Ben we did an interview together a few years back, an interview which can be found at “Ben Gasbarre, President Gasbarre Industrial Furnace Division” so I very much appreciate the chance to see what has changed at Gasbarre since that time. Normally I would take this opportunity to ask you about your background, however since we covered this ground in the past lets jump right into the really interesting questions, what has changed at Gasbarre since we last spoke.
The most recent press release I saw from Gasbarre was about your partnership with a Swiss furnace company by the name of “Solo Swiss”, perhaps you could give us some background about how this came about.
“Hi Gord, It is good to do this again as we have a lot going on at Gasbarre and it certainly has been a busy few years.
Gasbarre and SOLO Swiss pursued the ProfiTherm partnership because it expands what we can offer the North American market in a way that’s truly differentiated, not just another variation of traditional batch atmosphere integral quench equipment.
This wasn’t an ad hoc decision, we had a series of detailed discussions with SOLO, including face-to-face meetings, to confirm strategic alignment and long-term mutual benefit.
Strategically, it does three things:
· Proven process expansion: ProfiTherm is a well-established platform that broadens our coverage across austempering, carburizing, carbonitriding, neutral hardening, and marquenching, and we’re bringing it to North America with strong application and lifecycle support behind it.
· Differentiated system: It brings a modular bell-furnace design to North America that helps customers fit floor-space realities, adapt to changing mixes and volumes, and drive better cycle costs and lifetime value.
· Confidence to invest: It’s an exclusive North American license with U.S. manufacturing and support, which strengthens responsiveness, parts availability, and provides long-term confidence for our customers.
Ultimately, ProfiTherm aligns with many of the realities and challenges in today’s market, giving customers a compelling new option to build capacity with less risk.”
I am quite familiar with “Solo” having seen a number of their installations in various locations around Europe. Undoubtedly, they have very good furnace systems, but the “modular” style of their equipment looks “odd” to a North American eye-do you think this will be a deterrent for North American heat treaters?
Visually it doesn’t look like what North American shops are used to. In fact, it looks more like a modern automation cell than a traditional furnace, and in many ways that’s where the industry is headed.
The bigger hurdle won’t be appearance as much as awareness and early education. Once we get past that, the advantages are hard to ignore. ProfiTherm is a pitless system with pick-and-place material handling, which avoids many of the operational and maintenance challenges tied to chain-based handling, especially in quench environments. The modular set-up also helps reduce downtime exposure, because issues can be isolated rather than impacting the entire line.
Another factor today is risk perception. Heat treaters are increasingly dealing with tougher insurance requirements, and this design doesn’t carry the same “fire-breathing dragon” stigma. Flames are well controlled and often barely noticeable in operation.
Finally, with labor constraints becoming more real, this technology is designed for automation and is already proven in fully automated production cells. And as salt quenching gains interest in North America, it provides a practical, scalable path to add capacity without a major infrastructure overhaul.
The “Solo” partnership is obviously a new development and quite at odds with the perception (misperception) that many of us have about Gasbarre being primarily a supplier of sintering furnaces. Is this a perception which you feel is unfair in 2026?
It’s an understandable perception, Gasbarre was built on the success of the powder metal industry, and sintering has long been a major part of our story and installed base. That market is what launched Gasbarre into furnace design and manufacturing and drove us to later expand into higher-temperature applications and vacuum capability through the acquisition of C.I. Hayes.
And to be clear, powder metal and sintering are still core to who we are. We continue to invest there, and that customer base remains extremely important.
Where the perception becomes incomplete in 2026 is that we’ve evolved and diversified. Many of the same platforms that support sintering also apply to annealing, brazing, and glass-to-metal sealing, and our vacuum technologies including multi-chamber and continuous solutions, serve demanding applications across aerospace, automotive, and industrial markets. On the batch atmosphere side, we cover everything from standard box furnaces to large car-bottom and tip-up furnaces for tempering, stress relieving, nitriding/FNC, and higher-temperature alloy processing in markets like aerospace, commercial heat treating, forging, and oil & gas.
So yes, we started with sintering furnaces and we’re still advancing it, but we’re much more than that today in both product breadth and market reach.
Lets move on to some of your other product offerings-one that has always fascinated me is your product line of “continuous vacuum” furnaces. To this day it seems like a contradiction in terms but we know you have built a lot of this style of furnace and we know that it has been successful-is this still a popular offering for you?
Yes, and in some ways, more relevant today than ever. Our customers who run continuous vacuum furnaces are some of the strongest believers in the technology because they see the value every day. We see the same dynamic with multi-chamber batch vacuum systems as well.
