“Nadcap® recognizes Kittyhawk Products OR LLC for its commitment to continual improvement in aerospace quality. Kittyhawk Products OR LLC announces that it has been awarded Nadcap® accreditation for Heat Treating/Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP). “We at Kittyhawk are proud to share this achievement. Our commitment to better serve our customers with a new facility in the Pacific Northwest is a huge leap for our company. Kittyhawk is a small family run business that has served the HIP needs of it’s customers since 1981. We are confident in our foundation and excited about the growth.” Kittyhawk Inc has held Nadcap® accreditation since 2014. The Oregon facility opened its doors in November 2019. Kittyhawk Products OR LLC received Nadcap accreditation for demonstrating their ongoing commitment to quality by satisfying customer requirements and industry specifications. “Nadcap® accreditation is universally acknowledged as a significant undertaking. Validating compliance to industry standards, best practices and customer requirements, Nadcap® has long been incorporated by the aerospace industry into their risk mitigation activity. Congratulations are therefore due to Kittyhawk Products OR LLC as their hard work has resulted in achieving Nadcap accreditation for Heat Treating/Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP),” commented Michael J. Hayward, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at the Performance Review Institute.”
Cloyes Gear and Products recently announced that it achieved ISO 9001:2015 certification for its manufacturing plant in Paris, Arkansas. We mention the company because they have a reasonably large captive heat treating department; “Based in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Cloyes is a leader and a global designer, developer, manufacturer and distributor of timing drive systems and components for original equipment manufacturers and the automotive aftermarket. ISO 9001 is the international standard that specifies requirements for a quality management system (QMS). Organizations use the standard to demonstrate the ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customer and regulatory requirements. It is the most popular standard in the ISO 9000 series and the only standard in the series to which organizations can certify.” Last year furnace builder SECO/WARWICK closed their manufacturing operation in Meadville, PA. We see that the remaining equipment will be auctioned off this week. Rather sad to see the end of the road for this facility which we visited a number of times over the years. We mentioned a little while back how powdered metal parts supplier Chicago Powdered Metal in Schiller Park, IL, USA had closed their doors. The equipment, including a number of rather tired mesh belt sintering furnaces will be on the auction block January 23/2020. We can’t imagine their will be much demand for the furnaces.
We have rated commercial heat treater Hauck Heat Treatment #2 in Europe in terms of annual sales https://themonty.com/largest-
Since we are talking about Poland and SECO/WARWICK we might as well mention another installation the company is working on. Commercial heat treater HART-TECH in Poland is in the process as we speak of installing a new system. What you see in this photo is a brand new SECO vacuum furnace capable of vacuum hardening and vacuum carburizing. As you can see installation is almost complete and the furnace should be in production in the near future.
People News. We start off in Enfield, CT, USA where we hear that Bob Lyman recently became CEO of commercial heat treater Eastern Metal Treating, Inc. Eastern is a family owned business specialising in austempering and Bob up until the end of 2019 was General Manager. Anne Miner has been involved with marketing in the heat treat industry for many years and most recently was working with Diablo Furnaces in Rockford, IL until it closed down at the end of 2019. It would appear that Anne is now Client Services Manager Rebuild & Retrofits for Ingersoll Machine Tools again in Rockford. Ben Jones recently became Quality Operations Manager at Hauck Heat Treatment Ltd., in Luton, UK. As we mentioned further up Hauck is one of the largest commercials in Europe.
There is a news report which can be easily found saying that there was an issue at RTI Surgical in Marquette, Michigan over the weekend which resulted in the plant closing. The stories we have seen have been brief but all basically say that Saturday morning Nitric acid was spilled and that it came from a Heat Treat furnace. No idea what type of furnace it was but needless to say if we hear anything more we will let you know. We will wrap up this Monday Morning Briefing with a photo which dates back a number of years, 12 we believe. In this picture we see Terry Profugi of Hi TecMetal Group Inc., in Cleveland along with John Hubbard of Bodycote fame.
Ipsen USA installs a TITAN® vacuum furnace at Stack Metallurgical Group’s location in Spokane Valley, Washington. Stack Metallurgical Group is Nadcap accredited and the Northwestern United States’ largest commercial heat treater.
Formerly known as Inland NW Metallurgical Services, Stack Spokane is one of the company’s four locations offering a range of metal processing services. Installation of the TITAN® H6 2-bar vacuum furnace was completed in late 2019 and will be used to process critical aerospace components.
