We at “The Monty” would have to say that it is probably very fortunate that we have never had to put much thought into what constitutes an essential business-the past few days though have certainly educated us. From far and wide we have been receiving notices from US companies announcing that in spite of widespread forced shut downs due to the COVID-19 virus they will be remaining open due to their designation as either an “essential business”, “essential service”, “critical manufacturer”, “Critical Manufacturing Supplier” and a half dozen other designations. The designations refer to the fact that these companies provide services to the defense, food, energy or chemical industries to name a few. Of particular note is the number of commercial heat treaters who have these designations, Advanced Heat Treat Corp., based in Iowa, Braddock Metallurgical in the Southeast, National Heat Treat in Texas and Stack Metallurgical in the Northwest are a just a few that come to mind. While this is one heck of a way to find out you are needed it certainly puts a perspective on how important our industry is.
“SECO/WARWICK received an order from a machine-tool manufacturer for two vacuum heat-treatment furnaces. The manufacturer purchased a multi-chamber vacuum furnace with oil quench and a high-pressure gas-quench vacuum furnace for its recently created captive heat-treat department. All of the necessary auxiliary equipment, such as chilling water storage and pumping, were included in the package. As part of the sale, SECO/WARWICK will create and deliver process recipes for the company to make the transition to in-house heat treatment as efficient as possible. The CaseMaster Evolution (CMe), is a multi-chamber carburizing furnace with integral gas or oil quench. The Vector single-chamber, high-pressure gas-quench vacuum furnace is capable of quench pressures up to 15 bar and can perform a variety of heat-treat processes.”
A regular feature of “The Monty” is our articles profiling manufacturing firms which do in house heat treating, today we feature an Australian company by the name of Sutton Tools. The best background from the company comes directly from their website https://www.suttontools.com/
“Sutton Tools manufactures cutting tools at two sites across Victoria, both for the domestic market and for export. The bulk of general production occurs at our head office site at Thomastown, in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, with more specialised operations centred at our Maryborough facility. We also have overseas production plants in Auckland, New Zealand, and in the Netherlands.
Sutton Tool’s state-of-the-art production processes begin with raw material preparation. High-speed steel is imported from France and Austria, as Sutton Tools has found the quality of this European-manufactured steel is superior to raw material sourced from Asia. This steel is processed to workable length & diameter, then turned, using computer controlled machines that are able to complete a number of turning operations in a single manufacturing stage.
While Sutton Tools supplies tools to a broad spectrum of industries – including general manufacturing, electronic manufacturing, automotive, medical, mining and power generation – most advancement in material technology it experiences are occurring in the aerospace, defence and oil/gas industries. The development of so-called ‘super alloys’ for these sectors is constantly pushing material performance boundaries. However, the tougher these materials become, the tougher the tools need to be to work the new generation of alloys.”
Sutton does their heat treating through a division by the name of Surface Technology Coatings located adjacent to the manufacturing facility in Thomastown, a suburb of Melbourne. The heat treating department consists of 3 large Abar Ipsen vacuum furnaces with quenching up to 12 bar and an Ion Nitriding system. While Surface Technology Coatings is dedicated to heat treating and coating tools for their own production they also offer commercial heat treating and claim they have the only commercially available Ion Nitrider in the country which we have no reason to doubt. Interestingly enough the Ion Nitrider is a “NitroPlas”, a brand or name we are not familiar with. These photos give you an idea about Sutton’s products and also a view of the heat treating department. We can say it is clean, well organized and certainly portrays an image which Sutton should be proud of.
In early 2019 Accurate Brazing announced that they were joining a growing trend around the world by investing in a Hot Isostatic Press. The decision proved to be such a success that in November of 2019 the company announced they would be adding a second system (the November 2019 press release is below). Things are proceeding as they should and these two photos show the installation as of just a few days ago. The third picture shows part of the vacuum department.
