We understand there has been a change at the top level in Bodycote North America. Bill Sandstrom had been Vice President of Operations, AGI NAA until he recently parted ways with the company. Our understanding is the Mike Boyle will be taking over this position. Mike is a good man who we have met a couple of times over the years. Bodycote needs no introduction when it comes to commercial heat treating but we will still mention that it is the largest commercial heat treater in the world.
Today we start off in Vienna, Austria where we see that August 5th car manufacturer Opel will be auctioning off equipment related to gear box manufacturing. This includes a very large ECM Vacuum Carburizing System built in 1997. This is the older style ECM design and features 3 systems each consisting of 5 vertical carburizing chambers located off of a central transfer chamber, opening bid is €125,000. When built these were great systems, and worked perfectly however by todays standards capacity is very much on the small size and our prediction is that the equipment will probably end up being scrapped.
Speaking of auctions we see Western Forge in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA will be auctioning off some equipment Monday, August 17 & Tuesday, August 18. The auction includes the heat treat department which features a small AFC mesh belt furnace line.
Everybody in the industry knows Eclipse combustion burners, well it appears they will be moving from their Rockford, Ilinois location; “Honeywell has decided to close its Rockford Eclipse site by 1Q 2021 and is planning to move the work to our Muncie, Indiana, facility. This will be done in phases. We’re encouraging affected employees to apply for other roles within the company and eligible employees will be offered severance and outplacement assistance.” Another plant in Rockford which is actually closing this week is Greenlee Tool. The company has this to say; “This difficult decision is no reflection on the quality of our employees at the Greenlee facility, who have served our customers and the company well over the years. This is a business decision based on global competition and Emerson’s review of operations to manage costs, be competitive, and provide the best possible service to our customers. The Rockford factory manufactures hole-making and punch tools used by electricians, plumbers and others in construction. The Rockford plant closing is expected to be completed by August 2020, affecting 65 employees. The company will move volume to its existing Elyria, Ohio, facility and outsource some of the other products produced at the local facility, 1222 Research Parkway.” We mention them today as they have an older in house heat treating department which is part of the closure.
We regret to mention the passing of long time heat treater Wayne Welton. Wayne spent most of his working life with commercial heat treater HTI in Indiana, USA. “Wayne A.Welton II, age 57, of Logansport, passed away unexpectedly on July 28, 2020, at his home. Born Oct. 4, 1962, in Mount Carmel, Illinois, he was the son of the late Wayne A. and Beverly “Diane” (Lowe) Welton. On Feb. 28, 1992, in Las Vegas, Nevada, he was married to Pam (Smith) Welton. Wayne was a 1981 graduate of Pioneer High School. For over 30 years, Wayne worked as a lead man for HTI Heat Treat Specialists in Logansport. He spent a lot of time at work and was a very dedicated team member. Wayne enjoyed gardening, especially when it came to growing different varieties of peppers. Most of all, he loved spending time with his grandchildren.”
In Burlington, Ontario, Canada we recently announced how Burloak Technologies was in the process of setting up a very impressive in house heat treating department. We can also add that the company will be installing this year a brand new Hot Isostatic Press system. “Burloak is expanding our post-processing capabilities to include comprehensive in-house heat treatments with Hot Isostatic Pressing (Hip).” In Sterling Heights, Michigan, USA Cyprium Induction is expanding their R & D capabilities with the addition of a used dual spindle induction scanner. Cyprium provides induction systems and tooling. In Buckinghamshire, UK commercial heat treater Titanium Heat Treatment Services is adding equipment as you can see in this photo. We have always been fascinated with this place as it is the only commercial heat treater we have ever run across that almost exclusively heat treats parts for Formula 1 race cars.
And for something different we are going to leave you with these photos of a heat treat firm in Lima, Peru by the name of Tratar that we visited a couple of years back.
Due to the Canadian Civic Day Holiday the offices of WG Montgomery Ltd., will be closed Monday, August, August 3, 2020. Regular news updates will resume Tuesday, August 4th.
