The feedback has prompted us to say that yes, there is definitely a shortage of North American heat treat capacity for very large gears and shafts with two readers saying they had on occasion been forced to send parts to European heat treaters due to North American size constraints.
As mentioned previously our belief is that the largest commercially available pit carburizing furnaces are located at“Worldwide Heat Treat” in Houston, Texas, whose largest capacity furnaces have working dimensions of 100″ diameter X 144″ deep and capable of 60,000 pound loads.
Based upon this capacity and the sales generated“The Monty”will be adding“Worldwide” to our list of the“52 Largest North American Commercial Heat Treaters-2026” which will be published May of this year.
We leave you with these two recent photos of Worldwide showing some typical parts the company runs and the owner,“Mr. Robert Gutierrez”
“OWL GmbH”of Germany a provider of “Hot Isostatic Pressing” Services” (Hipping) will be adding a second Hip unit. The new system will have working dimensions of 500 mm (Diameter) X 1500 mm high. Max. Temp will be1350 degrees C with a maximum pressure of 140 MPa and will be NADCAP ready. This system will be operational by the end of 2027. This photo shows the first installed system;
Why another HIP machine?
• Meet growing demand
• Ensure the highest quality standards
• Drive technological development
• Strengthen competitiveness
• Achieve (even) faster turnaround times
• NADCAP qualification for the aerospace industry
“About OWL GmbH; We are your HIP – Hot Isostatic Pressing service provider. Hot isostatic pressing (HIP) is a manufacturing process that eliminates the porosity of metals and increases the density of many materials. This improves the material’s mechanical properties (fatigue strength, ductility, impact resistance) and machinability; in other words, the component’s reliability is significantly enhanced by the HIP process.
When components are treated with the HIP process, internal cavities and micro-porosities are eliminated through a combination of plastic deformation, flow, and diffusion bonding of the material by simultaneously applying heat and pressure.
The HIP process is used to significantly improve the technical properties of, for example, cast products, additively manufactured products, tools, motorsport components, and aerospace components.”
The Ipsen USA Vacuum Technology Excellence Center announces a record-setting milestone, shipping 14 new vacuum furnaces between February 26 and March 31, 2026. This achievement comes as Ipsen reports a strong first quarter for new orders, with Q1 bookings for vacuum furnaces and related services exceeding $52 million.
“Orders in 2026 have been exceptional for Ipsen, both in volume and in the diversity of customers we are supporting,” said Matt Clinite, Vice President of Sales. “We have made substantial investments in our facilities, equipment, and people, and we are seeing those investments pay off in our ability to serve customers effectively.”
Recent shipments demonstrate broad demand across key markets, including aerospace, energy, and commercial heat treating. The furnaces shipped included a mix of Ipsen’s TITAN platform, MetalMaster, TurboTreater, and vacuum aluminum brazing technologies. The company’s first quarter activity included shipments across North America, Latin America, and Asia, supporting a wide range of industrial applications.
“Across industries, customers continue to rely on Ipsen for high-performance equipment backed by responsive, dependable service,” said Clinite. “Strong bookings for both new furnace systems and aftermarket support are a testament to that trust.” With continued investment in engineering, service, and manufacturing capabilities, Ipsen remains focused on delivering solutions that meet the evolving needs of its customers. Ipsen expects ongoing demand in the energy and aerospace markets to carry this momentum through the remainder of 2026.
“WATERLOO, IA – April 16, 2026 – Advanced Heat Treat Corp.® (AHT), a recognized leader in heat treat services, announced today an 18,000 sq. ft. building expansion at its facility located at 2839 Burton Ave., Waterloo, Iowa. Groundbreaking for the project took place on April 6, with construction anticipated to be complete by Fall 2026.
The expansion will house a new custom-built furnace. The equipment will increase AHT’s size capabilities in length, height and weight for heat treatments such as carburizing, through hardening, normalizing and more.
“This expansion is about giving our customers more – more capacity, more capability, and more confidence in turnaround,” said Adam Kane, Plant Manager at AHT’s Burton Ave. facility. “With added production space and additional equipment, we’ll be able to process larger and heavier components, and we’ll have room to add even more equipment and services in the future.”
