After a number of years working at Ipsen, the largest vacuum furnace builder in the world as a Service Co Ordinator, Mr.  Dirk Himmelberg has made a change. Effective just a few weeks ago Dirk will now be holding a similar position at furnace builder IVA Schmetz GmbH also in Germany. To compliment this story we searched through our news items about IVA Schmetz and came up with this background information going back to late 2020 and mid 2019.

“DECEMBER 6/2020 PRESS RELEASE; Furnace Builder IVA Schmetz to Consolidate and Relocate; In Germany we see that furnace builders IVA & Schemtz will be combining their two locations into one and at the same time expanding their capacities as you can see in this press release. To provide some more background to this story we also include a press release the company did in 2019 telling us about how the companies had new ownership. Schmetz is a very well known manufacturer of vacuum furnaces (at least in Europe) and on a regular basis we run across their furnaces. We took the one photo below a couple of years back at a commercial heat treater in Germany by the name of Werz located in the town of Harthausen. In the picture you see a row of Schmetz vacuum furnaces.

“IVA Schmetz GmbH sets itself up for the future; We are expanding our headquarters, enlarging our capacities and relocating our Dortmund office including all employees and machinery to Menden, Germany. All departments including production of IVA atmosphere furnaces and Schmetz vacuum furnaces  will be located at one site in the future. With our four well-known and renowned brands IVA, Schmetz, Mahler and BMI we offer new systems as well as service, spare parts and modernization for existing systems worldwide.”

“JULY 17 2019 PRESS RELEASE; Tenova Sold the HTC Group to Ningbo Qijing Castellanza, July 17, 2019 – Tenova – a company of the Techint Group specialized in innovative solutions for the metals and mining industries – today has positively concluded the selling process of the HTC Group, which includes four companies – IVA Schmetz (Germany), Mahler (Germany), Fours Industriels B.M.I. (France) and IVA Schmetz Industrial Furnaces (Shanghai).”

The purchasers are Qizhi GmbH and Shanghai Qizhi Information Technologies Co., Ltd. (both members of Ningbo Qijing Holding Co., Ltd.). Ningbo Qijing is also the parent company of Qijing Machinery Co. Ltd., a company specialized in the research, development manufacturing and assembling of mechanic systems and precision parts mainly operating in the home electric appliance field and industrial application filed (in particular automotive, power tools and hydraulics).”

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These five case studies show how Ipsen’s PdMetrics® predictive maintenance tool for vacuum and atmosphere furnaces saves maintenance technicians headaches by catching deficiencies before they become larger problems.

Case #1. Customer Finds Value in PdMetrics® for Older Furnaces

While PdMetrics is usually installed on new furnaces to keep production running smoothly, a common misconception is that PdMetrics doesn’t belong on older equipment. One of our customers decided to invest in PdMetrics for their furnaces which were respectively 18 and 31 years old. The investment was phased in starting with the 18-year-old system first. After testing, the customer was satisfied with the software and decided to retrofit the second furnace.

As furnaces age, the risk and frequency of unplanned downtime increases significantly. During the same week, PdMetrics caught three major events for this customer, including an abnormal vibration issue on the quenching motor. The customer fixed these issues within a day. Early detection allowed the customer to avoid extended downtime and part quality issues. Without PdMetrics, these events are difficult to detect. In this case, PdMetrics showed a significant return on investment saving the customer about $60,000.

Case #2. PdMetrics® Identifies Which OEM’s Hot Zone is Most Efficient

PdMetrics continually monitors heat loss through the hot zone and alerts the customer when it is time to replace the insulation and/or indicates when the KW usage is higher than normal. Heat loss is measured when the customer runs a burnout cycle. The calculations are formulated once the furnace has reached a specific burnout temperature and soaked for one hour to reach steady-state heat loss.

