We will start off with a bit of “people” news. First up we see that Jesús Gerardo Calderón Reyna recently became Vice President of Operations at ALD TRATAMIENTOS TERMICOS SA DE CV in Mexico. ALD TT (Thermal Treatment) is a commercial heat treater specializing in vacuum carburizing and Jesús has been with the company a number of years now. If you would like to know more about the company and their future plans we refer you to an interview we very recently did with the Senior VP of the company, Dr. Klaus Loeser https://themonty.com/project/
Where are they now-Dirk Otto. For 5 years Dirk was Chief Sales Officer for furnace builder Ipsen in Kleve, Germany before parting ways with the company in 2019. It would appear that he has a new position, completely unrelated to the heat treating industry. Nitrex whose name is known around the world for their nitriding systems has appointed a new representative in Turkey, the press release is below. We will add that we are looking forward to some comments from the company about their recent acquisition of vacuum furnace builder GM Enterprises. “NITREX WELCOMES NEW MANUFACTURER REPRESENTATIVE, MR. UTKU INAN Nitrex Metal is pleased to announce the addition of Mr. Utku Inan as the newest manufacturer representative of its global sales network, serving Turkey. Inan has a 18-year history with the heat treat industry, beginning his career at Tamçelik Heat Treatment Company. He has deep knowledge about heat treatment applications including vacuum treatments, austempering & martempering applications, induction surface hardening, carburizing, material selection, failure analysis and of course nitriding. He had also many different roles at Turkish Heat Treaters’ Society (MISAD) for 10 years including vice presidency.”
COVID 19 Updates. Many of the commercial heat treaters in the US remain open and surprisingly enough busy (the exception to this would be the auto industry and those heat treaters which service it). For instance Metlab in Wyndmoor, PA has this to say; “We are working at full strength and are quite busy with customers engaged in power generation, oil drilling, medical instruments and the like.” Two other examples include Vacu Braze in PA and Stack Metallurgical Group headquartered in Portland, Oregon. The companies have this to say; “Vacu Braze is committed to the fight against COVID-19. We believe that in times of difficulty American ingenuity can lead the way. Our team and facility are positioned to move faster, create stronger results, and support new challenges. In an effort to support the ongoing work to mitigate the damage of COVID-19, Vacu Braze is offering FREE and expedited heat treating of parts made to fight the global pandemic. This includes medical components, 3D printed or additive manufactured parts, tooling, molds, ventilator parts, or anything associated with fighting the spread of the disease.”
“The full resources of the Stack Metallurgical Group are available to any manufacturers supporting our efforts against the COVID-19 pandemic. Capacity for the processing of any medical and/or ventilator components, 3D printed/additively manufactured parts, tools and dies, or anything else related is immediately available. All capacity that we can offer is available free-of-charge to our manufacturing partners. Our team of metallurgists and engineers are also available to provide any knowledge-based support.” We recently visited Stack and have this photo.
We have all heard about how hard hit Italy has been with the COVID 19 virus. Francesco Pieropan of furnace builder Meapforni in Italy tells us this; “The virus made the Italian government decide to close all heat treaters for almost 1 month from the beginning of March. All activities were shut down to protect employees from possible infection. Only a few could run a very small production to continue feeding agricultural and food industry supply chain. Next week probably some more companies will be cleared to restart production but again with less personnel (in order to maintain social distance) and only for some specific industrial fields. The target is to restart economy step by step, protecting involved people and maintain a high level of safety and human distancing. For the months of April till the beginning of May this will be the rule, while all citizen not involved in these activities have to remain at home.”
In happier news, furnace builder Nutec Bickley whose ad appears on this page is celebrating 40 years in business. Nutec is best known for their ovens and Aluminum Drop Bottom Ovens, as an example we have this photo from a visit a couple of years ago. “February the 18th 1975 marked the first day in the life of Nutec Group, a family-owned company that over time has become a recognized leader in the world of industrial heating and high-temperature insulation. Throughout the intervening period, the company has experienced several different transformations, some of them prompted by tough times, but mostly in its drive to grow and keep positioning itself as a key player in the international markets. And so here we are in 2020, with Nutec Group celebrating its first 45 years – and this is a celebration that includes all our associates, whom we are proud to call the ‘Nutec family’. Across all our facilities, the teams came together to mark this milestone, in the process sharing anecdotes, memories and talking about their long-term vision for the company.”
