We have mentioned a couple of times over the past year how the RAMCO/Cascade Metallurgical facility out in the US North West is for sale. It appeared to be almost sold late in 2019 but obviously that did not happen. If you have questions about the equipment and sale contact information is included in the ad below.

Past articles in “The Monty” have spoken about the very high cost associated with helium quenching due to the fact that helium is a depleting resource which will see relentless price increases. This fascinating article from Solar Atmospheres tells us how the company will be replacing Helium with Nitrogen in a 10 bar quenching vacuum furnace. By the way the numbers mentioned in this press release do not take into account the monthly trailer fee rental of $2,000 per month for helium storage. By the end of this week the furnace will be installed and pumping down.

“Hermitage PA, June 22, 2020 – Solar Atmospheres of Western PA is currently installing a new rapid quenching vacuum furnace that will ultimately eliminate the need for costly helium while increasing production throughput. Solar Manufacturing’s 10 bar vacuum furnace, with a revolutionary cooling design, will mimic an older 2 bar Solar furnace in size. However, this new 48″ x 48″ x 96” deep 10 Bar furnace is equipped with a proven 600 HP blower designed motor, and it will outperform its older model by processing larger and heavier workloads with the use of nitrogen only.

“The difference in operating costs is a no brainer,” states President Bob Hill. “To marginally harden one 2000-pound high-speed tool steel roll die in our older 2 bar vacuum furnace, the use of light helium gas was a necessity. The prohibitive cost of a two atmosphere helium backfill was $1,065. Our new furnace will enable us to fully harden three 2000-pound roll dies at once using the more cost-effective process gas of nitrogen. In contrast the cost of a 10 atmosphere backfill of nitrogen will be only $89.” Hill predicts that with these increased efficiencies and savings, his normal ROI on a new piece of equipment will be significantly advanced. Once operational, Hill will author a technical paper with the actual cooling data derived from these similarly sized vacuum furnaces for the world to see.

For additional information about Solar Atmospheres of Western PA, contact Bob Hill at 1-855-934-3284 x2224, email at [email protected], or visit us at www.solaratm.com.”

We will start off today in Brazil with a press release from our good friend Marcio Boragini, General Manager of UPC Marathon in Brazil. Marico tells us that Metalúrgica FEY, located in Santa Catarina, Brazil and one of the largest manufacturers of fasteners in the county just added a very large endothermic generator to their in house heat treating department. Marcio has this to say; “The first characteristic that stands out from the generator is the size, probably one of the largest in operation in Brazil, I don’t remember seeing any bigger ones. Many companies have greater generation capacity but are divided into several smaller generators. This generator has a capacity of 200 m³ / hour (approximately 7,000 CFH) of endogas, divided into 2 heating chambers.”

Remember the Abar Ipsen vacuum furnace that sold at an auction in Colorado last week? As it turns out it was bought by a manufacturer in Colorado who will use it to heat treat their own products but who also plan on running some commercial work. Makes sense as the largest commercial heat treater in the state, Metal Treating & Research closed down in 2018 which means quite a bit of the work is sent out of state to be heat treated. The funny part of the story is that the owner of the furnace, Colorado Mill Equipment sold the furnace for $91,000 USD which is more than they paid for it just a year ago.

We now move to commercial heat treater Metlab in PA, USA who have a new Vice President. Metlab has the distinction of having some of the largest pit carburizing furnaces in North America. “Metlab Appoints Chris DiMascio Vice President of Operations. Metlab Heat Treat has a long history of success, providing heat treating services to a wide range of industries. To ensure continued success and to elevate Metlab’s quality and efficiencies, the company recently hired Chris DiMascio as the Vice President of Operations.

“My goal is to strengthen the core business from an operations perspective,” remarks DiMascio. “Processes need to be solidified, and new ones need to be put in place. This includes having the right people working on the right things. To accomplish this, we will be implementing Lean principles throughout the organization. The first year will be the equivalent to “polishing the apple.” As an example, we are already beginning to establish ownership and accountability throughout the organization.”

Mark Podob, Metlab’s President and Owner comments, “His work with us over the past few months has resulted in many major improvements to our operation. We are looking forward to the great experience that he brings to Metlab as we seek to grow our heat-treating operations.”Mr. DiMascio has over thirty years of broad experience (including plastics, metals, and chemicals) in engineering and operations. He was most recently principal of OpX partners, his consulting firm, and prior to that COO of the Process Technologies Division for Johnson Matthey Inc., a British company with nine facilities worldwide. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA in Business Management from Penn State University.”