The main hurdle isn’t performance, it’s awareness and initial education. Most vacuum furnaces in the market are single-chamber, and many specifications are written around that style, so moving to multi-chamber or continuous can require a mindset shift.
Multi-chamber and continuous vacuum furnaces can drive real efficiency gains because you’re not constantly thermal cycling the hot zone, reducing maintenance and replacement-part costs, improving throughput, and shortening floor-to-floor time. In the right applications, we like to say you can shorten processing from “hours to minutes,” and we have installations where customers are getting a load out every 10 minutes or less.
Vacuum processing is growing for well-known reasons, but today’s production demands, along with environmental, safety, and workplace expectations are making continuous and multi-chamber solutions increasingly attractive for departments looking to do things differently and more efficiently.
How long has it been now Ben since you started offering nitriding/FNC equipment-it seems fairly recent to me but I know it is no longer a recent development. Has this technology proven to be a success for you?
We developed nitriding/FNC equipment because we saw a clear gap in the market. Many of the established equipment providers were European-based and European-built, and our goal was to bring a competitive offering to North America that was designed and manufactured in the United States, supported by a U.S.-based supply chain.
A key part of making that happen was our collaboration with Super Systems, Inc. and their controls platform, which helped us bring a well-designed, well-manufactured solution to market. Our first installation went in during 2019, and today we have several more systems in operation or currently in production.
Has it been a success? Yes. Breaking into an existing market is never easy, but I’m extremely proud of the work our team did to establish Gasbarre as a viable North American manufacturer in this category, and I strongly believe we’ll continue expanding the installed base while driving meaningful advancements in the technology.
Obviously over the years you have branched out into a number of different styles of furnaces-care to share with us which designs have the most momentum moving forward?
Market demand tends to create the momentum, and our job is to make sure our furnace designs and product offering create the opportunity to serve it.
Leading up to the last year or so, we saw strong momentum around emerging markets like alternative energy, energy storage, fuel cells, hydrogen generation, and related areas, and we were well positioned to support those needs. That momentum hasn’t gone away, but many of those segments are still working their way into broader adoption.
More recently, we’ve seen momentum shift back toward more conventional markets like automotive, aerospace, and general industry. Again, our focus has been continuing to advance and adapt our designs to match what those customers are asking for: better efficiency, more automation, stronger safety and environmental performance, and improved overall ownership experience.
One other factor that’s hard to ignore is the age of the installed base. A meaningful amount of furnace equipment was installed in the late 80s and 90s is now 30+ years old, and we’re seeing growing opportunity in both replacement and modernization as customers look for practical ways to improve reliability, capability, and long-term performance.
Lets look at changes in furnace design, in particular changes having to do with emissions and heating choices. Europe is obsessed with energy costs (for good reason) and “emissions” and how they effect “carbon footprints”-it often appears to me that North America and Europe are going in completely different directions on these topics.
First off are you getting more requests for electrically heated furnaces? Second are your customers asking you to consider emissions when designing furnaces?
What may surprise some is that well over half of the furnaces we produce each year are already electrically heated rather than gas-fired, largely driven by our product mix and end users.
What’s changing is that more traditionally gas-fired users are now asking for a true side-by-side evaluation of tradeoffs, operating cost, utilities, and carbon footprint. In some cases, they’re acting on it through electrification or efficiency-driven replacements. We’re also seeing maintenance capability factor in more; with a tighter labor market, many plants find it easier to staff and support electrically heated systems than gas-fired systems.
So no, North America hasn’t moved to widespread “electrify for environmental reasons” yet, but electric heat and emissions are increasingly part of the mainstream design discussion.
When I last visited you in PA you had just moved into a new, larger facility, as a matter of fact it was so new that the entire facility smelled of fresh paint. At the time I remember thinking that you had an enormous amount of room to grow in the future-out of curiosity have you been able to fill it yet with new furnace orders?
Yes, we’ve been fully operational in the new facility for about two years now. We expanded from roughly 50,000 sq ft to 150,000 sq ft. We had clearly outgrown the old space, and we also knew the new footprint would take time to grow into.
What the added capacity has done immediately is enable a more structured workflow and expanded pre-shipment testing, both of which directly improve equipment quality and performance once it arrives at the customer’s site. We’ve seen solid growth over the last several years and fully intend to continue that trend.
I do want to acknowledge the team at Gasbarre. A move of that scale is a major undertaking, and we executed it with minimal disruption to manufacturing or our customers. The progress we’ve made as a company is a reflection of the knowledge, experience, and dedication of our people.