We are very pleased to be able to offer you this interview with Mr. Robert Roth President & CEO of RoMan Manufacturing, one of the leading suppliers of transformers, power magnetics and power conversion systems for heat treat furnaces. An Interview with Mr. Robert Roth, President & CEO of RoMan Manufacturing June 24, 2020.
Robert first off, I would like to thank you for your time and congratulate you on the 40th anniversary of RoMan Manufacturing, this is a milestone that only a small percentage of companies reach.
“Thank you so much for having a conversation with me. My Dad was one of the co-founders so RoMan Manufacturing is part of my DNA. I love and appreciate any opportunity to talk about the great work that this company gets to take part in. You make a very good point in that 40 years in business is no small feat, especially for a second-generation run family owned business. RoMan is actually a combination of the founders’ last names. Dietrich Roth, my Dad, and Robert Hofman. They provided us as the second generation a phenomenal example of how consensus proves to be a very reliable corporate management style. Their deep-rooted friendship has grown into the Roth and Hofman families being very close knit and I firmly believe that has kept the destructive elements of family business at bay. Our Founders’ behaviors have served as a great model for my generation to work together and be motivated by the next 5 – 10 years not just the next quarter. We believe in the products we build and more importantly the people that build them. We do not take our amazing team of people, or anything else for that matter, for granted, and look forward to celebrating our 50- and 75-year anniversaries!”
I am rather embarrassed to say that I don’t know a great deal about your company or your products so this interview will be a real learning curve for myself as well as our readers. Perhaps you could tell us something about RoMan, the products you offer that are applicable to the heat treatment industry and how you became President & CEO.
“I’ll start off by giving you my history with RoMan. I joined the company in 1987, 7 years after the company was founded. I had the opportunity along with Robert Hofman’s sons Rob & Kurt Hofman to work for and with our Dads. Fast forward to the late 90’s when our Dads, the founding generation, were ready to transition towards retirement and wanted the leadership of the company to reside with the second generation of the families. Since RoMan’s inception in 1980 it has truly been run as a 50/50 partnership. That being said, every business needs a Captain to steer the ship. My Dad was the president at the time and when looking at retirement looked to both Hofman brothers and me to decide who would take over as Captain. In unison Rob & Kurt nominated me and so off we went! The three of us had a decade of working together learning from each other as well as our Dads, and although I was now President, the idea of management by consensus has been a legacy we have continued. Our partnership has been no different than the relationship of our Dads and it has proven time and time again to be a very successful model.”
“RoMan Manufacturing was started in 1980 to be a designer and manufacturer of transformers, power magnetics and power conversion systems. We have been historically focused on the resistance welding industry and as we continue to develop the business we have seen other industrial processes that require high current, low voltage power so we have worked to take our knowledge and history in resistance welding and expanded into the glass melting and industrial heating markets. We have ingeniously designed products that will lead to several advantages for electrically powered heat treat furnace applications.”
Is this a crowded field? To phrase it another way are there many firms which offer transformers specifically for the heat treatment industry?
“I have always found the Industrial Power conversion/Magnetics/Power Supply industry to be fragmented. You typically see a few major suppliers to specific segments of the market. I have not seen many competitors that offer the breadth of industries served that we do. The diversity in backgrounds within our engineering group has provided us with the knowledge base to enter multiple market segments. There are several competitors, per say, in the industrial heating market however no one in North America has the breadth of water-cooled magnetics that RoMan Manufacturing does.”
RoMan has been talking a great deal about your IGBT/MFDC system, which one furnace integrator describes as the largest innovation in power supplies in the past 50 years-please tell us more.
“IGBT Control Technology and a water-cooled inverter style transformer allows us to bring a more compact package that gives a more finite control in power output, improves electrical performance by creating better Power Factor and a significantly more efficient secondary circuit. The technology brings benefit by enhancing performance and greatly improved operating efficiencies. Because energy is a huge input cost for a furnace, anything that can be done to lower that cost can drive tremendous savings over the life of the equipment.”