“Västerås, Sweden, November 19, 2019 – Accurate Brazing, a full-service provider of specialized heat treating solutions, added Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) to its thermal processing capabilities earlier this year. “Based on overwhelming feedback from the marketplace, we are pleased to be moving forward with our second Hot Isostatic Press from Quintus Technologies,” says Steven Francis, president of Accurate Brazing. Both presses are of the model QIH 122 M URC®. They are equipped with the Quintus proprietary uniform rapid cooling (URC) feature, which combines HIP and heat treatment in a single process. This process is called High Pressure Heat Treatment (HPHT), and it streamlines the steps involved in material densification and heat treatment. This innovative approach also enables all processed components to cool uniformly, resulting in minimal thermal distortion and non-uniform grain growth. “The Quintus technology allows us to shorten lead times, improve product metallurgy, and eliminate some additional outside operations, which is very attractive to our customers,” says Mr. Francis. Accurate Brazing serves the aerospace and power generation industries, as well as other sectors that demand high quality and short lead times. Many of Accurate Brazing’s customers utilize additive manufacturing (AM). “The versatility of the Quintus units makes them well suited for our service business model,” says Mr. Francis.
The new QIH 122 M URC® will join the first Quintus press and the rest of the state-of-the-art equipment operating in Accurate Brazing’s newest facility in Greenville, S.C., USA. The company’s AS9100 quality management system and Nadcap accreditation attest to its ability to meet the stringent needs of its customers. Quintus will install and commission the new press. Accurate Brazing has also joined the Quintus® Care program, which ensures flawless press operation and optimized functionality at a fixed annual cost. Quintus Care also provides access to in-depth technical expertise to support successful customer applications. Both Quintus presses are configured as Quintus Modularized Solutions, which reduces infrastructure investment and saves space and energy. Both presses offer a work zone of 26.0 inches (660 mm) in diameter and 68.9 inches (1,750 mm) in height. They operate at a maximum temperature of 2,552°F (1,400°C) and a maximum pressure of 30,000 psi (2,070 bar). “The need for Hot Isostatic Pressing is steadily increasing, and we’re pleased to help Accurate Brazing meet this demand,” says Jan Söderström, CEO of Quintus Technologies. “Quintus Technologies has led the industry in advanced Hot Isostatic Pressing technology for over 60 years, so Accurate Brazing and its customers can rest assured that they are using the best equipment available.”
About Accurate Brazing; Headquartered in Goffstown, N.H, Accurate Brazing and Vacuum Heat Treatment has been creatively solving challenges in complex and detailed heat treating and brazing applications since 1989. It has a long history of serving the needs of aircraft, ground turbine and power generation markets, along with other industries that demand high quality and often operate with aggressive lead times. The company’s original New Hampshire operations have grown to include three additional East Coast locations: two facilities in South Carolina and one in Connecticut. Accurate Brazing is a subsidiary of Aalberts N.V., one of the largest thermal processing companies in the world. Committed to adaptation and innovation with a clear focus on customers, Aalberts employs approximately 16,500 people at more than 150 locations in 50 countries across the globe. Read more about Accurate Brazing: www.accuratebrazing.com”
(Editor’s Note; Next week “The Monty” will be featuring an interview with Dr. Klaus Loeser, VP of ALD)
“ALD welcomes Andrew Chan in the position of Sales and Applications Engineer in the sales team for Vacuum Heat Treatment Furnaces and Equipment. Together with Ronald Creed (Director of Sales North America) and Manuel Rippl (Product Manager North America) he is part of our new sales team for the US, Canada and Mexico. The close cooperation between ALD North America and the German HQ ALD GmbH is reinforced by frequent visits of the German team – Joachim Boss (Director Sales Heat Treatment) and Natalie Beck (Product Manager Heat Treatment) – to the US, teaming up with our US colleagues to provide best expertise in furnace technologies and processes to our vacuum heat treatment customers.
Andrew Chan earned his Bachelor of Science in Materials Science and Engineering from Drexel University in Philadelphia in 2009. His experience with high technology equipment sales and applications along with his materials science and engineering background makes Andrew a perfect match for his new position with ALD. Andrew joins us after nearly ten years sales experience in the vacuum metallurgy markets and previous experience in quality management of day to day operations testing heat treated samples through processes included carburizing, nitriding, carbonitriding, annealing, quench and temper, and niche heat treatment and surface treatment processes.
