunity. The bad scenario asserts that consumers do not adapt well and begin to shift their behaviors back to what they were last year – shunning events, restaurants, travel and other public activity. There would be more confrontations over these protocols and the pressure to vaccinate and that steers people even further away from public activity.
Then there is the ugly scenario. The outbreak gets bad enough that lockdowns are reimposed. Thousands of businesses are closed again, millions of people lose their jobs again and this time there is no money available from the government to cushion the blow. Those whose lives have been ruined again will become extremely hostile towards those they hold responsible and that will mean attacks on everything from government officials to health authorities and the unvaccinated. The bad scenario likely sees growth droop from the 4.5% to 5.5% level now assumed for Q4 to something closer to 2.5%. The ugly scenario sees the return of the recession – negative growth in Q4 that would likely extend into Q1 of next year. The odds of each of these scenarios differs – the good still has a 50% chance with the bad at 30% and the ugly at 20%. As in 2020 it all depends on the attitude and the behavior of the consumer and right now polls suggest there is tremendous confusion over what happens next. This kind of uncertainty does not feed growth as people become cautious regarding significant purchases and investments.”
Heat Treater in PA, USA Adds Monster Bottom Load Vacuum Furnace
“Quakertown, PA – One of the most pressing challenges facing the thermal processing industry is being able to handle the size of components. From aerospace housings to large valves, fitting pieces into equipment is always the first step in processing. One of the solutions found by the industry is equipment with a new orientation. Vacu Braze has purchased and installed a new bottom loading vertical furnace. This equipment has been able to significantly amplify annealing, aging, and stress-relieving all while remaining under a high vacuum. With a 6′ diameter and 5′ height, the chamber of this furnace is able to handle the increased capacity of valves, housings, and rings in excess of 6000 lbs.
Parts are loaded onto the bottom platform and moved to be as uniformly distanced from heating elements as possible. They are then raised up into the furnace chamber and locked into position. All processing takes place elevated from ground level and the chamber will be lowered to unload the material once processing is complete. Vacu Braze is excited to offer customers increased processing options for a larger capacity. Vacu Braze is a precision heat treatment facility located in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. At the forefront of thermal processing, their work has been trusted by industry-leading manufacturers in the medical, aerospace, defense, and power generation fields. With a commitment to quality and a proven track record for speed and reliability, Vacu Braze is a partner you can count on. Learn more at vacubraze.net“
The Heat Treat Podcast Talks “Salt Bath Heat Treatment”
In this weeks exciting episode of “The Heat Treat Podcast” our host Mr. Carlos Torres talks “Salt Bath Heat Treatment” with Mr. Mike Coburn.
Happy Labor Day
Due to the Labor Day long weekend which is celebrated in many countries around the world the offices of WG Montgomery Ltd., will be closed Monday September 6, 2021. Regular heat treat news updates will resume Tuesday, September 7.
