To start off this week we have some people news starting with HI TecMetal Group, one of the larger commercial heat treaters in the US; “HI TecMetal Group Inc. (HTG), Cleveland Ohio, announces the appointment of Shaun Campbell as plant manager for Walker Tool Steel Heat Treat facility. If you see a new face on December 23rd, let Shaun know that you are excited about him joining our team. If you do work with the Walker team, please look for an opportunity to greet Shaun. Prior to joining HTG, Shaun worked for OVT Heat Treating of Cleveland where he held roles in quality and production. In his prior role, he spent 21 years as manager of Kowalski Heat Treating in the plasma nitride department, he brings a a wealth of knowledge and experience in heat treat.”
Ludovic Chouraki very recently became Maintenance Manager at Accurate Brazing Corp., in Greenville, SC. Ludovic has a long history in the industry and most recently was Southeast Regional Service Manager for Ipsen. Accurate Brazing Corp., is part of the Aalberts group of companies and was recently in the news when they announced their second Hot Isostatic Press from Quintus Technologies. If you would like to know more about how large Aalberts Industries is we would suggest; https://themonty.com/largest-commercial-heat-treats/
In the US Northeast everybody knows the rep firm of Dean Russell and his son Dean Russell. For years they have been representing some of the best known heat treat equipment brands such as furnace builder Ipsen and cooling system specialist Dry Coolers. Well Dean Senior just became a grandfather again and his son just became a Dad for the third time with the birth of Connor Quinn Russell.
In Meadville, PA, USA we heard that Bill Cooper passed away at the relatively young age of 63. Bill worked at Meadville Forging Company for 30 years and retired as foreman of the heat treat department. Sue Harrod has been in the heat treatment industry for quite some time, most recently as CEO of furnace builder Diablo Furnaces in Rockford, IL., and before that with Beavermatic. She parted ways with the company earlier this year but we see that she is now in charge of Sales & Marketing for Glow Heat Treat Services who appears to be a furnace rebuilding company. Out in Phoenix, Arizona, USA it looks like Eric Reamer was recently promoted to Engineering Manager at Phoenix Heat Treat. Phoenix is the largest commercial heat treater in the state. We have this photo which was taken at controls company SSi in Cincinnati, Ohio just last week. In it we see from the left Bob Fincken, National Sales Manager, Jordan Montgomery of WG Montgomery Ltd., Steve Thompson CEO of SSi and Gord Montgomery.
In Germany furnace builder ALD completed their third expansion very recently. “The new buildings created space for more than 100 additional employees. This significantly eases the space available for the ALD workforce in Hanau, which has meanwhile risen to more than 500 employees. “The continuing good business development was accompanied by a parallel increase in the number of employees and led to increase space requirements in 2018”, reported Löber, the CEO. “Recently we have had to move closer together and even create temporary solutions in order to find a place for all our employees. We are therefore very pleased that we can now move into the new buildings”. The third construction phase for ALD comprises a four-storey office building with an area of 2,500 m² and another hall with an area of 2,500 m². Identical to the large assembly hall from the first construction phase, this has sufficient hall volume and all necessary energy and media connections including the associated pits.”
In Mexico Tier 1 auto parts supplier Metalsa, México recently completed installation of a brand newheat treat department. The Equipment is in the final stages of acceptance and early in the new year we Will be able to give you more details.. Captive heat treater Slacan in Brantford, Ontario, Canada just installed a gas fired batch IQ furnace doubling their in house heat treating capacity. Slacan is a supplier of “pole line hardware”-those big clips you see on electric power transmission lines. From oven builder Wisconsin Oven we have this press release; “Wisconsin Oven Corporation announced the shipment of one (1) Indirect Gas Fired Heavy Duty Walk-In Series Oven to a manufacturer in the technology industry. The walk-in oven will be used for heat-treating materials used in the production of vehicle batteries.”
To round things out we hear that burner manufacturer Noxmat, a German company which is part of the Aichelin Group just opened their new subsidiary in India. This photo shows part of the opening ceremony.