At the same time ALD North America’s Customer Service Organization continues to expand in key geographical areas with Field Service Engineers and Technical Experts located in Northern California, East Windsor CT, Charlotte, NC, Western NY and in the South East Technology Corridor where we have several large installations of equipment supporting automotive, energy and aerospace customers.
About ALD Vacuum Technologies GmbH: ALD Vacuum Technologies GmbH is a leading manufacturer of plants and systems for the thermal and thermo-chemical treatment of metallic materials in solid and liquid form and one of the market leaders in the metal and steel industry. The product range includes heat treatment systems for hardening high-precision engine and transmission components and tools, as well as vacuum systems for melting, casting and remelting metals and alloys, metals for solar cells, special coating systems for turbine blades in aviation, atomization systems for the production of high-quality metal powder. ALD employs about 500 people at its headquarters in Hanau, Germany, and about 900 people in 10 countries worldwide. ALD is part of AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group N.V., Netherlands, a public listed technology company with leading market position and approximately 3,300 employees.”
Andrew Chan
Manuel Rippl
This could also be called “Big Changes at AFC-Holcroft Europe” as this news item is actually two items, the first about the new managing director of the company and the second about the company moving its European satellite office. We rummaged through our photo files to find a suitable picture and came up with this one. Taken at Thermprocess in Dusseldorf, Germany last June we see Marek Kedzierzynski on the far left and Mark Ruetsch fourth from the left in the back row.
“AFC-Holcroft, headquartered in Wixom, Michigan, USA, has named Marek Kedzierzynski their new Managing Director of European Operations. Kedzierzynski secedes the outgoing Managing Director for Europe, Marc Ruetsch, who plans to retire mid-year. Kedzierzynski will report to Tracy Dougherty, Vice President of Sales for AFC-Holcroft. Along with a Master of Engineering degree (M.Eng) received from University of Zielona Gora in Poland, Kedzierzynski is currently pursuing a PhD from West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin, Poland . Kedzierzynski has focused on engineering and heat treating exclusively throughout his career, beginning with his start as a design engineer while still in college, while working his way thru several technical roles with major furnace equipment suppliers, and eventually moving into Sales and related activities. Upward momentum and increasing responsibilities led to high level roles including Director of Furnace Sales and Commercial Director/Member of the Board, before joining AFC-Holcroft in 2019. In addition, Kedzierzynski owned and operated his own heat treat consulting business while pursuing his university studies. He is fluent in Polish, English and Russian languages.
Kedzierzynski, says, “It is an honor to take the reins of AFC-Holcroft’s European operations from my distinguished colleague Mr. Marc Ruetsch. I am grateful to have this opportunity to join AFC-Holcroft in this role, and be able to use my education, technical know-how and sales experience on a daily basis.” He added, “I am honored to be selected to be a part of the AFC-Holcroft team.” Along with the new title, the physical office of AFC-Holcroft Europe has moved from Switzerland to Poland. A separate formal announcement will include the new address and telephone information.
About AFC-Holcroft; AFC-Holcroft, founded in 1916, is one of the leading manufacturers of industrial furnace systems used in the heat treatment of ferrous and non-ferrous metals. The company has approximately 120 employees globally and has been part of the AICHELIN Group since 2016. AFC-Holcroft produces high quality thermal processing equipment used in the production of metal components, and provides related aftermarket service. Customers include both captive and commercial heat treaters who supply components to various industries such as automotive, heavy truck, industrial bearings and gears, railroad, fasteners, mining, aluminum heat treatment, and others. The company is headquartered in Wixom, Michigan, USA and has its own subsidiaries in China and Poland as well as a global partner network in Australia, Brazil, India, Mexico and Spain. www.afc-holcroft.com”
AFC-Holcroft Moving its European Satellite Office
“AFC-Holcroft, headquartered in Wixom, Michigan, USA, will be moving its European satellite office, presently located in Delémont, Switzerland, to Swiebodzin, Poland. The move was necessitated by the pending retirement of Marc Ruetsch, the current Director of European Operations, who has announced he is stepping down in mid-2020. The new Director of European Operations, Marek Kedzierzynski, will be based out of Poland, and all activity related to AFC-Holcroft’s business in Europe will continue seamlessly from this new location. The new address and telephone numbers are as follows:
AFC-Holcroft, L.L.C.