An example of a commercial heat treater temporarily closing down because their automotive customer has closed would be Paulo in Mexico (Paulo is the second largest commercial heat treater in North America https://themonty.com/articles/largest-north-american-commercial-heat-treats-august-2019/ ). “Operations Update – Monterrey Division; As the coronavirus continues to impact business around the world, at Paulo we are continuing to monitor the situation in each of our locations. Maintaining the safety and health of our team members enables us to provide thermal processing services to our customers and is of utmost importance. We are working closely with our customers to update forecasts and understand their needs over the coming weeks and months. We continue to focus on social distancing and hygiene in addition to adopting temperature taking and other policy and procedure changes to protect our team. As a result of our Monterrey Division’s customer base ceasing operations temporarily, we will suspend operations of our Monterrey plant effective April 6th. We plan to resume operations on May 4th to coincide with our customers returning to work. We are working with the team members at our Monterrey location to continue work from home when possible and to ensure a smooth transition as we resume work in early May.”
We have all heard about how hard hit Italy has been with the COVID 19 virus. Francesco Pieropan of furnace builder Meapforni in Italy tells us this; “The virus made the Italian government decide to close all heat treaters for almost 1 month from the beginning of March. All activities were shut down to protect employees from possible infection. Only a few could run a very small production to continue feeding agricultural and food industry supply chain. Next week probably some more companies will be cleared to restart production but again with less personnel (in order to maintain social distance) and only for some specific industrial fields. The target is to restart economy step by step, protecting involved people and maintain a high level of safety and human distancing. For the months of April till the beginning of May this will be the rule, while all citizen not involved in these activities have to remain at home.”
Below we have a press release from Mike Mercer Sr. regarding the status of Mercer Technologies in these challenging times.
“For all Mercer Technologies customers:
Subject: Critical Infrastructure Continued Operations during the COVID-19 crisis
Mercer Technologies, Inc. is a supplier for companies such as Williams International Co, General Electric and Tinker Air Force Base. These companies are identified as Critical Infrastructure as defined by the Department of Homeland Security and its Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). As a supplier for these companies (and many more), our workforce is Critical Manufacturing, i.e., “necessary for the manufacturing of materials and products needed for the Defense Industrial Base.”
Memoranda from the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security and CISA, enclosed herewith, clarify the details regarding these categories and definition. Of particular note: Companies aligned with the essential critical infrastructure workforce definition are expected to maintain their normal work schedules.
Mercer Technologies, Inc. will follow any guidelines from the Centers for Disease control for appropriate social distancing in the workplace, and/or shift alterations to decrease human density while maintaining output. We may experience longer lead times, due to our vendors being restricted and/or shut down, but we promise to do the best we can to get things moving as fast as possible. We appreciate your patience and understanding.“
“The Monty” Will be closed Friday April 10 for Easter holiday’s. We will resume regular news updates on Monday April 13. Happy Easter!
Yesterday we looked at part of the in house heat treating department of FENDT Tractors in Germany, specifically we took a look at the immaculate “pusher” furnace department. Today we look at the other part of the department which consists of a number of batch IQ furnaces with an entire cell dedicated to press quenching. The advantages of pusher furnaces is their “economy of scale”, meaning a lower cost per pound of heat treating IF and only if you keep them full. Batch IQ furnaces would have a higher cost per pound for processing but much more versatility which is why many in house heat treaters have a combination of both. Continuous furnaces such as pushers for larger volume work, batch IQ (or sealed quench) furnaces for smaller volumes. FENDT is like many large in house heat treaters with a combination of both based upon volumes. One of the photos below shows the batch IQ department featuring a number of Aichelin sealed quench furnaces.
Our last series of 5 pictures (link below) shows the automated press quenching cell. This is dedicated to a small group of parts requiring the tightest specs on distortion and this cell is 100% automated-parts go in one end and robots take over all of the loading/unloading. We can’t tell you off hand who supplied the press quenching system, there are two major suppliers of press quenching systems in Germany, both of whom do a very good job.
https://themonty.com/in-house-heat-treating-agco-fendt-marktoberdorf-germany-part-i/
This concludes our summary of the in house heat treating department of one of the foremost tractor manufacturers in the world, FENDT Tractors. We will be continuing on a regular basis our profiles of some of the largest in house heat treat departments in the world.