Dr. Heuer, Head of Research and Development Heat Treatment at ALD, was honored with distinguished award during a reception at the 75th Heat Treatment Congress in Cologne. He was awarded the Karl-Wilhelm-Burgdorf Prize by Dr. Winfried Gräfen, the Chairman of the AWT. This prize is granted to individuals who have put scientific findings into practice in an extraordinary manner, giving impetus to materials technology and heat treatment.
In his laudatory speech, Dr. Gräfen emphasized in particular the development of low-pressure carburizing and high-pressure gas quenching technology as well as the associated ModulTherm and SyncroTherm plant technology. Furthermore, he emphasized not only Dr. Heuer’s intensive and outstanding lecture activities, but also the numerous publications with which he made his knowledge available to the public. He thanked Dr. Heuer for many years of membership and close ties to the AWT and congratulated him for the award, which is to honor his successful work at the interface of science and practice.
“The Association for Heat Treatment and Materials Science (AWT – www.awt-online.org) stands for communication and knowledge that deals with heat treatment and material engineering. The AWT first and foremost promotes the transfer of knowledge and cooperative exchange of ideas between research and industry. To this purpose, the AWT initiates its own research projects and sets the standards throughout Europe by holding professional technical congresses.” (Source: AWT) Founder of the Karl Wilhelm Burgdorf Prize is the BURGDORF GmbH & Co. KG.
The remaining assets of what was formerly Bluewater Thermal Solutions in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada were auctioned off today and the auction can certainly be considered to have been a success. All of the 36″ X 72″ X 36″ batch IQ furnaces were sold with the newest one (shown in this photo) selling for a little over $300,000 and the other older ones selling for what we would consider to be quite respectable prices. Rumor has it that most of the IQ’s are destined for Texas. Surprisingly enough the two smaller mesh belts sold, one to the former GM of the facility and the other to an individual we are not familiar with. We have been told that the only items that didn’t sell were the two large Can Eng aluminum furnaces which is not a surprise. We hasten to add that there is nothing wrong with them, it is just a very small market for this style of furnace. While many consider that the commercial heat treating industry in North America is slowing down there is little sign of it from this auction.
DuBois, Pa – Gasbarre Products, Inc. (Gasbarre) is pleased to announce that at the end of 2019 all Thermal Processing Systems will be manufactured in its 50,000 sq. ft. facility located in St. Mary’s, Pennsylvania.
In 2011 Gasbarre acquired the JL Becker brand of industrial furnace equipment. Over the last 8 years, Gasbarre has run parallel manufacturing facilities in Michigan and Pennsylvania for its furnace equipment. Consolidating the manufacturing of its common product lines allow for the most efficient use of its floor space, equipment and manufacturing processes.
According to Gasbarre CEO, Alex Gasbarre, “This move is not only beneficial to our current operations, but it will directly impact our customers. Our St. Mary’s facility has a track record of on-time delivery, quality, safety and efficient processing. Those factors will drive competitive pricing with quick delivery.”
Gasbarre will maintain a strong presence in the Detroit area with a sales, engineering and service facility. Ben Gasbarre will maintain his leadership role within the Plymouth, Michigan location. The sales and technical team are excited to drive Gasbarre’s furnace systems into the future. Gasbarre has plans to not only design and service its equipment but to eventually establish a technical center for process testing and demonstration purposes. Ben Gasbarre stated, “The move will allow us to better utilize our highly-skilled personnel to accelerate advancements to our products, technology and services.”
Expansion in St. Mary’s will be necessary, so plans have begun for an additional 12,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing space with additional office and conference room capacity. This will be a significant investment in the furnace operations to drive manufacturing, technology and growth into the future.
Other News; Gasbarre recently installed its brand new vacuum purge nitriding furnace for the growing demand in the US market. This system has been fully developed by the Gasbarre team partnered with SSI for the furnace control system. It is an exciting development for the domestic market to have a fully integrated system, designed and supported in the US.