When one customer ran a burnout cycle on their furnace, PdMetrics indicated a RED condition for heat loss of 1.14 KW/square foot. The normal PdMetrics range for heat loss is:
— Green: up to 0.75 KW/square foot
— Yellow: 0.76-0.9 KW/square foot
— Red: > 0.9 KW/square foot

In this case, the customer had replaced their Ipsen hot zone with a competitor’s hot zone. While the insulation had been replaced about two and a half years ago, PdMetrics detected rapid degradation of the hot zone, likely due to poor insulation quality and lack of thickness of the competitor’s version. In order to highlight this high heat loss value, we calculated the energy consumption to run the furnace with the existing hot zone and compared it with the original Ipsen hot zone. Below is the energy consumption calculation:

Cycle time: 5.5 hrs. (1.5 hrs. ramp, 4 hrs. at 1960°F)

Competitor Hot Zone
KW usage during the Ramp: 117 KW
KW usage at 1960°F: 422 KW-HRS
Total KW: 539 KW-HRS

Original Ipsen Hot Zone
KW usage Ramp: 45 KW-HRS
KW usage at 1960F: 240 KW-HRS
Total KW: 285 KW-HRS

With the average KW-HR cost at $0.10, the additional cost per load (using the competitor design hot zone) is $25.40. Over the course of one calendar year, with the customer running 526 loads, the additional cost is estimated at $14,400.

Case #3. PdMetrics® Mitigates Diffusion Pump Fluid Backstreaming

PdMetrics detected a low KW reading on a diffusion pump, meaning one or more of the heaters stopped functioning. As a result, the diffusion pump fluid could not reach optimum operating temperature, resulting in backstreaming into the hot zone. The customer was informed of the condition, but was unable to stop the furnace to make repairs at the time due to production requirements.

After a few weeks, PdMetrics detected the resistance to ground on the heating elements had transitioned from a GREEN condition to a YELLOW condition. A yellow condition means that the hot zone is becoming contaminated and the ceramics need to be cleaned. The customer decided to inspect the hot zone and noticed oil residue was present on the furnace cold wall as well as the bottom of the front chamber door. The customer then inspected the diffusion pump heaters to find that there were indeed issues that required intervention (what PdMetrics informed them of a week prior).

Had they acted upon the PdMetrics recommendations, they could have prevented the contamination and additional furnace downtime. Below is a general cost comparison demonstration with and without PdMetrics.

Situation #1: Furnace was running with PdMetrics; diffusion pump heater failure had been detected early on avoiding catastrophic failure

  • Time to repair: 2 hrs.
  • Labor cost: $176 (2 hrs. @ $88/hr.)
  • Part cost: $3,341
    • (2) Heaters
    • (2) Crush Plates
    • O-ring Kit, cold cap
  • Unplanned Furnace downtime: $926 (2 hrs. @ $426/hr.)
  • Total cost: $4,443

Situation #2: Furnace was not running with PdMetrics (or customer did not follow PdMetrics recommendation)

  • Time to repair: 8 hrs.
  • Labor cost: $176 (2 hrs. @ $88/hr.)
  • Part cost: $3,341
    • (2) heaters
    • (2) Crush Plates
    • O-ring Kit, cold cap
  • Burn out cycle: 14 hrs.
  • Unplanned Furnace downtime: $10,186 (22 hrs. @ $426/hr.), 8 hrs. repair + 14 hrs. burnout cycle
  • Total cost: $14,231

In this instance, PdMetrics would have saved the customer $9,788.

Case #4: PdMetrics® Brilliantly Augments a Fully Lights Out Automated Operation

Recently, PdMetrics detected an open heating element on a customer’s furnace, avoiding excessive hot zone repairs and contamination and furnace downtime. This furnace is implemented into a fully automated line running three shifts per day, seven days a week. The customer was able to halt production to fix the problem.

Without PdMetrics, the open heating element could have remained undetected for at least one additional shift or until the quality team discovered product issues that failed adherence to their metallurgical specifications. Such a situation could have led to full work stoppages and parts recalls. This could have meant 24 hours of lost production and combined quality assurance time invested.

The average cost of unplanned furnace downtime is estimated at $15,000 per shift or $1,875 per hour. We ran a furnace downtime cost comparison with and without PdMetrics based on this particular open heating element discovery:

Situation #1: Furnace was running with PdMetrics; open heating element had been detected early on avoiding catastrophic failure

Situation #2: Furnace was not running with PdMetrics; melted heating element replacement along with a contaminated hot zone

PdMetrics saved the customer $14,721 in total parts, manpower and downtime.