We very much regret mentioning that David Miles Kailburn recently passed away. Dave’s entire working life revolved around the commercial heat treating industry in Upstate, NY, USA working with companies such as Jasco Heat Treating and Rochester Steel Treating Works. We found this photo of Dave (on the right) which we took several years ago at RST shortly after they had purchased a new vacuum furnace. We will remember Dave for always being very calm and methodical, in short a person perfectly suited to his maintenance roles.
“David Miles Kailburn, 69 of East Rochester, NY passed away April 2, 2020, in Fort Collins, CO. Dave was predeceased by his father, Laverne Kailburn, and survived by his mother, Mary Lou, brother, Mark (Cindy), and sisters, Diane (Lee), Sharon, and Darcy (Mike). Dave is lovingly remembered by his wife of 53 years, Sandra Merrill Kailburn and his sons, Miles (Vallene) and Luke (Ashley), dear daughter Dana (Evan), and grandsons Avery and Henley. Dave enjoyed summer trips with his family to Watkins Glen and Lake Ontario, maple-sugaring at his cabin in Upstate New York, building his ’47 Indian Chief motorcycle, and completing endless projects around the house, big or small. He was a well-loved husband, father, grandfather, son and friend to all.”
FENDT Tractors (Photo1), a division of AGCO is known around the world as a top end manufacturer of tractors. Manufactured in Germany the company makes many of the components in each tractor including drive train items in house. Today we are looking specifically at the Marktoberdorf, Germany facility which is where many of the drive train items are manufactured and subsequently heat treated.
Drive train components, shafts and gears as an example are almost always heat treated in either pusher style furnaces, rotary hearth, batch IQ or LPC systems and FENDT follows this model with a mixture of batch IQ and pusher furnaces combined with press quenching in some cases. Today we are looking at the pusher furnace department which is as automated as possible. Parts are loaded by robot on investment cast fixturing (photo 2), processed throught the oil quenching pushers (photos 3 & 4) and subsequently unloaded with the empty fixturing being returned by conveyor to the part loading area (photo 5). Everything in this department is completely automated from process variables such as carbon potential and load tracking to loading and unloading of parts. The entire department by the way offers the cleanest oil quenching pusher furnaces we have ever seen. Each and every day the furnaces are wiped down, the floors cleaned and the floor mats replaced all while the furnaces are in full production. It is quite an experience to see such a clean, automated heat treat department with so few workers. Tomorrow we look at the company’s batch IQ and press quenching department.
Granted there are few companies in North America looking to add heat treating capacity, however for those companies which need more capacity there are certainly bargains to be had. As an example we would point to this surplus mesh belt furnace line which is being replaced by a new, larger mesh belt line. It has a very respectable capacity at 3500 pounds per hour and was in operation until just a few weeks ago. Asking price is $50,000 which we would have considered a super bargain just 2 months ago. These days? Impossible to tell but we will report back to you within a couple of months to update this story.
Commercial heat treater Rohde Island Heat Treating Services has a new owner. Just a few weeks back experienced, long time heat treater Joel Poirier purchased the company from the previous owners Mary Emerson and her husband. Rohde Island Heat Treating Services is a very typical commercial heat treat for the US Northeast offering a mixture of heat treating processes including annealing, tempering, hardening, normalizing and stress relieving. We wish Joel the best of luck.
The world’s largest heat treater yesterday announced that they had completed their acquisition of North America based Ellison Surface Technologies. At the same time they issued a statement about the current economic climate.
“Macclesfield-based Bodycote announced the completion of its acquisition of North American-based Ellison Surface Technologies, and a trading update for the first quarter. The group, which is the world’s largest provider of heat treatments and specialist thermal processing services, said trading in the first quarter has not been significantly impacted by disruption from the coronavirus pandemic. But is said it has already been taking mitigating actions in anticipation of tougher conditions to come. These actions are designed to align its cost base with any reduced demand and it said the group will continue to take further action in response to developments and as it deems necessary.