The facility is one of two locations in Waterloo, Iowa. The Burton Ave. location has been in operation since 1981 and currently provides heat treat services such as induction hardening, annealing, cryogenic treatment, carbonitriding, stress relieving and other furnace-related heat treat services. The other location in Waterloo on MidPort Blvd. – the corporate office – offers nitriding and nitrocarburizing services.
“Between the two Iowa locations, customers have access to multiple heat treatments within a short drive, allowing them to consolidate their vendors and potentially reduce freight costs,” added Mike Woods, AHT President.
Aside from its two locations in Waterloo, Iowa, AHT is also located in Monroe, Michigan and Cullman, Alabama. For more information about Advanced Heat Treat Corp. or its services, please visit www.ahtcorp.com or call 319-232-5221.
About Advanced Heat Treat Corp. Established in 1981, Advanced Heat Treat Corp. (AHT) is a recognized leader in providing heat treat services and superior metallurgical solutions to companies across the globe, with locations in Alabama, Iowa and Michigan. Their UltraGlow® family of processes includes plasma ion nitriding, ferritic nitrocarburizing (FNC), gas nitriding, UltraOx®, through hardening, carburizing, carbonitriding, induction hardening, vacuum heat treating and many more.”
As we speak the ASM“Heat Treat Mexico” show is taking place in Monterrey, Mexico from April 14-16th.
The show started Tuesday, April 14th from 6-7:30 PM with today, April 15th being a full day. Gord Montgomery of“The Monty Heat Treat News”was in attendance yesterday and our initial impression is that this is a typical ASM show, well organized and well publicized.
It would appear that the 20 or so exhibitors represent a very good cross section of industry suppliers which includes atmosphere furnace builders,“alloy”suppliers, controls companies, vacuum furnace manufacturers alongside induction heating vendors. These photos will provide you with a “feel for the conference/exhibition.
Gord Montgomery, Victor Calderon, Head of Heat Treating, Caterpillar, Mexico
Alloy Supplier Cronite
Marco Moser and the ECM Team
Furnace Builder“Mattsa” with Neal Conway of“AFC-Holcroft”-their Partner
“Damian Bratcher”of controls company“SSi”on the right.
Prior to the“ASM” Heat Treat Conference being held in Monterrey, Mexico April 14-16th, 2026 Gord Montgomery of“The Monty Heat Treat News” had the opportunity to visit auto and truck component supplier“Amsted Automotive” in Monterrey, Mexico.
The plant which occupies over 100,000 square feet with roughly 140 employes manufacturers piston components for a variety of different industries including auto and truck manufacturing as well as power generation applications.
Interestingly enough while each of these sectors is strong for the company, it is the power generation sector which is really boosting this facility-remember that“The Monty” has mentioned this recurring theme several times recently. Power Generation Is Booming!
Demand is strong enough and stable enough to support three, two row Holcroft pusher furnaces-a furnace style which is becoming less and less common. Each furnace has a capacity of roughly 2,000 pounds/hour with an endothermic atmosphere provided by two“endo” generators.
Our plant tour was hosted by“Mr. Eduardo Resendiz”, Heat Treat Process Engineer who provided us with this rather interesting article about his background, role in the company and comments on the challenges and successes of an in-house heat treating department.
“Eduardo Resendiz, Metallurgical and Materials Engineer graduated from the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) in Mexico City. He currently works as a Heat Treatment Process Engineer at Amsted Automotive, part of the international Amsted Industries group, where he is responsible for the carburizing and tempering processes of steel fasteners.
Throughout his career at the company, he has successfully implemented significant improvements in process control, as well as in tooling design. These efforts have enabled increased furnace loading capacity, improved part quality, and ensured an optimal microstructure in compliance with customer requirements.
Additionally, he has developed and implemented automation processes in furnaces, reducing operator involvement in physically demanding or high-temperature risk tasks, thereby improving operational safety.
Collaboration with strategic suppliers such as SSi has contributed to expanding technical knowledge and process vision, driving continuous improvement in heat treatment operations.