“Specifically, in its application to industrial heating, yes, it is new technology. It is however a known technology in other industries that has proven to be very robust, very serviceable and, for example, has a 20-year track record of reliable performance in automotive resistance welding. We have the added benefit of being one of the early adapters and integrators in the resistance welding market so to that end we become a great resource in new application to the furnace market.”
You have emphasized the size and weight of your transformers which leads to the obvious conclusion that they are smaller and lighter that your competitors-how are you able to do this?
“I’ll start by trying to paint a picture of what we do. A long time ago I had a dirt bike that had an air-cooled engine. If you’ve ever seen one like that, you will recall the engine, specifically the cylinder and head was large relative to the engine size or displacement. As liquid cooled engines were developed, my newer dirt bikes had a liquid cooled engine. It was the same displacement, but the engine was significantly smaller in physical size. The only thing they took out of the engine were the massive cooling fins, which left just the cylinder with the integral water-cooling jackets, taking up much less space. When my we designed the RoMan water-cooled transformer, the transformer secondary components contain the integrated water-cooling system. With a traditional air-cooled transformer design space must be provided to allow appropriate air flow and the corresponding surface area to dissipate the heat into the surrounding ambient air. With the integrated water cooling the size and bulk created for air flow and heat dissipation is eliminated creating a much smaller package size per kVA. By designing our transformers to be water cooled from the ground up, our transformers will be much smaller than legacy products that may have been originally designed as an air cooled but adapted to be water cooled. Our design intent was to build products that did the same work while taking up a much smaller footprint. Taking that mission a step farther, the output of our IGBT control is 1000 HZ which lets us drastically reduce the amount of the electrical core steel required, making the transformer even smaller than our standard 60Hz RoMan water-cooled transformers. This concept was originally developed for airplanes to reduce the payload required for their power supplies. We have used this technology in resistance welding to allow for a very light pay load on welding robots. It translates well into the furnace market because it provides OEMs and End Users much greater mounting versatility.”
On your website you point out that because of the size and weight of your units they can be closely coupled to the power feed throughs on a furnace. Robert would you care to hazard a guess as to what % of transformers are mounted in this manner?
“Today, practically none, because with the typical air-cooled transformer used by the furnace industry it is not practical. We look to change that! The air-cooled transformer physical size and the need for ample air flow limit how and where they can be mounted. Another issue with most air-cooled power supplies because of their construction must be mounted in an enclosure or cabinet to protect them from contamination and damage which takes up even more space. All RoMan transformers are constructed to be sealed and protected from any outside element. Therefore, they do not need to be installed is a separate enclosure or shroud, and with the water cooling and advancement of IGBT technology we can mount our units right on the furnace where the secondary conductors feed through to the heating elements. This eliminates the need for long water-cooled cable lines as well as eliminates the electrical losses those cable lengths create.”
I am assuming that your customers include both the furnace manufacturers and the end users– what is the relative percentage of each, mainly manufacturers or mainly end users?
“Currently our customer base is pretty evenly divided between furnace manufacturers and end-users. I believe that trend will continue for some time as we provide significant value for both groups of customers. Furnace OEMs are able to promote more efficient products and heat treaters – both commercial and captive – can realize significant energy savings if they retrofit with a RoMan IGBT MFDC power supply system.”
The previous question leads into another one, actually more like two; how long does a unit typically last before it needs to be replaced and do you see many orders from companies replacing an older (but still operating) unit with a new transformer?
“As it relates to the life of our transformers, if they are sized properly and operating within their design parameters, we have seen them last over 50 years. In regard to the controls we marry to our transformers, they have a more finite life span but again, when properly applied & operated you will still see decades of use.”
“We see a mix of older transformers and power supplies that are no longer functioning that need to be replaced or repaired but we also see functioning equipment being updated with newer technology because of the great advantages and return on investment. When applied properly RoMan products provide many years of worry-free operation and that peace of mind is invaluable to a heat treater who needs their furnace fully operational all the time.”