People always talk about challenges as though they are bigger these days, personally I think there has always been challenges and always will be. Having said that what are there any in particular these days that you spend a lot of time thinking about?
I agree, there have always been challenges, and there always will be. I started my career during the Great Recession in 2008, and we’ve seen plenty of change since.
What feels a little different today is how many variables are moving at once. Labor and knowledge transfer remain real issues, especially maintaining consistent execution as teams grow and evolve. At the same time, customers are pushing for lower project risk and asking more of their suppliers, which raises the bar on communication, design standardization, and performance validation. Political and geopolitical shifts add another layer, but the approach doesn’t change, learn quickly, adapt, and keep moving forward while staying focused on delivering reliable equipment for our customers.
Can you share with us any new products ideas that we will be seeing from Gasbarre in the near future? I promise we won’t share this with too many people?
I can appreciate the question, Gord! The recent SOLO partnership is a good example of how we think. Gasbarre has a long history of expanding capability through acquisitions, internal development, and partnerships so we can offer the best solutions for our customers. I won’t tease a specific new product announcement, but we intend to keep that mindset, staying close to customer needs and pursuing the right opportunities when they create real value.
One final note, and one of my favorite ones-what do you expect for the rest of 2026 and even 2027? Care to share some predictions?
Nothing I want to put in writing! Predictions don’t always age well. That said, I do think a few trends will continue. We’ll likely see more industry consolidation, and businesses like ours will keep adopting AI and automation tools to become more efficient, changing how we sell, design, build, support, and communicate, even if the fundamentals stay the same.
What I enjoy is that no two opportunities are the same. And as long as we’re using metal, we’ll need thermal processing to make it functional and perform, which means there will be a strong need for the essential work our industry does through 2026, 2027, and beyond.
Ben thanks for your time, I always enjoy speaking with you and your team-each time I do I realize how you have become one of the largest new furnace builders in North America. Sincerely Gord
Thank you, Gord. I appreciate the opportunity, and I appreciate what The Monty does to share perspectives and keep the industry connected.
Cherry Valley, ILLINOIS (February 26, 2026) – Ipsen announces the sale of a TITAN H2 2-bar vacuum furnace to Grace Manufacturing, supporting the company’s continued growth in medical component manufacturing.
Grace Manufacturing, located in Russellville, Arkansas, selected the TITAN H2 following third-party testing at a Midwest Commercial Heat Treater, which confirmed the system met application requirements for thin martensitic stainless steel medical components. The furnace will mark Grace Manufacturing’s first Ipsen installation.
The TITAN H2 features a work zone measuring 18” x 18” x 24” deep, a 1,000-pound load capacity, and an operating temperature up to 2,400 ?F. Designed for precision and repeatability, the system delivers temperature uniformity of ?10 ?F, supporting the stringent quality standards required in medical manufacturing environments.
From the initial RFQ, Ipsen responded quickly, conducted an on-site visit, and worked closely with Grace to confirm metallurgical goals and align the solution with existing infrastructure. Throughout the evaluation, Ipsen remained responsive to technical questions and service needs, ensuring a smooth order process.
Established in 1966, Grace Manufacturing specializes in precision metal services primarily serving the medical industry. The new TITAN H2 will replace an aging vacuum furnace from another manufacturer that has experienced increasing downtime and service challenges in recent years. The investment reflects Grace Manufacturing’s confidence in Ipsen’s equipment reliability, application expertise, and long-term service partnership.
For more information about Ipsen’s TITAN vacuum furnace line, visit https://ipsenglobal.com/titan/.
“British metal company collapses into administration after 70 years
The latest available records show that the company employed 38 people in 2024 MTE Heat Treatment has collapsed into administration after 70 years in business.
The company, based in West Yorkshire, specialises in treating industrial metals to improve strength and durability.
Administrators were appointed on February 24, the London Gazette reports.
The latest available records show that the company employed 38 people in 2024, though more recent figures are not yet available.
Lee Van Lockwood and Gareth Harris, both of RSM UK Restructuring Advisory LLP, have been appointed as joint administrators.”
While heat treating around the world tends to be in the doldrums these days-not great/not terrible Aerospace continues to be a bright spot as is witnessed by yet another furnace order for the aerospace industry;
The furnace is designed for tempering, ageing, and other sub-critical heat-treat processes. It will operate up to 1380 °F (750 °C), with a 24” × 24” × 36” (600 × 600 × 900 mm) work zone and a 1,750-lb (~800 kg) load capacity. It meets AMS2750F Class 2 TUS requirements (±10 °F – ±5,6°C) and supports nitrogen convection heating and cooling. Final cooling is handled by an internal recirculation blower and a water-cooled heat exchanger, ensuring stable, efficient cycle performance.