Case #5: PdMetrics® Proves Successful in Detecting Potential Catastrophes

Recently, PdMetrics detected a broken ceramic on a customer’s furnace, avoiding potential temperature uniformity issues within the hot zone. This customer placed a value of $5,000 per shift based on furnace utilization at 100%. Based on the above customer-supplied information, the below cost study was generated.

Situation #1: Furnace was running with PdMetrics; the broken ceramic had been detected early on, avoiding catastrophic failure

  • Time to repair: 1.5 hrs.
  • Labor cost: $132 (1.5 hrs. @ $88/hr.)
  • Part cost: $175
  • Unplanned Furnace downtime: $939 ($625 furnace cost/hr.)
  • Total cost $1,246

Situation #2: Furnace was not running with PdMetrics, necessitating a complete element hanger replacement, melted heating element, burned retaining plenum pin along with adjacent shielding damage

  • Time to repair: 4 hrs.
  • Labor cost: $352
    • Complete element hanger replacement: $176 (2 hrs @ $88/hr.)
    • Heating element replacement: $88 (1hr @ 88/hr.)
    • Cleaning adjacent shielding: $88 (1hr @ 88/hr.)
  • Part cost: $865
    • Element Hanger: $375
    • Heating element: $490
  • Unplanned furnace downtime: $2,500 (4 hrs. @ $625 furnace cost/hr.)
  • Total cost: $3,717

In this particular event, PdMetrics saved the customer an estimated $2,471 through decreased downtime. Such events can happen several times during the year.

Note: Situation #2 is based on a best-case scenario, assuming the customer has parts on hand and maintenance team availability.

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In this press release from Nitrex an individual by the name of Mr. Utku Inan of commercial heat treat Tamcelik Isil Islem Merkezi in Istanbul is quoted. As it happens we have had the privilege of meeting Utku and part of his team in the past, the last time being at the HK 2019 heat treat event in Cologne, Germany in October of 2019. A quick search through our file photos revealed the photo below. Utku is shown on the right and to his right is the most connected individual in the entire Turkish heat treat market Mr. Cihan Balaban. Anything to do with the heat treating market in Turkey can be accessed through Cihan.

“Nitrex continues to build momentum in Turkey, strengthening its presence in the heat-treating market with several new systems and technology offerings. The latest installation of a Nitrex nitriding system combines five Nitreg® technologies with application know-how for processing a variety of components for electromechanical systems and actuating mechanisms used in aviation, land, and sea vehicles.

“The Ankara-based company designs and manufactures subcomponents as well as next-generation prototypes, and through the Nitrex nitriding system, they will be able to speed up their product development and facilitate time to market,” said Marcin Stoklosa, Project Manager at Nitrex Poland. The order was driven by the Nitrex representative in Turkey, Mr. Utku Inan, who coordinated project efforts between the customer, the Nitrex R&D department in Canada, as well as Tamcelik Isil Islem Merkezi to ensure that application objectives were met. Tamcelik is a Nitrex licensed commercial heat treater based in Istanbul, Turkey, that supported this project with trial production on their Nitrex nitriding system.

“From the beginning, Nitrex systems have always met strict standards and are CE certified,” noted Utku Inan.  “The renowned Nitreg® technologies meet our customer’s process and application expectations that include zero white layer nitriding, ±5° C temperature uniformity, and compliance with AMS2750F pyrometry requirements. Of equal importance is the technical support and aftermarket teams in Poland that can respond quickly to customer needs and provide knowledgeable and prompt service that is second to none,” added Utku Inan.

For the customer in Turkey, the multipurpose NXK system, pre-tested for consistent metallurgical results, was the best fit for their production environment. The NXK-409 furnace is built to fit into a compact workspace, features a service platform, and is fully compliant with aviation standards. The system is also equipped with five Nitrex process technologies such as Nitreg® controlled gas nitriding, Nitreg®-C controlled gas nitrocarburizing, Nitreg®-S controlled nitriding of stainless steels and acid-resistance steels, Nano®-S surface hardening of stainless steels, and ONC® post-nitriding/nitrocarburizing oxidation for superior wear and corrosion resistance.

“Thanks to the Nitrex NX Connect app, our customer can remotely manage furnace operations and nitriding processes from anywhere. Similarly, our dedicated support team is always available to provide real-time assistance to our customer anytime. We are happy and pleased to serve another customer in Turkey with complete satisfaction,” pointed out Marcin Stokłosa.”