Today, Thursday December 5/2019 there are two auctions taking place, both of which include a great deal of heat treat equipment. The first is in Mentor, Ohio, USA at the former Angstrom Precision Metals facility which is now closed. We mentioned this the other day and how it includes a total of 7 smaller Surface Combustion Allcase furnaces. We don’t expect much of the equipment to sell based on the age and small size but you never know. By the way we stand corrected on our earlier statement that the facility closed down recently. As it turns out the plant closed over a year ago which means the equipment has been sitting there in place ever since.
The other auction of the day takes place in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada at what was a Bluewater Thermal Processing facility which closed down recently. It includes a number of batch IQ furnaces with working dimensions of 36” X 72” X 36”, a couple of mesh belt lines, some really cool aluminum processing equipment and some other related equipment. We have these photos of the plant. The first shows the newest batch IQ furnace shortly after it was installed back in 2014. In the centre we see Mr. Shawn Scott, the former GM of the plant-not sure what he is up to these days. The second photo is the facility as we saw it a few weeks ago.
Ipsen USA was recently awarded an order to supply a West Coast aerospace customer with four TITAN® H6 2 bar vacuum furnaces that will be used for heat treating additively manufactured parts in full-scale production. Ipsen shipped two of the furnaces in November and will ship the remaining two in January.
“Ipsen has the industry’s best lead time with the TITAN® furnace. This, coupled with a product designed specifically for the AM industry, made Ipsen the obvious choice for this project,” said Ipsen’s Vice President of Sales Pete Kerbel.
TITAN® furnaces achieve powerful performance using cutting edge technology and predictive maintenance capabilities all while maintaining a global platform, small footprint and short delivery times. The TITAN® H6 has a load size of 36” wide x 36” high x 48” deep and can process up to 3,000 lbs.
Additive manufacturing (AM) is changing the landscape for production and design with the ability to produce complex components made to rigorous standards with short lead times. Heat treating is an important step in post-processing most metal AM parts to meet strength and material density requirements.
Ipsen has been working with 3D printer manufacturers for almost a decade and recognizes the importance of serving this rapidly growing industry. While AM has primarily been used for prototyping and low volume production, companies are now looking to AM for high volume, mass-produced metal parts.
Ipsen is committed to keeping pace with emerging technologies to build the next generation of furnaces. As additive manufacturing becomes more desirable, Ipsen is working to ensure customers have the right products for their evolving needs.
For more information on how Ipsen can support your additive manufacturing needs, visit www.ipsenusa.com/processes and-resources/processes/additive-manufacturing.
“The MuShield Co. of Londonderry, New Hampshire, has commissioned Solar Manufacturing to design their first-ever vacuum furnace. The furnace, built with a SolarVac® Polaris control system and fully compliant to AMS2750E pyrometric specification, is designed to accommodate loads up to 36” wide x 36” high x 72” deep, and a maximum weight of 5,000 lbs. The Solar furnace operates at a vacuum level of 10-5 Torr with the capability of maximum temperatures up to 2400° F, and features an external quench system designed for pressures up to two bar. MuShield is expanding with additional space which will house the new Solar furnace. The company aims to better serve the magnetic shielding industry by providing material designed to protect sensitive electronics from magnetic fields.
“MuShield was already aware of our excellent reputation in the industry, and they were impressed with our facility when they visited earlier this year,” comments Jason Davidson, Solar Manufacturing’s Northeast Regional Sales Manager. “They were also impressed with results of testing performed for them by Solar Atmospheres, so we’re pleased they have placed confidence in Solar Manufacturing to provide their first vacuum furnace.”
Solar Manufacturing designs and manufactures a wide variety of vacuum heat treating, sintering, and brazing furnaces and offers replacement hot zones, spare parts, and professional service. To learn more about Solar Manufacturing contact Pete Reh, VP of Sales, at 267-384-5040 x1509, or via email [email protected] or visit us at www.solarmfg.com.”