Stack operates four Ipsen furnaces in Spokane and a dozen more in Portland. From stress relieving, normalizing, annealing and hardening, Ipsen has supplied Stack with numerous furnaces to meet just about any heat-treating need.
“It was an easy choice adding another Ipsen furnace to our offering,” said General Manager Ron Decker. “We count on Ipsen for a versatile product that delivers great results.”
TITAN® furnaces achieve powerful performance using innovative technology and predictive maintenance capabilities all while maintaining a global platform, small footprint and short delivery times. This TITAN® H6 has a graphite hot zone, load size of 36” wide x 36” high x 48” deep and can process up to 3,000 lbs.
About Ipsen
Ipsen USA designs and manufactures industrial vacuum and atmosphere heat-treating systems, supervisory controls systems and predictive maintenance software platforms for many industries, including Aerospace, Automotive, Commercial Heat Treating, Energy and Medical. With production locations in America, Europe and Asia, and representation in 34 countries, Ipsen is committed to providing 360° support for customers wrldwide. Read more about Ipsen: ipsenusa.com
About Stack Metallurgical Services, Inc.
Stack Metallurgical Group has a history dating to 1946 and has grown to become the most versatile provider of heat treating and metal processing services in the Pacific Northwest. Through its new HIP facility, Stack offers four Nadcap-accredited locations with a focus on the aerospace, power generation, medical implants, and high-end knife and cutlery markets. The company’s modern, extensive equipment line-up offers a comprehensive portfolio of services for clients throughout North America. With a range of aerospace OEM approvals for heat treatment, Stack has built trusted relationships with aerospace titans like Boeing, General Electric, Consolidated Precision Products and Precision Castparts. Read more about Stack: stackmet.com.
We had a news item yesterday about how commercial heat treater HT-MX in Chihuahua, Mexico had ordered a new HIP unit-as it turns out that information is rather out of date. The reality is that HT-MX did order a HIP system however it is now installed, in operation and awaiting NADCAP approval which should happen in the next few weeks. The company plans on having an Open House in February to show off the unit and also to showcase a number of other investments the company had made over the past little while. These photos show part of the HT-MX facility.
We have available two gas fired Surface Combustion “Super 36” Allcase furnaces. These were built in 2001, have updated SSi, “state of the art” controls, one has top cool and both are in excellent condition. Asking price is $115,000 USD each which is a tremendous price. [email protected]
Commercial heat treater HT-MX in Chihuahua, Mexico has just placed an order with Quintus Technologies for a hot isostatic press (HIP) system. It will include Quintus’ proprietary uniform rapid cooling (URC) feature, which combines HIP and heat treatment in a single process. The HIP has a hot zone measuring 14.8 inches (375 mm) in diameter and 47.2 inches (1,200 mm) in height. It operates at a temperature of 2550°F (1400°C) and a pressure of up to 2,070 bar (30,000 psi). As far as we know this will be the first HIP unit to be installed in Mexico. We’re still surprised at the rapid growth in hot isostatic pressing in North America, this represents roughly the 5th order Quintus has received in the past year. In related news “The Monty” will be attending the grand opening of the brand new HIP installation at Stack Metallurgical in Albany, Oregon at the end of this month. This photo shows the first system being installed-we will be showing you the finished installation in just two weeks.
Yesterday we had a news item about German commercial heat treater HALEX Holding GmbH acquiring another facility, “Härterei Aribert Conrad GmbH” headquartered in Iserlohn-Sümmern, Germany. To go with that news item we have these photos of Härterei Aribert Conrad.
In Germany we see that commercial heat treater Halex with 15 plants around Europe has acquired yet another, in this case a facility by the name of “Härterei Aribert Conrad”. Over the past couple of years we at “The Monty” have had the chance to visit a number of their plants and can truthfully say that they are all pretty nice operations. These pictures tell the story.