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From Aerospace Testing & Pyrometry, Inc., we have these interesting comments about a recent temperature uniformity survey the company did on a new batch IQ installation.

“Aerospace Testing & Pyrometry, Inc. had the honor and pleasure to provide an initial temperature uniformity survey on the first McLaughlin Tru-Carb furnace that was installed at the new Bodycote facility in Syracuse, NY. The qualified work zone dimensions were 48″L x 36″W x 36″H with a +/-15F tolerance from 1050F to 1800F. This furnace out performed these expectations. At 1050F, overall uniformity was -7.5F to +6.4F, at 1400F, -3.4F to +7.3, and at 1800F, -4.7 to +8.9, well within the clients requirement of +/-15F. Many kudos to McLaughlin Furnace Group on building a great piece of thermal processing equipment. I’m sure Bodycote will enjoy this furnace for years to come.”

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This is the story of Grammer Vacuum Technologies in the US Northwest, a supplier of Molybdenum Products, new and used heat treat equipment and thermal processing solutions.

 “When Bob Grammer’s employer eliminated his job in 1992, he had contacts throughout the industry due to his previous positions in sales. After reaching out to those contacts, he quickly learned that no jobs were available. He decided that this time he would have to create his own job and promptly founded Grammer Vacuum Technologies, Inc. (GVT). His early plans to serve as a manufacturers’ representative in the semiconductor industry did not lead to many returns, so he began transitioning into the heat treating industry.

The first year he sold his airplane to cover the cost of living for his growing family. He became the first sales rep for the newly-formed process cooling company, Dry Coolers, Inc. With a focus on the greater northwestern USA, Bob continued developing relationships with heat treaters throughout the area. His equipment offerings grew to include vacuum, atmosphere, air and induction furnaces from leading manufacturers. Due to his prior decades of experience operating and selling furnaces for major suppliers, the company was earning enough to support him within a few years. When the economic slowdown of 2001 brought new equipment sales to a halt, Bob expanded into used equipment by creating a website and leveraging his industry contacts to help buyers and sellers meet.

In 2006 he joined the fast-growing Super Systems, Inc. to provide the best instrumentation service to his customers. He further expanded his offerings to include molybdenum mill products, again pulling from his previous experience at a major molybdenum supplier. Bob grew his Molybdenum Inventory to better serve the needs of customers worldwide, and he quickly developed a line of vacuum furnace fixtures. Throughout this time, he operated mainly as a one-man company, though his son Ben began filing papers and maintaining the website as early as 2001 (then eleven years old). As soon as Ben had his materials engineering degree, he served as a process engineer for an aluminum casting and rolling plant, where he worked for several years before returning to join GVT.

Ben has since become the succession plan for the company, learning the ropes from Bob and ensuring the company’s future. The Grammer’s plan to continue providing equipment, supplies and technical support for heat treaters, especially in the northwestern USA but also across the globe.”

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“Peters’ Heat Treating, Inc. recently earned Nadcap certificates in Heat Treating and AC7004 Aerospace Quality Management System in their Meadville, PA facility. The company is focused on continuing to improve its processes and services in order to service all customer needs. Nadcap provides a standardized approach to quality assurance for the aerospace industry. Accredited companies must have a stringent quality system in place and be able to pass annual audits to keep the certifications active.

“This accreditation allows us to process aerospace and defense work for a handful of our services, including carburizing, processing of nickel and cobalt alloys, precipitation hardening of stainless steels, heat treating of aluminum alloys, microhardness and Rockwell hardness testing,” said Andy Wilkosz, President. “We felt a real need from our customers. There are cutting edge companies right in our back yard; we will now be able to process more of their work and they will not have to transport steel as far for needed services.”

Doug Peters, Founder of Peters’ Heat Treating in 1979 said, “I just want to give some kudos to Andy Wilkosz and his entire team for the dedication that went into earning this accreditation. Months of long hours and hard work to ensure that our quality system met all Nadcap standards. We already were operating to ISO 9001:2015 standards, but this takes us to the next level. It’s exciting to see the company grow and adapt under new leadership. The future of Peters’ Heat Treating is in good hands.”