The Angstrom Precison Metals facility in Mentor, Ohio (a manufacturer of a wide variety of automotive components) recently closed throwing all of their equipment on to the used market. This includes quite a bit of machining equipment along with a very sizable heat treat department. The heat treat department consists of a total of 7 Surface Combustion batch IQ furnaces which should get a lot of heat treaters rather excited at the prospect of some good bargains. However these are pretty tired, worn out furnaces with very small capacities. Our prediction is that some of the equipment will sell for bargain basement prices, the rest will be scrapped which is always a shame but we know from experience that that there is very limited market for these older, smaller furnaces.
We are excited to be sharing with you an interview with Mr. Stephen Harris, CEO of UK based Bodycote, the world’s largest commercial heat treater and the most influential individual in the North American Heat Treating industry https://themonty.com/articles/ Stephen offers us his thoughts on why Bodycote is as successful as they are, gives us his opinion about Hot Isostatic Pressing and also talks about various technologies and why some fit in the Bodycote model and some don’t. It really does make for quite an interesting read.
Stephen, in preparation for this interview I went through my notes and re-read the interview we did a few years back (this can still be found at https://themonty.com/interviews/stephen-harris-bodycote/). One of our favorite questions when doing an interview is to ask how each individual got involved in heat treating. With your permission I will refer back to that original interview for our answer:
“I was trained as an electrical engineer but along the way I acquired a business degree from the University of Chicago. While my job history is varied it would be best described as a general industrial background. This would include long working stints in the Chicago area and Buffalo, in several cases running the North American operations of UK companies. I was approached by Bodycote in 2008 to replace the outgoing CEO, Mr. John Hubbard with whom I have since had a long and enjoyable working relationship. I became CEO of Bodycote in January 2009 mainly because I found it such an interesting company.”
When you started in 2009 the Bodycote share price was 122 pence; November 27th 2019 the share price stood at 887 pence. Now, granted 2009 was the depth of the worst recession since the 1930s but this still represents a tremendous appreciation. To what do you attribute this?
“We have done a lot to improve the business. Our margins run at about 19% these days as an average across the business, whereas back in 2008, before the great recession, they peaked at around 13%. The improved performance is predominantly due to better productivity. Today we have about 5,700 employees with sales of £728 million compared with over 7,500 employees and sales of £551 million back then.”
“A key focus has been improving operations. We have always had great heat treaters in the business but we have made great strides in injecting operational skills. The facilities are better laid out and far safer than they used to be. We measure our customer service levels at each of the plants. Customer service is, of course, a key attribute in our industry. If customer service falls at a facility, profits soon follow.”
“In addition to hiring great people, a lot of capital investment has been required to enhance the plants. In many instances we decided replacement was a better option. Since 2009 we have closed 70 facilities and opened or acquired 52. We now have 189 facilities around the world having acquired two more this year in Scandinavia and Slovakia.”
“I think it is also fair to say that our growth in the less developed countries of Eastern Europe, Mexico, and China has also helped performance. It is very easy to lose money in unfamiliar territories and it is definitely high risk, but if you get it right the rewards are respectable.”
How does the Bodycote model differ from other commercial heat treaters?
“We call our commercial heat treatment business “Classical Heat Treatment” to distinguish it from Specialist Technologies which we can talk about later. In the Classical Heat Treatment business, we tend to approach the market somewhat differently to most commercial heat treaters. We are a large company and have a very sound financial basis. We also carry around $750 million in insurance. This means that very large companies, including many of the world’s largest OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers, are quite happy to do business with us knowing that we can stand behind our commitments. We often hear about small commercial heat treaters that venture into doing business under onerous trading terms which they are happy to sign. The problem is that when they have a quality escape, the OEM ends up owning the heat treater, which is not what anybody wanted.”
“Apart from our bias towards large customers I would say the biggest difference between us and most commercial heat treaters is our focus. We do not attempt to do business with wildly different customers from an individual plant. Our plants are segregated between those serving the aerospace industry and those serving automotive. We have learnt that these two different types of customers require a different focus. Furthermore, we segregate high volume plants from lower volume/high flexibility plants. We also operate on a local cluster basis with all the plants in a cluster working together. In this way we can limit the number of technologies in any one plant but are still able to provide all the technologies that a customer may need in any area. It is a dangerous temptation to keep adding technologies to a single plant. The extra complexity drives up costs and lowers customer service. It is not about heat treatment knowledge, it’s about production complexity. Keeping things simple is by far the best approach. Of course, it’s our size and number of facilities that allows us to achieve these economies of scale.”