What is the ROI on one of your units?
“Return on investment is fairly customer dependent so I can’t answer that with a firm number. However, I can provide you with some of the ways our customers have calculated their return. If space is an issue and a unit can be installed in spaces where a legacy product could not. This is an opportunity to utilize existing factory space without the cost of building expansion. The return is calculated on the additional capacity and the higher absorption rate on the facility fixed cost. If energy efficiency and power factor penalties are major costs, the return is calculated easily and will be dependent on energy costs in a particular area. By understanding the life span of RoMan units, the conversion costs can be returned within a few short years. Lastly, when a utility limits the amount of power a facility is able to use, RoMan’s more efficient power supplies provide increased production levels, making return based on added production capacity. I have personally talked to users who have used these various calculations depending on their specific situation. I love seeing their reaction when they realize the amazing benefit to using RoMan products to power their furnaces.”
So, have you pushed the envelope on the technology as far as it will go or does RoMan have some exciting changes coming up in the near future?
“RoMan is continuously looking for technology enhancements. These are constant, micro-evolutionary changes as opposed to revolutionary macro changes. Our lab is daily testing new designs and the impact on different applications to continuously improve our products. We also continue to monitor the markets that we serve. Feedback from those markets and our customers is what has led to some of our biggest product developments. We truly see every customer we have as more of a partnership. We attempt to help them in their power delivery needs by providing them with the best solutions possible, and they in turn provide feedback and recommendations that could possibly help make their systems run even better.”
Let’s go from the specifics of your product to a couple of more general questions starting with the business climate. How has your company been affected by COVID-19?
“First and foremost, we have evaluated our entire work environment to ensure the health and safety of our employees. We implemented sound protocols like daily health screenings, contact tracing logs, assessing work centers to have appropriate social distancing, use of PPE, and have made adaptations for sales and administration to work remotely. We are paying close attention to and continually complying to the everchanging employment laws centered around having a safe workplace. More than ever, the Covid-19 pandemic has emphasized the necessity of trust-based relationships with all our constituencies (employees, customers, suppliers, etc.) to the very forefront of our minds. If we want to come out of this successfully, we all have to work together to create that mutual success. Obviously, the short-term economic impact has been an ever-present issue as well, but because of the mutual trust we have with those constituencies, we are very optimistic about the growth we will see coming out of this.”
Care to make a prediction about how business will be in 2021?
“I think by the time we get to the end of 2021 our sales velocity will match what we were seeing pre-Covid. There is no doubt that the brakes have been slammed on industrial capital spending here, it is the same story in Europe, and the continued tension between the United States and China effects our opportunities there. The turmoil in the oil and gas sector also has a great effect on industrial capex spending. I am confident that when there is clarity in the marketplace, confidence will rise, and the purse strings of capex spending will loosen. American businesses are tough and resilient, and I believe we are stronger than this pandemic, and who knows there may very well be opportunities in the future we haven’t yet anticipated.”
Robert I really appreciate your time and I very much look forward to meeting you in person and shaking your hand as soon as things get closer to normal. Thank you, Gord.
“Peters’ Heat Treating, Inc. has closed its original home of 40 years in the Fifth Ward of Meadville, PA, USA and moved its headquarters into a newly expanded Meadville facility in West Mead Township in the old rail yard on McHenry Street. Peters’ Heat Treating was already operating from this location which housed their production oil hardening business but with an 18,000 square foot addition, they were able to consolidate the two Meadville locations and move the precision vacuum furnaces, black oxide line and other flagship processes to a new custom space. The now 32,000 square foot manufacturing space allows them to expand their product offerings and continue to grow the now 60-employee business. They have just recently announced two new lines of business: Aluminum Alloy Processing and Stainless Steel Black Oxide. They also continue to operate from their McKean, PA location servicing the local Erie area and including a specialized Nitreg Nitriding process.