Peters’ Heat Treating, Inc. is a diverse heat treating company that specializes in a variety of high tech heat treating processes making it a leader in the precision parts heat treating industry. The company primarily services the Northwestern Pennsylvania tristate region and industries including aerospace, automotive, defense, nuclear, molding, tool & die and more. Processing capabilities include: vacuum processing, neutral hardening, carburizing, gas nitriding, cryogenics, annealing, stress relieving, black oxide coating, induction processing, sandblasting, integrated straightening and metallurgical testing, as well as laser heat treating in partnership with Laser Hard, Inc. Peters’ is compliant to ISO 9001:2015, Nadcap Heat Treating & AC7004 Aerospace Quality Management System, International Traffic & Arms Regulations (ITAR) and has a Federal Firearms License (FFL) and JCP (Joint Certification Program).”

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Recently we had a news item about auto parts supplier ZF Friedrichshafen making a major investment in their Gray Court, South Carolina facility. In that news item we speculated about whether this investment would include expanding their existing heat treat department which features a number of vacuum carburizing systems. The company reached out to us to say that no, there will be no expansion of their heat treat department. In a very polite e-mail ZF stated that while they appreciated “The Monty” publishing the original press release, it had generated so much attention that their engineers were being overwhelmed and could we make it clear that no more furnaces are being added. We are happy to oblige.

Germany’s ZF Friedrichshafen said it will invest $200 million to build another production line at its commercial vehicle transmission plant in Gray Court, S.C. The new line is expected to begin production in 2023. More than 500 jobs will be created, the company said. The supplier on Thursday said it plans to expand production of the PowerLine, an eight-speed automatic transmission for medium-duty commercial trucks, heavy pickups and buses.

The plant opened in 2012 and became a hub for ZF’s work in large-scale transmission production, including eight- and nine-speed automatic transmissions. “As a result, we’ve been expanding our manufacturing footprint since our grand opening,” said Ashley Van Horn, a ZF spokeswoman. Multiple North American customers have signed contracts with ZF for transmissions built at Gray Court. Van Horn said she could not disclose which automakers signed contracts. Beyond use in trucks and buses, PowerLine is “prepared for mild hybrid and plug-in variants” because it has a modular design, Christian Feldhaus, director of ZF’s commercial vehicle driveline technology unit in North America, said in the company’s announcement.”

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Today Mr. Carlos Torres of “Heat Treat Podcast” talks with an individual who we at “The Monty Heat Treat News” would consider one of the most successful commercial heat treaters of all time of all time, Mr. John Hubbard. Mr. Hubbard is Chairman at Thermal Process Holdings, a group of US based commercial heat treaters and was formerly CEO of Bodycote, the world’s largest commercial heat treater.

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In Cleveland, Ohio, USA we find long established commercial heat treater USA Heat Treating Inc. If we start off with the premise that most commercial heat treaters have a specialty we don’t have to think long to suggest that the specialty of USA Heat Treating Inc., is continuous heat treating. Cast link belt lines, rotary retort furnaces, mesh belt stress relieving and mesh belt austempering-all are represented in the firm. The company graces our pages today because quite recently they added a brand new mesh belt austempering line which will double the capacity of the company.

While austempering is a relatively small part of the overall heat treating market, it is a process that continues to slowly grow. Seat belt components, small stampings, lawnmower blades all rely on austempering and the US Midwest is home to all of these. The photos below show the new line in production. 

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The press release below comes from furnace builder SECO/WARWICK and it tells us about how the company has received an order for a Vertical vacuum furnace 12 meters (36′) high. This is not the first monster vacuum furnace the company has built, we are aware of one in the US in operation with similar dimensions.

“The SECO/WARWICK vertical vacuum retort furnace for the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany) will be used for high-vacuum annealing of gyrotron components. The equipment will be used as part of the ITER project. This is the first time the SECO/WARWICK Group has cooperated with Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

The order placed by the Institute was preceded by several months of consultations, when the optimum technical parameters of the furnace were agreed upon with the customer. The furnace will have a water jacket with a compact integrated cooling system. When open, it will be 12 meters in height, and the diameter of the usable space of the device will be 1.8 metre. These are not the standard dimensions for a furnace of this type. It was necessary to adapt it to the customer’s needs. KIT also required a specific level of high-vacuum that will be achieved with the use of a cryogenic pump.”

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