ASM Will Not Cancel September Conference in St. Louis
The ASM sponsored Heat Treat 2021 exhibition is scheduled for September 14-16th in St. Louis, Missouri. With Covid cases in Missouri rising again and new masking mandates in effect, many have speculated about whether the event will or should go ahead. ASM have issued this unequivical statement in effect saying “the show will go on”. From the 2019 ASM event in Detroit we have this photo of the Aerospace Testing & Pyrometry booth. From left to right we see Andrew Bassett, Gord Montgomery and Tom Zimmerman.
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Expanite – Replacement or Reinforcement of DLC Coatings
Diamond-like carbon or DLC coatings are today used in many areas where excellent friction properties and good wear resistance are required on component surfaces. The DLC layers applied by complex, time-consuming and costly PVD or PACVD processes are usually only a few micrometres thick. If the part also is required to be corrosion-resistant, making the use of stainless steels mandatory, the DLC system has some weak points. The soft stainless steel as the carrier medium and the correspondingly high hardness gradient to the thin DLC layer promote the eggshell effect this might lead to a defect in the coating, and it will easily start peeling off.
Diffusion hardness layer
Surface hardening of Expanite brings the solution using a gas-based diffusion process to store carbon and nitrogen deep in the component surface. This guarantees a better load-bearing capacity and efficiently counteracts the eggshell effect. If defects occur in the hardness layer while the part is in use, this does not lead to further flaking because, in contrast to the applied DLC layer, the Expanite technology is a diffusion hardness layer that is coherent with the base material.
Environmentally friendly
A positive side effect: the gas-based diffusion process is significantly more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly than comparable wear protection processes and, thanks to the treatment in vacuum, no time-consuming cleaning of the parts, e.g., with aggressive chemicals, is necessary after hardening with the Expanite process.
“We have already replaced the classic DLC coating in various applications, from the typical running and sealing surfaces in bearings, through pump components or knife edges to applications in medical technology,” explains Dr. Holger Selg, application expert and Expanite Sales Director DACH, and continues: “In some cases, the two technologies were also combined and a DLC layer was applied in addition to our Expanite hardness layer in order to obtain a very resilient system. “
The Expanite technology, specially developed for corrosion-resistant materials, offers a solution for austenitic, martensitic, ferritic and duplex stainless steels as well as for expensive nickel-based alloys such as Inconel and Hastelloy. The new special process ExpaniteHard-Ti, which the Expanite team of experts in Denmark has developed to market maturity in recent years, is used for titanium materials.
CENOS Releases Latest Version of Induction Heating Simulation Software
“In two years since the CENOS Induction Heating simulation software’s first version was released in 2019, it is used by more than 50 customers in 12 countries and more than 100 academic users in universities across the world. CENOS’s main customers are induction heating equipment manufacturers and induction heating equipment end-users – production plants, mostly enterprises in automotive supply chains and OEM producers.
CENOS co-founder and CEO Dr. phys. Mihails Scepanskis: “We are very proud of what we’ve achieved in the last two years, but we’re not stopping here. We commit ourselves to help induction heating professionals to become more effective by using highly focused simulation software. We’ve noticed that this industry was underserved by the use of the computer simulation software provided only by large enterprise-level vendors. In the meantime induction heating is quite advanced technology and requires a very specific functionality that can only be provided by custom solutions like CENOS. We are happy to provide exceptionally easy-to-use software not only for professionals but for any hands-on engineer.”
The latest software version now features industry-standard multi-CPU acceleration, which allows getting simulation results multiple times faster than before. A very unique feature in CENOS is a scanning application which has been a huge selling point so far, now it has become even easier to set up. “It’s like a walk in the park,” company’s CEO Mihails comments, “and last but not least – we’ve set a very high standard for our customer satisfaction with our instant live chat with support built right into the software – giving direct access to our simulation engineers.”
Version 3.0 has proved to be very advanced and on a high technological level, and raised the customer support standard to a new level. Earlier this year CENOS released another industry-specialized application for radiofrequency and antenna designers. With recently attracted investment funds and a fast-growing developer team, the company is making constant progress forward.
The company name CENOS stands for “Connecting ENgineering Open Source” highlighting the new software approach they invented. It is a platform that connects the best of community-driven open-source algorithms into one seamless user experience and since it is desktop software – the data do not leave the owner’s computer.