While most of our questions focus mainly on heat treating we should also talk about your Hot Isostatic Pressing division. Perhaps you could share a few thoughts about the “HIP” side of things such as whether this is a growing field and whether it overlaps with heat treating.
“Our HIP business sits in our Specialist Technologies division, which I referred to earlier. The other businesses in the division are Surface Technology (plasma, HVOF and thermochemical coatings), S3P (Specialty Stainless Steel Processes) and Powdermet® (contract manufacturing of products from powder using HIP and 3D printing technologies). We also have two other specialist technologies which are heat treatment types of processes. These are Low Pressure Carburising and Corr-I-Dur® (these last two operate within the Classical Heat Treatment facilities). In the Specialist Technologies division, each technology has its own dedicated facilities which are quite separate from the heat treatment business. They also have their own management and sales forces. So, as you can see, we do not believe there is any real overlap between HIP and heat treatment.”
“We are aware of a number of heat treaters going into the HIP business. History suggests that this is a very risky move. It is an expensive business to get into and the maintenance costs are astronomic, which is not something the suppliers tend to advertise. Replacement of a molybdenum furnace will cost you well over $1 million for a large HIP and, unfortunately, unlike vacuum furnaces they fail quite regularly. Bodycote has acquired quite a number of HIP vessels over the years from companies both small and large that have attempted to enter the HIP industry and failed quite spectacularly. Most of the new entrants are going in at the small end, targeting additive manufacturing. I think this is sensible as the risks are lower and that market is growing at a reasonable rate.”
When we spoke all those years ago one of the main topics concerned two acquisitions you had recently made, Metal Improvement and Carolina Commercial. The Carolina Commercial acquisition raised a few eyebrows at the time due to the relatively high sale price. In retrospect was this a good decision?
“A good question. I would say the results of that acquisition were mixed. The Metal Improvement acquisition was much better. The fact that Carolina Commercial had been held by a Private Equity firm for a number of years was clearly a problem. Many PE firms do not have a great knowledge of running businesses themselves and they tend to underinvest. This was the case with Carolina Commercial. Of course, it didn’t help that shortly after acquisition there was a fire that destroyed one of the facilities. Given the opportunity again I would have still tried to acquire Carolina Commercial, but we would have approached it differently, paying less and going into turnaround mode straight away.”
My understanding is that Bodycote is considering all heat treating technologies currently available and amongst the criteria for new equipment is the degree to which it is environmentally friendly. Would you care to comment on this? Perhaps comparing vacuum carburizing systems to batch IQ furnaces?
“Well, Gord, I wouldn’t quite state it like that. We avoid some technologies. We do not like salt both for environmental reasons and because of poor production flexibility. We avoid continuous processes such as mesh belts and pushers, once again due to limited flexibility and poor carbon footprint. When times are tough these types of technology tend to lose money. Obviously continuous processes with salt quenching are highly unattractive to us!”
“We do like vacuum carburizing. This is primarily because of the better results you get for specific applications. Unfortunately, there is not a great deal of demand for vacuum carburizing today outside of the automotive OEMs and the equipment cost is very high.”
Nobody in the heat treating industry will argue with me when I say that Bodycote is the only truly global commercial heat treater. That being said, which geographic areas of the world do you see as offering the largest growth potential to your company?
“We spoke earlier about the lower developed countries in Eastern Europe, Mexico and China which clearly offer good growth, albeit at high risk. I still see the largest growth potential as being the United States. Aside from the natural growth rate of the US economy itself, the amount of work available that today is being done quite inefficiently by many manufacturers in their captives is very large.”
A good friend of ours and a very respected individual in the heat treating industry, Mr. Dan McCurdy, recently retired as President, Bodycote Automotive and General Industrial Heat Treatment, North America and Asia. There has been a lot of discussionabout who is replacing Dan (and we confess we have fueled some of this speculation). Could you please explain to us how you are filling this position?