Peters’ Heat Treating finalized the move just one week before shutdowns began in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. While they were able to remain open with a state waiver due to their work in life-essential industries such as medical and military, the pandemic thwarted plans for a big Grand Opening event in June. They were able to celebrate with their team with a Crawford County Chamber of Commerce Ribbon Cutting this month. They hope to give tours when it is safe to do so again. “We are excited to consolidate our services and knowledge in a way that maintains our history and dedication to the local community and industry while providing us the runway for a successful future,” Andy Wilkosz, President, said. “These current times are challenging but we know our business and the country will persevere.”
Peters’ Heat Treating has had several exciting announcements in the last year. They celebrated their 40th Anniversary in October of 2019. They also named a new President, Andy Wilkosz, in February of 2019, son-in-law of founders Doug and Jackie Peters. Daughter Diana (Peters) Wilkosz and husband, Andy, returned home to learn the business in 2015. Andy’s degrees in Engineering and Business as well as his past roles as a U.S. Steel Manager, Process Safety Management consultant and Special Projects Engineer at another heat treat in Texas made him the perfect fit for the role. Diana oversees Office and Administrative functions. Son Christopher Peters also works at the company managing its IT. Doug and Jackie are thrilled to keep the company in the family and to continue to service the local community. “It’s just been a pleasure to be a part of the local community and to help companies grow,” Peters said. “Probably the thing I’m most proud of is the great people I’ve had the opportunity to work with. I’ve watched them buy houses and have children, and now their kids are having children.” Doug and Jackie are both still active but look forward to future retirement.
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 services the 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, Federal Firearms guidelines and International Traffic & Arms Regulations. Learn more at www.petersheattreat.com.”
“Cherry Valley, ILLINOIS (July 29, 2020) – Today Ipsen announced the following changes after months of market analysis and working diligently to understand customer needs. The three main drivers are customer demand for expanded technical services, identical metallurgical outcomes worldwide and solutions for processing newly developed materials.
Ipsen is the global leader in heat treatment technologies with more than 10,000 operating systems in 60 countries. To ensure we properly address market needs to our current and future customers, we are establishing Technology Excellence Centers while further strengthening our offerings. An important outcome will be faster response times supported by advanced new service products in all regions Ipsen serves.
Ipsen’s equipment manufacturing business will be driven by an Atmosphere Technology Excellence Center in Kleve, Germany, and a Vacuum Technology Excellence Center near Rockford, Illinois, USA. This focus into one field of technology will enable faster-paced innovation and a laser-focus on performance and quality.
As a result of this change, new furnace equipment will be manufactured at fewer locations around the world with a focus on specialization. The Ipsen Germany location will exclusively build Atmosphere Batch and Continuous Systems while the US location will exclusively build all types of Vacuum Furnaces. Additionally, Ipsen India will continue to build Atmosphere furnaces for the India and Southeast Asia markets. Our China and Japan locations will no longer manufacture new furnaces, and will focus on customer service and the sale of new equipment from the Excellence Centers.
Importantly, the customer relationship with Ipsen will remain unchanged – we will continue to support our customers from all of our global locations. Sales, service and support teams remain local in each region as speed of response can never be sacrificed. All Ipsen plants remain open in all regions as the aftermarket support of our customers is more than half of Ipsen’s annual business. Activities such as upgrades, local inventory of parts and service will continue to be fully supported on a local basis.
This consolidation of equipment manufacturing sites together with the uncertainty of the global pandemic does result in a reduction of staff, which is a regrettable but necessary outcome from this carefully planned strategic step. After more than 70 years in business, the Ipsen team remains inspired to continue delivering services and innovations that advance the safety and well-being of all.”
Wednesday August 5th, 2020 there will be an auction of equipment located at Carlisle Brake & Friction in Medina, Ohio, USA. As always we mention this because there are a few heat treat related items included such as a Bell Heat Treat Furnace line with 4 25″ bases, a Becker Temper furnace and a few other odds and ends. All in all nothing real exciting- in this market we would guess it is 50/50 whether the equipment is sold or scrapped.