CENOS was founded in 2017 by 3 PhDs in physics and mathematics who committed themselves to the democratization of simulation software by making it easy, affordable, and secure for every engineer. CENOS is a startup, funded by the leading San Francisco early-stage investor ‘500 Startups’, the leading B2B European accelerator Startup Wise Guys, and the cohort of the Baltic, Nordic, and U.S. business angels.”
August 18th we posted a news item in which we speculated that the Pandemic has effected used equipment pricing https://themonty.com/pandemic-
At least in this case it did not.
The furnaces sold for little more than scrap value including this furnace (pictured) which sold for $7,000 USD. Whether this is because most of the furnaces featured were older and required maintenance is hard to say but at least in this case Pandemic pricing increases did not come into play.
“Allied Heat Treat Ltd. Closes-Multiple Vacuum Furnaces to be Auctioned Off Since 1959 commercial heat treater Allied Heat Treat in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada has been offering a wide variety of services including carburizing, gas nitriding, vacuum hardening and carbonitriding. Alas the end of the road was just 2 days ago when the firm ran their last load of parts. August 18th of this year all of the equipment will be going to auction, this includes numerous vacuum furnaces built by Abar Ipsen and Vac Aero and ranging from 1 bar to 5 bar. This is part of some rather substantial changes in the Canadian heat treatment market which is seeing two commercial shops closing down, 2 others merging, one new start up and two brand new captive heat treat departments starting up.”
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As more mid-sized companies recover from pandemic related disruptions, Ipsen is seeing a surge in interest for standardized equipment. Ipsen reports a steady increase of orders for TITAN vacuum furnaces this year, with five in July alone. That’s a substantial increase over the same period in 2020, and a fundamental shift from the more specialized equipment that drove increased demand in the first half of this year.
Customers range from those in cutting tools and machinery to additive manufacturing and aerospace. As businesses gain confidence in a stabilizing economy and anticipate increased production demand, many are resuming pre-COVID investment plans.
Despite supply chain challenges throughout the manufacturing sector, the TITAN still has the best lead time in the industry. Its compact size, versatility and global operating platform make the TITAN an attractive option for those looking for a high performance turnkey solution with fast delivery. Customers also consider Ipsen’s excellent service and support, technical expertise and product quality as key factors in their purchasing decisions.
For more information on Ipsen’s standard vacuum furnace line, visit www.IpsenUSA.com/TITAN.
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US Arsenal To Install Ion Nitriding System
In the past “The Monty Heat Treat News” has pointed out that virtually all Ion (Plasma) nitriding systems come from either Europe or Colombia, South America. This press release tells us how a USA based company, Surface Combustion of Ohio recently shipped a new system to Watervliet Arsenal in New York State, a captive heat treater with a reasonably large heat treat department. Surface Combustion was one of the first US companies to offer Ion Nitriding systems almost 40 years ago (as mentioned in this press release) however we were not aware that the company still offered this technology, obviously it is still something the company has in their portfolio.
“Surface® Combustion, Inc. has recently shipped a new Ion Nitriding Thermal Processing Furnace System for Watervliet Arsenal. Watervliet was familiar with Surface Combustion’s multitude of furnace offerings and awarded a contract to Surface so they could again bring their processing capability in-house. Adding control to the supply chain for product was one of the many reasons Watervliet added a Ion Nitriding Thermal Processing Furnace System to their plant. The Surface® Combustion Ion Nitriding System, with full controls, will be fully installed and commissioned in a horizontal configuration. This configuration best suits the facility and Watervliet Arsenal’s processing needs, and will also include process development. Surface is no stranger to government contracts. (Cage Code: 58588) This is the second ion nitriding furnace supplied to Watervliet, the first was originally over 40 years ago.”
If you’re a regular reader of “The Monty” this news item might seem familiar because we mentioned this a few months ago, but we now have additional details. Below is the official press release for Heat Treatment Australia purchasing two new Vector vacuum furnaces from SECO/WARWICK. Very recently Karen Stanton was featured in a podcast of ours which can be found at the following link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VujMOHUHgr4&t=927svvv
“Two new Vector® – single chamber high-pressure quench vacuum furnaces from SECO/VACUUM have been purchased by HTA. Solutions go to their Melbourne and Sydney commercial heat treatment facilities to provide expanded processing capabilities to support the Australian defense industry. The equipment will provide heat treatment processes for HTA’s manufacturing customers in the region to meet defense customer and quality specifications. The project was developed in response to customer demand and market analysis identifying gaps in Australia’s advanced manufacturing industrial framework.