Jeff Carr, a very long time Bodycote employee has now retired. Jeff worked in the Central USA division for 32 years most recently as a General Manager in Arkansas. In this photo we see Jeff in the middle and on his right Mr. Tom Gibbons, President of the Bodycote North America ADE division.

In upcoming news we have an interview with Mr. Joern Rohde, President of Rohde Furnaces in Germany in which he talks about salt reclamation systems. This is slated for July 1, 2020, and in the meantime we have this photo of Joern (on the right) at commercial heat treater Troll in Gemany which was taken last year.

Reaching back a few years we have this photo from Dokasan Heat Treating in Anakara, Turkey, one of the largest commercial heat treaters in the country. We bring several continents together when we point out that the owner of the company Mr. Gurkan Gencler is fourth from the left, Matt Cross, of SSi, UK is to his left, then we have Gord Montgomery and Cihan Balaban of Fornax Software, Turkey.

May 13 of this year commercial heat treating giant Bodycote announced they would shortly be opening their brand new facility in Elgin, Illinois, USA (the press release is below). The firm was actually quite modest in their announcement in that they didn’t say much about the equipment. We can tell you that Bodycote spared no expense when it came to the equipment. For instance this location will have vacuum nitriding capacity which comes from a German supplier and state of the art vacuum carburizing furnaces. We look forward to visiting the plant one of these days and giving you more details about the processes they offer.

“Bodycote, the world’s largest provider of heat treatments and specialist thermal processing services, will open a new state of the art facility in Elgin, Illinois, USA. The new purpose built facility has been designed as a replacement for Bodycote’s ageing facility in Melrose Park, Illinois. The Elgin facility is scheduled to be operational in June 2020. It will support manufacturing supply chains in the Midwest region. The Melrose Park facility will be closed once the transfer of customers’ work has been completed. Bodycote continues to invest in acquiring, updating and building new facilities with new capacity and more operationally efficient services. The new Elgin facility is part of this ongoing strategy to provide the best possible capabilities, mix, and geographical network to better serve customers. Tom Gibbons, President of Classical Heat Treatment, North America, commented “I am delighted to be able to announce the opening of our plant in Elgin, Illinois. Our investment in the new facility enables us to expand our capacity and improve our ability to deliver high-quality heat treatment capabilities to our customers.” Bodycote has more than 70 facilities in North America.”

Heat Treating Services Unlimited, Inc. (HTSU) (Greenville, SC) brings true eCommerce to the heat treating industry, with the launch of Heat Treat Depot. The website is packed full of replacement parts, supplies and equipment that you can purchase directly from the site. HTD offers New, Surplus Inventory and Used Products at great prices! With thousands of products from hundreds of manufacturers, these products are in stock and ready to be shipped.

HTD was designed to create a resource for buyers, maintenance and personnel to have a single location to find needed items for their Heat Treat department. With the lead times of some products being so far out, there are many times you just can’t wait and they will help. HTD typically offers inventory surplus, so they may not have the exact part you need every time but that is when their experience kicks in. Their many years within the industry gives them the relationships to find what you need quickly. If you do not see what you need on the site, contact them, as all products may not be listed on the site or they will help you find them.

Heat Treat Depot also offers programs to sell your stock of inventory that you no longer need, stock it in their warehouse or they will even purchase it from you. These programs can free up floor space and bring in revenue from a source that you never expected to get a return of any kind on.

Make sure to Subscribe to HTD Newsletter as they consistently have new product coming in! You don’t want to miss a great deal because you did not know about it. Visit Heat Treat Depot @ www.HeatTreatDepot.com

Commercial heat treater Missouri Heat Treat in Wentzville, Missouri, 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.

Furnace controls company SSi is offering several free technical webinars on a number of heat treat topics in Spanish.

Lunes 22 de Junio de 2020. Oscar Camacho. Pirometria: AMS2750 Vs CQI-9, comparaciones técnicas para: TUS, SAT y Cals.. 10:30hrs – 11:30hrs

Martes 23 de Junio de 2020. Omar Ponce. Más características de los Controladores Serie 9000.. 10:30hrs – 11:30hrs

Miércoles 24 de Mayo de 2020. Omar Ramirez. Puntos críticos para la generación de Gas Endotérmico.. 10:30hrs – 11:30hrs

Jueves 25 de Mayo de 2020. Adab Márquez . Selección de Proveedores en Metrología para Tratamiento Térmico. 10:30hrs – 11:30hrs

When we published our annual list of the largest commercial heat treaters in North America, Thermal Vac out in California made our list for the first time https://themonty.com/articles/largest-north-american-commercial-heat-treats-august-2020/ Well today we have some more news coverage about this family owned commercial heat treat. The company has started work on their new location in Arizona, USA. While we are at very early stages in this new facility we can say that the company already has a building and is in the planning stages of adding several vacuum furnaces. We will keep you posted.