From furnace manufacturer KGO in Germany we have this press release. “Although KGO is best known for our superior gas nitriding systems the KGO product range is much wider and includes salt recovery units. This picture shows a SV270 system which was just recently delivered to a major customer in southern Germany. It is fully automated with a Stange controller and can easily be integrated into an existing heat treat line. This recovery unit has got a recovery capacity of 125 l/h and is a turnkey solution. In the USA we are represented by Mr. Ray Monahan of Heat Treating Equipment & Thermal Process Solutions in SC, 864-252-4241.”
In the world of furnace manufacturing in North America, Michael Cousins is quite a familiar name due to his experience with companies such as Ipsen, AFC-Holcroft and Diablo (Diablo of course is now deceased). We see that Michael very recently became Sales and Service Manager at Williams Industrial Service, a large furnace manufacturer located in Bowling Green, Ohio, USA (their banner ad can be found on the right hand side of this page and their website is https://www.wisfurnaces.com/ ). We couldn’t find a good picture of Michael so instead we dug out this picture of a very large Williams installation- this photo was taken at fastener manufacturer OMG in Agawam, MA. We wish Michael the best of luck in his new position.
We start off the week with a very sad item, the passing of Stacy Lee Morton, General Manager of Phoenix Heat Treating in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. This is the second COVID-19 related death in the North American heat treat industry that we have heard of in the past week. “Stacy Lee Morton, 61, of Gilbert, Ariz., passed away Thursday, July 16, 2020, in Chandler, Ariz., after a three-week-long battle with COVID-19. A celebration of life will be held at a later date. He was born Sept. 28, 1958, to Von and Margueritte Morton in Hutchinson, Kan. He grew up in Grand Island and graduated from Grand Island Senior High in 1977. He attended the University of Nebraska for photography. He previously worked at Hornady Manufacturing for 23 years, and was general manager with Phoenix Heat Treating at the time of his death. Stacy was a wonderful family man and an avid bow hunter for 50 years. He loved the woods; they were his sanctuary. He remained a loyal Cornhusker fan throughout the years and loved watching college football. He is survived by the love of his life, Sandra of Gilbert, Ariz.; his children, Nicole (Matthew) McClure of Phillips, Tasha Morton of Aurora, Kelly McCormick of Chandler, Ariz., Tanner Morton of Lincoln and Kevin McCormick of Gilbert, Ariz.; four precious grandchildren whom he adored, Harper, Ryne, Maddyn and Blake, and a fifth, Hunter, due in August; his parents, Von and Margueritte Morton of Chandler, Ariz.; his brother, Chris (Heidi) Morton of New Braunfels, Texas; his sister, Tonja Morton of New Albany, Ind.; several uncles and two nieces. He was preceded in death by a niece, Sommer Raye Morton.” Commercial heat treater Stack Metallurgical based in Portland, Oregon, USA has a new Business development Manager by the name of Shane Johnson at their Salt Lake facility. See where the company ranks in our list of the largest commercial heat treaters in North America https://themonty.com/articles/largest-north-american-commercial-heat-treats-august-2020/ “We are pleased to announce that Shane Johnson has joined the Stack team as Business Development Manager based at our Aerospace Aluminum Processing (ASAP) facility in Salt Lake City.”