Dr Karen Stanton, Director Corporate and Strategy at HTA said, “HTA is the only Australian NADCAP approved thermal processor and has had ongoing success with commercial and aerospace operations to date. Increasing the footprint of heat treatment assets through the establishment of this capability in Melbourne and Sydney will increase the ability of defense component manufacturers to deliver projects faster and allow them direct access to a qualified local supply chain.”
“SECO/WARWICK Group has the most advanced and user-friendly vacuum furnaces on the market. But equally important to me is the way we can collaborate with their team to determine the best furnace features and capabilities to do the job. These two new Vector furnaces will be the first of their capability in Sydney and Melbourne and will be used to heat treat high strength components such as landing gear or brazing engine parts and opening up advanced processing capabilities to our new and current customers” – added Norm Tucker, Director Operations at HTA,
“HTA has been very smart about how they approach their growth, measuring business opportunities through research and thoughtfulness and looking carefully at the potential upside of their investments. We are proud to be an integral partner in their planning and execution”
The Vector technology is one of the best overall solution for commercial heat treaters because of its deep process flexibility. Vector is a versatile heat treatment system that can be applied to a variety of tasks as the customer’s workloads change, from hardening for tools and dies or aircraft components, to annealing, vacuum brazing, LPC, normalizing, solution heat treating, as well as sintering and tempering.
The addition of Vector® vacuum furnaces to HTA’s processing capabilities follows 7 other installations of SECO/WARWICK products in Brisbane and Los Angeles CA, including high-pressure gas quench vacuum furnaces, vacuum aluminum brazing furnaces, and tempering/stress relieving furnaces.
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So who in their right mind starts up a heat treat in the middle of a pandemic-especially in one of the northern most parts of North America-Salto Heat Treat in Coniston, Ontario, Canada-thats who. There is little in the way of heat treating in the northern part of North America as there is little industry, the small exception revolves around the mining industry and that is concentrated around Subury, Ontario, Canada-the nickel capital of the world. There we find one of two commercial heat treats in the area, Salto Heat Treat. A recent visit (yesterday to be exact) shows an impeccable heat treat shop in terms of equipment, cleanliness and organization. Salto was started in the Spring of 2020 which meant it had to weather the storm of Covid. As we all know the storm is slowly abating and Salto as an example is starting to boom.Did you like this article? Click here to subscribe to The Monty.
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Monday of next week “The Monty Heat Treat News” will be publishing our long awaited list of the 50 largest commercial heat treaters in North America based upon annual sales volume. While there will be some changes amongst the top 30 (including the addition of Dowa Thermotech and a couple of others) the most interesting thing about this list is who the next 20 companies will be-as we have pointed out previously we have never ranked more than the 30 largest. The basic criteria for this list can be found in our summary of 2020 (below) while last years list in its entirely can be found at https://themonty.com/
- Rankings are based upon sales for 2019.
- The vast bulk of companies on this list are privately held which means exact sales figures can be difficult to find. So while we are quite proud of our efforts and consider this list to be the most accurate available anywhere we do not for a second claim that it is 100% correct.
- Over the years some readers have pointed out that our rankings are not always in line with MTI figures (Metal Treating Institute is the largest organization of commercial heat treaters in North America and they rank their members in each geographic region). We would concur with this for two reasons. The first is that not all commercial heat treaters belong to MTI which “skews” the numbers. For instance some of the largest commercial heat treaters on the continent do not belong, this includes Bodycote, Woodworth and Advanced Heat Treat Corp. Second MTI tracks members in a particular region. For instance Specialty Steel Treating does not rank as the largest in Michigan which is where they are headquartered but when you factor in their facility in CT (a different region for MTI) the overall picture changes.
- We are always asked where the information for our rankings comes from, a very fair question. The largest on our list, Bodycote is a publicly traded company and sales figure are freely available. Solar Atmospheres, #6 on our list is very open and said that we could post their sales figures, Heat Treating Services in Michigan also gave us permission to post a ball park figure for them. Most of the companies on this list did share sales figures with us on the basis that they not be printed, a very reasonable request. Further verification came from knowing the number of locations, the physical size of each, number of employees and the processes each offers.
- We appreciate the help and guidance everybody provided us with.
- All figures quoted are in US Funds.
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