Plac Wolnosci 5 Mailbox 56
66-200 Swiebodzin
POLAND
Telephone +48 68 41 61 776
Commercial heat treater Metex Heat Treat in Mississauga, Canada is bucking the trend these days with a major new investment. Just last week the company placed on order a brand new 7200 pound per hour mesh belt furnace line. The gas fired line with oil quenching and state of the art controls will be provided by a Canadian company. Metex is a family owned business founded by the President and owner Mr. Surjit Bawa Metex which has grown to be one of the largest commercial heat treaters in North America for fasteners. Currently the company has 7 mesh belt furnace lines ranging in size from 1,000 pounds per hour up to 6,000 pounds per hour with a total capacity of over 300,000 pounds per day AND this is before this newest addition. Interestingly enough the demand for their continuous heat treating is so strong that the company has asked for an expedited delivery. This photo shows the owner of the company Mr. Surjit Bawa with Gord Montgomery in front of one of the lines.
For almost 25 years “The Monty” has been printing the most up to date news and trends in the worldwide heat treating industry and a very large percentage of this news will only be found on “The Monty”-something we have always prided ourselves on. Sharp eyed readers have been noticing that recently we started adding a “Monty Exclusive” logo to those items which will not be found on other websites. So if you see this logo, you know it is the most up to date and exclusive news in the heat treatment industry.
To start off the March 23, 2020 “Monday Morning Briefing” we are going to get all of the bad news out of the way first, namely everything to do with the “corona virus”. To start off it is obvious that everything to do with the heat treating industry in North America is slowing down in a hurry. As an example at the time this was posted the governors of California and Illinois had both issued “stay at home orders” which would appear to mean all manufacturing is effectively shut down. This means captive and commercial heat treaters and many industry suppliers will not be in production for at least two weeks. The virus has had some very strange effects including prompting auto parts giant “Linamar” to consider making ventilators in addition to auto parts as we can see in this news item; ”The CEO of Linamar says the shutdown of automakers will have an effect on its operations, while at the same time the company hopes to shift its focus on manufacturing much-needed ventilators for the health care sector. The federal government is working with manufacturers to boost production of medical equipment and supplies to handle the demand in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a statement emailed to GuelphToday on Friday, Linamar CEO Linda Hasenfratz said the company is actively investigating the feasibility of manufacturing ventilators, working with a variety of partners. “Linamar is working closely with government, industry experts and other manufacturing companies to find a way to expedite expanding capacity for ventilators,” said Hasenfratz. “It is a top priority for us at the moment and one we are highly focused on.” In early March, Linamar established a task force to deal with COVID-19 and is now executing on an action plan.” Can you picture this Linamar facility in Guelph, Ontario with 25 AFC-Holcroft batch IQ furnaces making ventilator parts instead of transmission parts-we can’t.
Continuing on with “corona virus” news we see that Metal Treating Institute in the USA, an organization of many of the commercial heat treaters in the US and Canada is cancelling their spring meeting in Sonoma CA., because of the virus. Along the same lines MTI published this survey about what their members think of this crisis.
From Europe we are looking forward to a very good news press release about a major, major furnace system order being placed. We hope and expect to have something in the near future and you will read about it on “The Monty” first. These days we need more news items about furnace orders being placed and this one should fit the bill. Speaking of new orders we turn to the USA and Colombia for this one. The pictures below show a brand new Plasma Nitrider built by Ion Heat in Colombia which is in the process of being shipped to a customer in the USA. While we can’t name the customer yet we certainly will in the next few weeks. Ion Heat is a furnace manufacturer who we didn’t hear much about just a couple of years ago-that has changed as they ship more systems. By the way this system will be set up in a pit which explains why the HMI is so high in the picture below.