“We will miss Dan tremendously. He has been a key member of the team for many years. Replacing Dan was always going to be very difficult. So we didn’t really replace him. Instead, we reorganised the company. Dan’s North American Automotive and General Industrial (AGI) business now reports to Tom Gibbons. Tom also runs the North American Aerospace, Defense and Energy (ADE) business. Tom has five Vice Presidents of Operations reporting to him that run the sub-divisions of: Automotive, General Industrial, East, Central and West.”
“The European ADE business now reports to the two European Classical Heat Treatment Presidents, one for Northern and Eastern Europe and one for Western and Southern Europe. These are run by Paul Clough and Eric Denisse respectively. Paul is also responsible for Asia.”
“We then have the Specialist Technologies division run by Thomas Oury.”
“The accounting and other central functions, such as HR, are then taken care of outside of the divisions in shared service centers. In the US this is in Dallas.”
This question ties in with the previous one: how much autonomy does each general manager have? For instance, if the GM of plant XYZ wants a new furnace how long a process would it take to put this in motion?
“Our operating philosophy is to not try to centralize or tell the GM’s how to run their businesses from headquarters. We give them guidance as to our corporate strategy and general direction, our expectations for customer service, safety, and financial returns. There are specialists that can help them with specific issues if they need it. It a tough job but the rewards can be high. It is a job that carries a great deal of satisfaction if performed well. There is a great deal of recognition. If a plant does well it is down to the GM. In large part, how the GMs succeed is up to them, but we do have a number of rules that have to be followed. Foremost of these is that they cannot buy businesses or properties. This is done by our M&A team, which includes Mario Ciampini who many of your readers know well.”
“Investing in a furnace comes under our capital investment rules. We require a specific rate of return that depends on the risk. A GM can submit a request as long as it justifies the required return. The first thing we do is then look for unused or underutilised furnaces already in our network. With over one thousand primary furnaces and many more temperers in operation, and more in storage, we can sometimes fill the need straight away. The majority of the time taken in getting a capital item approved is taken up with the GM and the divisional team doing their homework. We do not buy equipment on a whim. Once a case has been developed and submitted it can take a few weeks to get approved if it fits with the strategic vision for the Group. If it doesn’t it can take a very long time. Requests for large mesh belts with salt quench somehow never seem to get answered!”
Bodycote is of course headquartered in the UK but there have been some rumors suggesting that the company might move the headquarters to another country in Europe. Is this something you can comment on?
“Bodycote is a UK registered company and is listed on the London Stock Exchange. The registered office remains in Macclesfield, UK. A new management office has been opened just outside of Geneva where a number of senior managers are based, though we have regional headquarters in Dusseldorf, Germany; St Priest, France; Prague, Czech Republic and Dallas, Texas.”
When we spoke a few years back you estimated that captive heat treating represented 80% of the total market and commercial heat treating the remainder. Is this still the case? Part II of this question would be: is the company still interested in taking over the heat treating requirements of some of these captives? If my memory is correct I believe I saw a press release from Bodycote a little while ago mentioning that you had signed a long-term contract with Rolls-Royce which would indicate that the answer is ‘yes’.
“This is a statistic that is almost impossible to measure accurately. While we have seen a general slow trend for companies to outsource their heat treatment this is offset by very high growth in countries such as China and India, where the high-quality heat treatment is overwhelmingly done in-house. My guess is that if you could measure it accurately you would find that there is now more done in-house than there was ten years ago due to this effect.”
“Bodycote is always looking actively to take over captives. We are often approached to do this, however we are not interested in high volume operations where the only motivation is for the customer to swap their balance sheet for ours. In fact, it is quite rare for us to take over a captive. When we do buy a captive we more often than not scrap the equipment and invest in more flexible, fit for purpose equipment. At the end of the day, we are an aggregator and we need equipment that allows us to do this. In many instances we do not take work that is already being done in-house. Instead, we will be working with the OEMs, such as Rolls-Royce, and will take the products before they have ever been treated in-house.”