These initiatives have resulted in enhanced process efficiency, increased safety, reduced operational costs, and significant savings, including lower gas consumption, reduced carbon footprint, and optimized energy usage.
Among the main challenges faced in the past year are adapting to stricter requirements from new customers, as well as executing new projects that demand continuous process improvement, stronger control systems, in-depth failure analysis, and the implementation of effective solutions.”
Left to Right; Gord Montgomery, Oscar Camacho, SSi Mexico, Salvador Alvarado, General Manager SSi Mexico, Expedito Barocio, Director of North American Piston Pin Operations, Eduardo Resendiz, Amsted Heat Treat Engineer
Left to Right; Salvador Alvarado, General Manager SSi, Mexico, Eduardo Resendiz, Heat Treat Engineer, Amsted, Oscar Camacho, SSi Mexico
“Jim Buntjer” is a very familiar face in the US Midwest commercial heat treating industry having worked with firms such as“Bluewater Thermal”in the Rockford, IL area,“Service Heat Treating” in Milwaukee and“Thermal Process Holdings” also in Rockford.
Mr. Buntjer recently made a change and is now VP of Quality & Operations at“Hestia Heat Treat”in Racine, WI. Over the years“Hestia”has been mentioned by“The Monty”several times-we would suggest these links to find out why;
August of 2017 commercial heat treater “Paulo“(now part of global commercial heat treater Aalberts Surface Technologies) broke ground on what was originally to be a 45,000 square foot facility in Monterrey, Mexico focusing on heat treating of automotive components. April of 2018 production started and the original 45,000 square foot facility quickly expanded to 110,000 square feet.
What “The Monty Heat Treat News” saw April 13 of this year was a facility which any commercial heat treat firm would be proud to show.
“Aalberts Surface Technologies-Paulo” in Monterrey focuses on two heat treating processes, stress relieving and Ferritic Nitrocarburizing (FNC) with FNC being far and away the main focus of this plant. Both processes take place in one of 8 large, gas fired “Tip-Up” furnaces each capable of a gross weight capacity of 100,000 pounds.
As mentioned the facility is very strongly tilted towards auto parts and consequently the plant has CQI-9 and IATF 16949 certifications.
“Mr. Aldo Rodriguez“, General Director, has been with this project since the very beginning including locating the greenfield site before construction even began. “Aldo” had this to say;
“We honor and cherish the memory of “Paulo” and look forward to a very bright future under the banner “Aalberts Surface Technologies-Paulo”. With Aalberts’s backing and their impressive resources there is nothing we cannot do. We look forward to continuing to grow into new technologies and markets”.
“The Monty” looks forward to revisiting this facility in the future to see what these new markets and technologies will look like.
Left to Right;Aldo G. Rodriguez, Gerardo Carrillo (Engineering & Maintenance), Aracely Mariscal (Administration & Human Resources), Gina Rodriguez (Quality Assurance), Uriel Avila, (Production), Christian Mendez (Scheduling)
“Trinity Turbine Technology“in Rosharon, Texas, USA, a family owned turbine rebuilder has a problem which many companies would like to have, too much business for their current manufacturing capabilities. In particular heat treating has been a bottleneck-the solution? Double their heat treating capacity. The firm recently installed a new vacuum furnace provided by Ipsen of Rockford, IL, USA.
The furnace will complement their current furnaces which include a 2400F bottom loading vacuum furnace and two open air units. The new furnace can be seen in these photos taken during installation.