From McLaughlin Furnace Group we had this press release back in May of 2019; “McLaughlin Furnace Group Announces Pusher Furnace Order. McLaughlin Furnace Group based in Fort Wayne, Indiana is pleased to announce that they have received an order from a major truck component manufacturer for a two row, gas fired pusher furnace. The president and owner of the company Mr. Jeff McLaughlin had this to say about the order “We are very pleased that such a substantial manufacturer should have so much confidence in our ability to provide a state of the art system on time and on budget. This is a real milestone for our company and reinforces the fact that McLaughlin Furnace Group has grown to be one of the largest and most diversified in the North American furnace manufacturing industry”. McLaughlin Group expects the furnace to be installed and in operation the fourth quarter of 2019.”
The end customer as mentioned was Volvo Powertrain in Maryland, USA and McLaughlin has this update; “McLaughlin Furnace Group is pleased to announce that this furnace installation is now complete with the furnace meeting all of the customers criteria and requirements, on time and on budget.” The photos below show the partially completed project at Volvo and also Jeff relaxing after the job was completed.
Meritor Chicago (formerly AxleTech) has some surplus heat treating equipment. This auto parts manufacturer and captive heat treater maintains a large facility in the Chicago area, however some of the equipment has not been used for many years and is on the used market. While this includes some highly desirable Surface Combustion 36 X 72 X 36 batch IQ furnaces, they are older vintage and have not been used for quite some time which in this market is going to limit their desirability.
And to round things out we go back to a news item we had a week about how shipments from China to the rest of the world are resuming as factories there resume production. Of most interest to heat treaters are moly and alloy products sourced from the country. As it turns out it is entirely true that deliveries have resumed and are very much back on track-ahead of schedule in some cases. A small but very surmountable obstacle that we just learned about is that as shipments have resumed airfreight shipping costs have gone up slightly because of reduced flights from China meaning less competition. Well that didn’t occur to us although it should have-time will take care of this.
“Dear Nitrex Community, At Nitrex, the safety and well-being of our communities, employees, our customers, suppliers and stakeholders is always our priority. We recognize the important role we play in providing our Nitrex Heat Treating Solutions through our three divisions – Nitrex Turnkey Systems, Heat Treating Services, United Process Controls – including our new colleagues from G-M Enterprises, during this critical time. We are actively monitoring the COVID-19/Coronavirus situation and taking steps to help keep our communities safe. Herein, we share with you the steps we are taking.
Aligning with public health authorities. We have established a team dedicated to respond to this pandemic and have prepared Business Continuity Plans to ensure the continuation of products, services and customer support. We are closely monitoring updates regarding COVID-19 from global organizations such as the World Health Organization as well as various public authorities in each of the regions we operate. We continue to seek guidance from these agencies, public health officials and government agencies on an ongoing basis.
Protecting the Nitrex community. As our employees interact with customers, suppliers and the general public, we have taken steps to limit exposure to the virus. Strict restrictions were put in place on both international and domestic travel, limiting visitors inside our facilities, cancelling large-scale event attendance, reducing face-to-face meetings to a minimum, providing work-from-home solutions, and continue to reinforce safe behavior in every environment – from our industrial plants, sales offices to our administrative offices, we are promoting deep- cleaning and routine disinfection. Similarly, Nitrex has designated a COVID-19 ‘Point Team’, consisting of our top global leaders, who come together daily to discuss new efforts and best practices to effectively minimize exposure risk while also maintaining safe business operations.
Assisting our employees. We are in daily communication with our employees reminding them about the importance of good hygiene, providing health education and support whenever needed. We encourage employees who feel ill to stay at home and we have specific quarantine and communication procedures in place should an employee be diagnosed with COVID-19 or is asked to self-isolate by public health authority. Moreover, Nitrex provides comprehensive benefit packages to support employees during this period.”