“Founded in 1985 by Steve Driscol and based in Orange, CA, Thermal-Vac Technology is southern California’s premier brazing, heat-treating, and finishing facility offering first-class services to a wide customer base, including some of the most demanding in the industry. For over three decades we have been sought out by customers who require the most innovative solutions for challenging project needs, effectively helping to secure a position as a leader in the industry. With an original facility of 5,500 square feet and 11 active customers, Thermal-Vas transformed into a multiple location company with over 60,000 square feet of campus footprint. We have 80 team members, with 50 in production. Thermal-Vac is a family-owned business with second generation family leaders heading the business since 2012. Our team is comprised of many family-oriented relationships with over 25% of our employees being related to each other in some way. https://www.thermalvac.com/

FARMINGTON HILLS, MI, 2020: A technically and scientifically-progressive commercial heat-treating company in Canada, has installed a Premier Furnace/BeaverMatic Internal Quench Furnace (IQF) and a Premier Furnace/BeaverMatic Spray/Dunk Washer to meet customer demands for improving product processing and production cycles. Based on consistently high performance and the outstanding reputation of Premier Furnace/BeaverMatic equipment. The new BeaverMatic IQF Furnace with a work area of 36” wide x 48” long x 40” high, was purchased for hardening 4,000 pounds (gross), and an operating temperature of 1,850 deg F. The unit is gas fired using Single Ended Radiant Tube (SER) burners for optimum efficiency.

For precision control of temperature and furnace operations, a PLC with full screen HMI along with process control software are being used for temperature, atmosphere, sophisticated recipe programming, and oil quenching. With Ethernet communications, built in data logging, and an expandable I/O, to name a few notable attributes. Complementing the process control is a data acquisition/control system, which will provide the customer with quick access to real-time and historical data throughout the plant.

The customer, as an environmentally-conscious heat treater, chose eco-friendly products and methods to minimize their environmental impact. Therefore, when purchasing this internal quench furnace which utilizes approximately 4,000 gallons of oil while meeting the requested heating and cooling requirements. The new furnace also incorporates a quench oil centrifugal filtration system.

In tandem, the Premier Furnace/BeaverMatic Spray/Dunk Washer, with identical work load capacity will accommodate and remove most quench oils before the next process.

Sellersville, PA, June 15, 2020 – Magnetic Shields Ltd of Kent, England and Solar Manufacturing have had a strong partnership since 2016. In this time, Solar Manufacturing has engineered one vacuum furnace and has been commissioned to design and build a second furnace. This new furnace will be one of the largest horizontal vacuum furnaces in the UK.

The new HFL-7496-EQ vacuum furnace, being built with a SolarVac® Polaris control system, will be designed to accommodate loads up to 48” wide x 48” high x 96” deep, (1220 x 1220 x 2440mm) with a maximum weight of 5,000 lbs (2270 kgs). Operating at a vacuum level of 10^-5 Torr, this new furnace will be able to reach temperatures up to 2400°F (1315°C). It will feature a partial pressure hydrogen gas process and an external quench system designed for negative pressure quenching.

Rick Jones, VP of International Sales at Solar Manufacturing states, “Solar Manufacturing is very pleased to be selected as the supplier to further support Magnetic Shields in leading the production of equipment for the medical industry and other high technology applications, specifically, high performance large magnetic shields and low field shielded rooms.”

Magnetic Shields Ltd. Director Colin Woolger adds, “Magnetic Shields is delighted to order our second vacuum furnace from Solar Manufacturing. The new furnace will enable us to more than double the maximum size of shields we can now produce in one piece and also increase the general heat treatment capacity for our growing company. This order was awarded, in no small part, due to the superb reliability of our existing Solar Manufacturing furnace which has revolutionized the consistency and quality of our magnetic heat treatment process, a key stage in the manufacture of all of our shielding products. We look forward to the new furnace arriving later this year.”

Solar Manufacturing designs and manufactures a wide variety of vacuum heat treating, sintering, and brazing furnaces. To learn more about Solar Manufacturing contact Pete Reh, VP of Sales, at 267-384-5040 x1509, [email protected] or Rick Jones VP of International Sales at 267-384-5040 x 1533, [email protected]. Please visit us at www.solarmfg.com.