This additional unit adds to the customer’s existing SECO/WARWICK equipment installed across multiple facilities, which includes multi-chamber CaseMaster Evolution furnaces (double- and triple-chamber models) and a Vector single-chamber high-pressure gas-quench vacuum furnace.
Aerojet Rocketdyne, formerly an independent aerospace and defense leader is a major manufacturer of propulsion systems for rockets, missiles, and hypersonic vehicles. Following its acquisition by L3Harris Technologies in 2023, the company is currently undergoing a significant restructuring in 2026, where its space propulsion business is being spun off to AE Industrial Partners”.
Today “The Monty Heat Treat News” reaches back in our “Heat Treat Podcast” archives to have another look at a very interesting conversation with a very interesting guy-Mr. Andrew Bassett of “Aerospace Testing & Pyrometry”. In this episode Andrews talks about pyrometry and industry standards in Heat Treatment.
February 18th, 2026 “The Monty” published a press release from furnace builder “SECO/WARWICK” which spoke about the firm receiving an order for a new vacuum furnace from a European supplier in the defense industry; “Increased Defense Spending Leading to New Heat Treat Investments“.
With many countries around the world dramatically ramping up their defense spending it is a given that defense suppliers are seeing increase heat treat requirements which is going to prove to be a “boom” to furnace manufacturing firms and commercial heat treaters.
In our article last week we mentioned 2 North American examples of this increased demand who added heat treating capacity in the past year;
“Munitions Supplier to Open New Plant/Heat Treat; Earlier this year “The Monty Heat Treat News” had the exclusive news item below about a North American munitions supplier making a very substantial investment in their heat treat department to keep up with demand. IMT Group based in Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada is planning on a ribbon cutting ceremony next month for the new multi-million dollar facility. As mentioned earlier part of the group’s investment includes several Surface Combustion Allcase batch IQ furnaces. The investment also includes a large capacity (50 Ton) carbottom furnace for annealing of the shells, start up is happening as we speak. The investment is being financed by hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts from the US Defense Department to manufacturer shell casings such as the one in this photo.
“FEBRUARY 5th 2024; Munitions Supplier Adds Heat Treating Capacity. It is well known that the war in the Ukraine has put enormous pressure on increasing production of munitions, and at the top of the list this would include 105 and 155 mm artillery shells. This “war pressure demand” was bound to increase production in western countries of munitions which would include added heat treat capacity and we now have an example of this.IMT (https://imtcorporation.com/) is located in Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada and for years now the company has produced a rather odd combination of products-truck axles and artillery shells, the mix depends upon market demand for each product. We have now heard that the munitions side of the business has gained the upper hand in the form of a very substantial order for artillery shells which is directly related to the ongoing war in Ukraine. (more about IMT Defense https://imtdefence.com/)
How does this change their heat treating requirements? For many years IMT has had a very modest heat treat department in the form of 2 very old Surface Combustion “Super 30” Allcase batch IQ lines. We now believe that the heat treat department will be vastly expanded with several new Surface batch IQ furnaces on the way with the expectation that installation of the units will start shortly.
It brings joy to the hearts of everybody at “The Monty Heat Treat News” to see a Canadian company actually adding heat treat capacity rather than the never ending story of Canadian firms closing down their manufacturing facilities.”
Our second example features “Watervliet Arsenal” in Watervliet, New York which provides cannon tubes, over the past couple of years this facility added a new heat treating furnace and Endothermic Generator to be able to keep up with ramped up production;
WASHINGTON — Over the past three months, the US Army’s Watervliet Arsenal has been forging more cannon tubes at a rate not seen in 40 years, according to Maj. Gen. Michael Lalor, the commander of the Tank-automotive and Armaments Command. And while there is still room to grow inside the arsenal, he said, secondary sources could offer the service with a glidepath to quickly scaling production.
As part of the service’s organic industry base, Watervliet Arsenal in Albany, NY, is the sole producer of cannon tubes inside the US weapons like M1 Abrams tanks, the M109 Paladin self-propelled howitzer, and the M777 lightweight howitzer. That meant there was a sudden production influx in 2022 when Washington began rushing howitzers to Ukraine to fend off Russian troops.