Following today’s announcement today of the completion of the acquisition of Ellison Surface Technologies, Bodycote is approximately £83m drawn on its £230m revolving credit facility, which has two more years to run. Accordingly, there remains £147m of immediately available liquidity. The group said it has a very strong balance sheet and can withstand a significant decline in trading conditions. Nonetheless, given the uncertainty in the current environment, the board said it is keeping the proposal for the final dividend under review. Group chief executive, Stephen Harris, said: “Bodycote’s financial position is strong and our agile and devolved approach to managing the business from day-to-day puts us in a good position to weather the unprecedented disruption which we are likely to face. “I also take this opportunity to recognise the commitment, courage and professionalism shown by our employees during this challenging time.” The group reiterated that its primary concern has always been the safety and well-being of its stakeholders, including its employees, customers and the wider community. The reality of the COVID-19 pandemic has given this priority even greater predominance, it said.
The group’s facilities have introduced additional personal protection measures, intensified hygiene, and social distancing protocols that meet, or exceed, WHO, government and local guidelines. Operations are being managed safely as Bodycote maximises business continuity to provide its essential services and continues to support customers. A COVID-19 task force convenes daily to monitor the situation and coordinate activities on the ground while managing communications with customers and employees, keeping them informed about the evolving situation. Bodycote announced the proposed acquisition of Ellison Surface Technologies in December 2019, for a total of £162m. It said £97m was paid on April 3, 2020, the date of completion of the deal, with the remaining £65m due to be paid on April 3, 2021. Ellison employs almost 400 people across six sites located across the United States, Canada and Mexico. The business generated revenues of £48m for 2019, with associated pro-forma EBITDA of £10m. This represented revenue growth on 2018 of 17%, while pro-forma EBITDA increased 48%, reflecting the fact that Ellison has been successfully gaining share.
This also positions the business for further revenue and profit growth in future years. Bodycote will receive tax benefits worth at least £24m in the years to come. Bodycote said the acquisition creates one of the largest providers of thermal spray and engineered coating surface technology services in the world.
Stephen Harris said: “This acquisition continues our strategy to build our specialist technologies portfolio and enhance our exposure to the civil aerospace market, where we see structural growth over the long term, notwithstanding the current hiatus in the industry. “Ellison’s business is one that we have respected for a long time and is a perfect strategic fit for Bodycote’s specialist technologies businesses.”
“New Columbia, PA – April 6th, 2020: Thermal Product Solutions, LLC (TPS), a global manufacturer of thermal-processing and sterilizing equipment, announced they are working with hospitals to prove the efficacy of their Gruenberg product line for dry heat sterilization on PPE and N95 masks for re-use.
Recent tests at a research hospital show positive results in the dry heat sterilization of masks, face shields, gowns and other PPE, with minimal deterioration of the material. During the process, masks were heated to a specified temperature for a calculated period of time that resulted in sterilization of the material. After the sterilization process, fit tests were performed on the masks that passed filtration efficacy, structural integrity and mask fit. TPS is continuing to work with facilities to further confirm test results.
The Gruenberg sterilizers utilize convection airflow and dry heat for the process. Heat is absorbed by the item being sterilized for a period of time until it reaches the proper temperature needed to destroy microorganisms and achieve sterilization. Dry heat sterilizers range in size from small tabletop models (Picture 1) starting at 1.25 cubic feet (cf) to large truck-in models (Picture 2) offering 1,000cf of sterilization capacity. The larger truck-in unit is estimated to have the capacity to sterilize 15,000 to 18,000 masks per day based on a cycle time of roughly one hour.
Gruenberg’s smaller dry heat sterilizers feature a unique design where the process chamber is sealed throughout the entire cycle, containing any airborne particulates and sterilizing them. Larger chamber systems are easily customized and feature intake and exhaust HEPA filters and offer several door seal options for peace of mind.
“We are dedicated to finding methods that aid in protecting the health and safety of all those serving on the front lines during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our dry heat sterilizers have been used for decades in the decontamination and sterilization of all forms of microbial life and it only made sense to begin testing their efficacy on sterilizing PPE for hospitals and emergency personnel. We are looking to find additional testing partners quickly and ultimately receive FDA approval to help fight the COVID-19 spread.” Greg Jennings, President & CEO”