Stephen, what can we expect to see from Bodycote over the course of the next year? Are there any exciting new developments you could share with us?
“Gord, we expect to see several very exciting new things happening in the next twelve months in both our Classical Heat Treatment business and our Specialist Technologies. Unfortunately, there aren’t any that I am allowed to share with you at this time.”
Thanks for taking the time to talk with me. Stephen as always I appreciate your time and candid, open answers. Gord
“Spurred by a successful entry into Hot Isostatic Pressing at the beginning of this year, Stack Metallurgical Group is redoubling its commitment to the technology with the addition of a second Hot Isostatic Press (HIP) from Quintus Technologies.
A trusted provider of heat treating and metal processing services to quality-critical industries, Stack is now investing in a model QIH 122 M URC®, which features a work zone of 26.0 inches (660 mm) in diameter and 68.9 inches (1,750 mm) in height. The new system follows the installation of a high-capacity Mega-HIP, the QIH286 M URC®, with a work zone of 63 inches (1,600 mm) in diameter and 102 inches (2,591 mm) in height. “We’ve been extremely happy with the market response as we have expanded our service offerings to include HIP,” states Doug Puerta, CEO, Stack Metallurgical Group. “The massive size of our first unit enables us to process larger castings and/or powder metal components. The new unit now allows us to efficiently process a wider range of materials and lot sizes and is ideal for moderately sized components. The capabilities and capacity offered by these two units further strengthens the value proposition that Stack facilities provide their clients.”
Like the Mega-HIP, the QIH 122 M URC is equipped with the Quintus proprietary uniform rapid cooling (URC) feature, which combines HIP and heat treatment in a single process. Known as high pressure heat treatment (HPHT), this innovative approach streamlines the steps involved in material densification and heat treatment. It enables all processed components to cool uniformly, resulting in minimal thermal distortion and non-uniform grain growth. The improved material properties are essential for parts designed for demanding applications–in aerospace, medical implants, and power generation, for example. The burgeoning additive manufacturing (AM) environment played a large role in Stack’s decision to expand its HIP portfolio. “We see opportunities not only in traditional markets such as castings, but also in emerging markets, with additive manufacturing being the most notable,” Mr. Puerta says.
**The new press, which operates at a maximum temperature of 2,552°F (1,400°C) and a maximum pressure of 30,000 psi (2,070 bar), will be installed in Stack’s recently completed facility in Albany, Oregon.
“HIP is an important contributor toward our objective to be a one-stop shop for our clients, as we can now service a broad range of manufacturing milestones,” Dan Ederer, Stack Corporate President added, “Quintus has been a great partner since we first began exploring an entrance into HIP. Quintus has provided unique solutions including size, pressure, and cooling rate capability, which has in turn enabled us to partner with our clients in a more comprehensive manner.”
“Stack’s decision to invest in a second Quintus HIP is a tribute to our leadership position in the industry,” says Jan Söderström, CEO of Quintus Technologies. “As the need for Hot Isostatic Pressing steadily increases, we are very pleased with this next step in our relationship.”
About Quintus Technologies; Quintus Technologies is the global leader in high pressure technology. The company designs, manufactures, installs, and supports high pressure systems for sheet metal forming and densification of advanced materials. Quintus has delivered over 1,900 systems to customers within industries such as aerospace, automotive, energy, and medical implants. The company is headquartered in Västerås, Sweden, with a presence in 45 countries worldwide. For more information, go to www.quintustechnologies.com
About Stack Metallurgical Services, Inc.; With a history dating back to 1946, the Stack Metallurgical Group has grown to become the most versatile provider of heat treating and metal processing services in the Pacific Northwest. With its new HIP facility coming on-line in 2019, Stack will offer four Nadcap-accredited locations with a focus on the aerospace, power generation, medical implant, and high-end knife and cutlery markets. The company’s modern and extensive equipment line-up offers a comprehensive portfolio of services for demanding 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: www.stackmet.com”