“Use of that [M777] howitzer and the volume it’s been used definitely confirmed the accuracy, the precision of that system, and also its endurance that it could fire: Those tubes had longer life than originally expected,” Lalor told reporters on Wednesday after an Association of the US Army event. “In terms of production, because you’re firing at that rate … it drives a requirement for additional canon tubes at a rate we haven’t seen in generations,” he added. While steering clear of specific numbers, Lalor estimated that Watervliet has likely tripled production over the past three years.
To accommodate increased production, the service revamped its manufacturing processes and modernized the facility. Although the two-star general said he believes the facility still has capacity to grow, lessons from the war in Ukraine have showcased industrial base vulnerabilities and the need to have multiple production sources to avoid a single point of failure that could leave the service without a cannon producer.
“I think we can produce more,” he added. “I also think it suggests that, you know, inside the army and industrial base, we’re definitely looking at it that secondary sources are going to be helpful too in a future conflict that we may have to fight.”
The service has begun examining its options for bringing on secondary sources, and Lalor said it has now identified “multiple” sources that, if given the technical data to produce the tubes, could have production lines up and running within 12 to 18 months.
“That’s if you’re moving fast, because it’s a unique capability,” Lalor said. “But, like anything else in exigence, believe you can produce at a scale and rate faster.”
These are only two recently examples of increased defense spending and its effect on the heat treatment industry-we have no doubt but that there will be many more and “The Monty Heat Treat News” will be here to tell you about them.
February 15th “The Monty” had a news item entitled “What’s it Worth”-a guide to used furnace values (the original article can also be found below).
In this particular case an in house heat treater in the US Midwest was trying to decide whether he should try to sell an older “Pacific Scientific” batch IQ line or scrap it. In the original posting “The Monty” pointed out that the line was unlikely to find much interest due to the fact that the original manufacturer is no longer around, it is an older unit, it is much smaller than what most heat treaters need these days and to really add salt to the wound it is electrically heated which in most parts of North America is the “kiss of death”.
Our readers waded in on this debate and it is no surprise to us that the almost universal conclusion was “SCRAP IT”.
We find it upsetting that a perfectly good, complete and updated furnace system such as this will be consigned to the scrap heap but we can’t disagree; chances of this furnace finding another home are slim to really slim.
“FEBRUARY 15th 2026 POSTING; From time to time over the years “The Monty Heat Treat News” plays the “What’s it Worth” game where we look at a used furnace and give our readers an idea about what it is worth in current market conditions.
Today we look at a complete furnace line located at a captive heat treater in the US Midwest. The line consists of the following;
- 24” x 36” x 24” Pacific Scientific IQ Furnace
- Electrically Heated
- SSI Controls
- Electronic Flowmeters from Waukee
- Pacific Scientific Electrically Heated Endo Generator
- With AE Endoinjector
- 24” x 36” x 24” Beavermatic Washer with Smart Skim System
- SBS Chiller
- Serial # 4382
- The vendor in this case is trying to decide whether this line is worth marketing or straight off to the “scrappers.”
The plus is that this is a complete line with updated controls, in good condition and ready to go. The minus is the brand (Pacific Scientific-as far as we know the company disappeared long ago) and the size. 24″ X 36″ X 24″ is far too small a size for anybody other than a captive heat treater with small lot sizes or a commercial heat treater in a market with small lot sizes such as the western and north eastern areas of the USA and British Colombia, Canada.
“The Monty” has a strong idea about the value of this furnace line but we will leave it up to you, our readers-make an offer or scrap? Cast your vote with Jordan Montgomery; [email protected]. Subject line Keep it or Scrap it-yes it has value; no call, in the scrap guys. We will let you know next Monday.”
“AFC-Holcroft” of Wixom, Michigan (part of the “Aichelin Group” of Austria) has since their inception used a sales model shared by most North American furnace builders, namely using a combination of independent sales representatives complimented by a few direct sales people. Up until recently the company had anywhere up to 7 rep organizations covering most of the USA and Canada (Mexico is handled by their licensee “MATTSA”) but this number has dwindled and now the firm is working with 3 “rep” firms with the bulk of the US and all of Canada being handled by direct sales people. https://afc-holcroft.com/global-partnersThere are arguments both for and against independent sales rep organizations-personally we at “The Monty Heat Treat News” have always felt that independent sales reps make the most sense in that they are only paid if they produce but we do acknowledge that there are also strong arguments for direct sales people.
Yesterday “The Monty Heat Treat News” had a story entitled; “Mercury Marine Opens Heat Treat Department to Commercial Heat Treating“ which summed up how “Mercury Marine” in Wisconsin, USA was now offering commercial heat treating services.
Gord Montgomery, Li Haas, Joern Rohde