The world’s largest heat treater, UK based Bodycote released their 2020 interim results for the 6 months to June 30 2020. To very briefly sum up the company like every other one in our industry has been hard hit by the CORONA-19 virus but remains profitable due to a number of factors including cost cutting. As an example of cost cutting and organizational changes this paragraph can be found in the statement. “The organisational restructuring that was announced in March has been accelerated and expanded. The closure of eighteen plants is underway, thirteen in Europe (ten Automotive and three Aerospace), four plants in the USA (three Automotive and one Aerospace) and one General Industrial plant in Eastern Europe. In contrast, three new greenfield facilities will open in H2, replacing outdated facilities that are part of the closures.” The complete report can be found at https://www.bodycote.com/
Last week we mentioned how Elk County Heat Treaters in St. Marys, PA, USA had suffered a fire (details below). We have been told that the cause of the fire was a subcontractor accidentally drilling into a high pressure oil line which basically created a flamethrower. Luckily no one was hurt and no customer product damaged. They are good people at Elk and we hope they are back in business as quickly as possible. “Multiple fire companies responded to a Thursday afternoon blaze which resulted in heavy damage to the Elk County Heat Treaters plant. Crews were dispatched at 1:16 p.m. to Battery Street in the Stackpole Complex in St. Marys. Upon arrival fire personnel encountered heavy some with some flames showing. They quickly established a water supply. Additional manpower from surrounding fire departments was called in due to the contents of the plant, specifically the large amounts of oil which is typical of what is found in heat treating plants. Tom Bauer, Crystal Fire Department spokesman, stated plant employees managed to shut down the equipment including a piece which had malfunctioned and was spraying oil thus causing the fire. Once that piece of equipment was shut down the fire died down. The fire caused heavy damage to the roof structure and minor water and smoke damage to the building. Firefighters and employees worked together to salvage most of the product inside the plant by covering it and saving it from damage.”
Remember a few weeks back we told you how Missouri Heat Treat was adding a new vacuum furnace? Well no need to remember as the original news item is below and we can now add a photo of the completed installation; “Missouri Heat Treat Adding Vacuum Furnace; Commercial heat treater Missouri Heat Treat in Wentzville, Ohio, USA is pretty excited about receiving a brand new “Mentor” vacuum furnace from Solar Manufacturing. Missouri Heat Treat has this to say about the new furnace; ” This investment represents a new development for MHT and an exciting future expansion of our processing capabilities”. By the way this is the second vacuum furnace Solar has shipped to Missouri in just the past few weeks. Missouri Heat Treat is part of a very elite group in North America in that they offer commercial heat treating and also build new furnaces through their parent company Unitherm Furnace, LLC. Others in this group include Solar Atmospheres/Solar Manufacturing, Thermal Specialties in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Vac Aero in Canada, ALD and AFC-Holcroft.”
From Solar Atmospheres of Western PA we have this press release; “July 20, 2020 – Solar Atmospheres of Western PA celebrated thirteen years of AS9100 certification. Like the complexities of ever-changing customer needs, 2020 proves to be challenging businesses. Impacts to our daily routines, course of business, personal liberties, and even audit scopes bear a brunt of ushering in a new era. This new era is intricately woven with COVID-19, populous instability and intertwined with increasingly stringent standards, revised industry specifications, and customer requirements.
Even with these new complexities, Solar passed this milestone for more than a decade of accreditation without any major findings. The live audit, which was conducted for the very first time, used a combination of email, telephone and video conferencing to grade Solar’s QMS, on recent aerospace work. The comprehensive review addressed recent events as risk and Solar’s response as effective. Melissa Gruszka, Quality Manager and recent edition to Solar Atmospheres of Western PA, states, “We have a great team that can pull together, under any circumstances, to get work done. Solar maintains the highest standards by keeping Safety, Quality, and Efficiency in check and our customers in the foreground. Solar exercises a proven value system, integral to society, and empowers people, shaping a bright future.”
We’re looking at a story down in Alabama, USA about a manufacturer with a large captive heat treater making the decision to outsource all of their heat treating requirements to a local commercial heat treater. This company moved from the northern USA back in 2018 to the lower cost area of AL and brought their heat treating with them. However things change and the plan is to sell off all of their older, Ipsen, straight through atmosphere furnaces. Not a great time to be selling off older equipment however it was probably written off the books years ago. In Guelph, Ontario we see a number of used Induction systems at a company by the name of Roctel (a Linamar company) are part of an ongoing on line auction (probably it is redundant to say on-line auction-we think they all are these days). Looks like nice equipment and it should find a home pretty quickly.
And to round things out we have this really cool picture of a load of parts coming out of a salt bath at Akron Steel Treating in Ohio.