“Aldenhoven, 10th January 2020 – HALEX Holding GmbH acquires all shares of the hardening shop “Härterei Aribert Conrad GmbH” headquartered in Iserlohn-Sümmern. The hardening shop “Härterei Aribert Conrad GmbH” specializes in the heat and surface treatment of metallic material and operates SPS-controlled hardening lines with highly motivated and skilled staff on over 1500 square meters production space. The machines’ various application possibilities allow to work an advanced variety of different materials providing excellent, certified quality. Even large quantities will be delivered to the customers’ facilities with minimal lead times and optimal quality. This is guaranteed through continuous modernization of the machinery and reliable, future-oriented processes as innovation and progress have a long tradition at Conrad. “Conrad is an excellent addition for our corporate group as technology, geographic location, corporate culture and customer basis fit very well to our group.” as described by Sven Killmer, CEO HALEX Holding GmbH. “We are particularly happy that Mr. Kampen will continue to manage the hardening shop Conrad as an experienced and well-connected managing director. Embedded in our supporting HALEX-Holding-structure Conrad is able to continue its success story of the previous years and in join cooperation and our support, invest into its employees, production capacity and new technology. We welcome the hardening shop “Härterei Aribert Conrad GmbH” and all its employees within the HALEX family!”
Martin Kampen, CEO Härterei Aribert Conrad GmbH adds: „We are happy that through the acquisition we have been able to solve the company’s open successor question and were able to ensure the long-term persistence of the company while strongly equipping it for the future, as there are attractive possibilities for knowledge transfers within a group. The HALEX Holding offers a significant added value to us in many areas. Next to the advantages of a large corporate group, HALEX convinced us especially through its mid-tier corporate culture and decentralized governance strategy. Concrete, this means for us demand-based support in the future, while still being able to make our own decisions for our own local market.”
The HALEX GROUP was founded in 1990 and operates as a successful corporate group with two business segments. The company with headquarters in Aldenhoven, Germany belongs to the leading manufacturers of aluminum extrusion dies and service providers for metal finishing through heat and surface treatment in Europe. HALEX operates 15 subsidiaries with around 550 employees in Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and Romania. For the transaction ARQUIS Rechtsanwälte supported the HALEX Holding on the legal side, PwC acted as financial and tax advisor. Additionally, the ERM Group advised on the fields environment, health and safety. The contact to the “Härterei Aribert Conrad GmbH” was made by the M&A consultancy Livingstone Partners.”
Härtha Hardening Industries, Weissenburg, Germany
Sabo Boxtel Division, Boxtel, The Netherlands
Handle Härterei GmbH Division, Tübingen, Germany
Haertha Hardening Industries, Aldenhoven, Germany
Last week we had a news item about an explosion at a Beechcraft facility in Wichita, Kansas. It made our news section because of the possibility that it was related to heat treating the company does. As it turns out it was an autoclave furnace with nitrogen addition and this photo shows what a tremendous explosion it was.
“New pictures released by the Sedgwick County Fire Department show the devastation left after a massive explosion at Textron’s Beechcraft plant number three in December. “Once again, it not only does it show the force of this blast but it also shows how fortunate we were that they were on a shutdown,” says Chief Doug Williams. Chief Williams told Sedgwick County commissioners the cause of the blast that left 15 workers injured is still a mystery, but he says this massive piece of equipment called an autoclave blew up, sending a fan 450 feet in the air. It landed in a nearby field. “The autoclave exploded out at Textron. This is a very, very large piece of equipment. It was pressurized with nitrogen which is an inert gas. It’s not something that’s harmful, you’re breathing it right now, so, as a result of that explosion, we don’t why it exploded,” says Commissioner David Dennis. The autoclave is a large oven, 25 by 65 feet…used to mold airplane equipment. It’s so big, it was used to cure a space shuttle wing several years ago. The blast blew the autoclave off its concrete base. At the time of the blast, Textron thought it was a small pipe that exploded. The blast was so big it damaged at least a dozen cars in the parking lot and left mangled metal strewn everywhere. A 20-foot-long piece of iron was launched through the roof of a completely separate building. “One piece traveled across to another building and just missed a major gas line, which if it would’ve hit that gas line it would’ve caused a huge explosion,” said Dennis.”
Back in April of 2019 we had this news item about investment casting company Uni-Cast in Londonderry, NH, USA adding two drop bottom ovens. Well one of them is now installed as you can see in this photo. “April 11 2019 Uni-Cast is expanding their factory located in Londonderry, NH and they chose Pyradia for the purchase of 2 electric drop bottom ovens with a temperature uniformity of +/- 10 °F for their T4 applications. Uni-Cast is a major manufacturer of sophisticated aluminum investment castings which has built an enviable reputation in the industry for strict quality control and the capability to produce some of the industry’s most challenging designs.”