“About; Trinity Turbine Technology is a privately owned business that was established in 2002 by a family wanting to create a one-stop shop for all customers where they are able to receive quality work for component repair, coating, field services, capital parts and all other Turbine related needs under one roof, for ease and satisfaction. What once started as a small shop has now expanded to large corporation that has recently moved to a new 85,000 sq ft. facility. This new shop contains new and updated equipment, highly trained and skilled personnel as well as daily hands on work from the owners to ensure TTT is able to continuously provide cutting edge services and technology throughout the always advancing Turbine and Power Generation Industry. Our company prides itself on customer satisfaction, cost effective services, and innovative options by employing the top-rated personnel in each field, training with the latest technology and equipment as well as providing customers with personal contacts and around-the clock support for any and all needs they may have. Trinity Turbine Technology is also the parent company to Trinity Coatings. By having coating abilities in house, it allows for close monitoring of our processes resulting in higher levels of quality as the parts never have to leave our facility. This also aids in responsiveness, cost control, reliability and faster turn around time. We are also excited to announce Trinity Turbine Technology’s newest division, Trinity Turbine Services. Trinity Turbine Services offers outage services for our customers with Heavy Industrial Frame Gas Turbines and Steam Turbine Units during both scheduled and unscheduled outages. We have some of the most highly skilled and trained Project Managers and Field Service personnel in the industry for both Union and Non-Union projects readily available to come support all of your outage needs!”
This week“Gord Montgomery” of“The Monty Heat Treat News”will be having a close look at the state of heat treating in the Mexican market. While Mexico does boast a fledgling aerospace industry centered around Queretaro the true success story for Mexican in-house heat treaters lies in the auto parts industry and that is where are attention will be focused. Over the course of the week we will be attending“Heat Treat Mexico”being held April 14-16 in Monterrey as well as visiting a number of large in house heat treaters.-reports with photos will be provided over the course of the week.
We will leave you with this report from our last visit “
Manufacturer Brings Additional Heat Treatment in House; Danfoss Power Solutions-Queretaro, Mexico (formerly Eaton Corp) is a supplier of hydraulic solutions to the heavy equipment industry. This facility with over 500 employees entered production 8 years ago and part of their manufacturing process includes a very impressive heat treat department consisting of 9 batch IQ furnaces doing carburizing utilizing an endothermic atmosphere. The facility has one particular product line which requires a FNC process-this has always been sent out to a local commercial heat treater.
Danfoss Power Solutions-Queretaro, Mexico (formerly Eaton Corp) is a supplier of hydraulic solutions to the heavy equipment industry. This facility with over 500 employees entered production 8 years ago and part of their manufacturing process includes a very impressive heat treat department consisting of 9 batch IQ furnaces doing carburizing utilizing an endothermic atmosphere. The facility has one particular product line which requires a FNC process-this has always been sent out to a local commercial heat treater.
Gord Montgomery (The Monty Heat Treat News), César Luna González (Heat Treat Manager, Danfoss), Damian Bratcher (Director International Operations, SSi)
For a variety of reasons Danfoss in 2023 decided to bring this process in house, the reasons include faster turn around times, less inventory requirements and greater control over quality. The end result of this decision was that in 2023 the company invested in a used Ipsen vacuum nitriding system with working dimensions of 36” X 48” X 36” with a 2,000 pound capacity. Danfoss approached SSi Mexico about updating the controls, this update was just completed and testing has revealed that the metallurgical results are everything that Danfoss had hoped for.
Last week Gord and Jordan of “The Monty Heat Treat News” had the opportunity to tour this facility and what we found was an immaculate facility and the term immaculate includes the heat treat department. All heat treaters know that it is not an easy proposition keeping a facility utilizing quench oil clean but the heat treat team at Danfoss has managed this difficult task.
While the entire team at Danfoss deserves credit we should point out that the Heat Treat Production Manager, Mr. Cesar Luna Gonzales has obviously done a great job of motivating everybody in the department. Also deserving of a great deal of credit is Ms. Landy Alpizar, Metallurgical Engineer who has been involved with this project from day 1.
“Jim Buntjer” is a very familiar face in the US Midwest commercial heat treating industry having worked with firms such as “Bluewater Thermal” in the Rockford, IL area, “Service Heat Treating” in Milwaukee and “Thermal Process Holdings” also in Rockford.
August of 2017 commercial heat treater “Paulo“(now part of global commercial heat treater Aalberts Surface Technologies) broke ground on what was originally to be a 45,000 square foot facility in Monterrey, Mexico focusing on heat treating of automotive components. April of 2018 production started and the original 45,000 square foot facility quickly expanded to 110,000 square feet.
