Yesterday (Tuesday October 22, 2019) marked the first day of the 3 day heat treatment exhibition in Cologne, Germany-we at “The Monty” are in attendance and this is what we learned;

  • The heat treatment as a whole in Europe is slower these days, certainly not terrible but slower than it has been and certainly slower than North America. The main culprit-a slow down in the auto industry.

  • One of the top heat treat furnace salesman in all of Europe is making a change and will be going back to the alloy business. More shortly when the move is actually done.
  • We understand that controls company UPC has a new President, we are hoping and praying that tomorrow we will get a chance to meet him, introduce him to the industry and get a photo at the same time.
  • The former CEO of a major European furnace builder is branching out on his own and starting his own business. Maybe or maybe not more details to come.
  • We have always thought that US based Gleason Products and Germany based Heess pretty much had a lock on the manufacturing of press quench systems. Now we understand that there is another press quench company based in Germany which would appear to be a major player and which looks to be eyeing the North American market with a great deal of attention.

More to come, in the meantime we have these two photos for you. In the first we see Mr. Andreas Fritz of cleaning system company EMO (November 1, we will have an interview with Andreas) and Mr. Shen Li of China based furnace company SAMT (Shanghai Advanced Metallurgical Technology Corporation). The second photo shows furnace builder Rohde which shows yet again that this is a family oriented business. The company is on its second generation and the short guys in the photo are the next generation.​

It is rather ironic that just yesterday we had a news item about how Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing) was not benefitting North American furnace manufacturers to any great degree as this press release talks about a furnace being provided to the Additive Manufacturing (AM) industry. Obviously there are some furnaces being built for this industry but we stand by our comments of yesterday-that this is the exception rather than the rule.

“DELTA H is honored to contribute to the additive manufacturing (AM) industry by providing global leader Sintavia with a Dual Chamber Aerospace Heat Treating (DCAHT™) system. Sintavia, located in Hollywood, Florida, provides advanced manufacturing for critical industries such as Aerospace & Defense, Oil & Natural Gas, and Industrial Gas Turbomachinery.  Sintavia is the first independent manufacturer of its kind to offer a vertically integrated, end-to-end metal additive manufacturing production process that meets aerospace production quality standards. Sintavia president, Doug Hedges, adds “The DCAHT™ is a great addition to our machine fleet in our new facility. We are impressed with its performance and complex capabilities such as quenching to our customer specifications. We look forward to meeting the furnacing needs of our customers with this advanced system.”

We would like to direct your attention to a banner ad on the right side of this page from Italian furnace builder IVR https://www.ivrsrl.it/en/ IVR is one of the largest furnace builders in Italy and will be exhibiting at the trade show in Cologne, Germany which starts tomorrow. We are expecting a very interesting press release from the company in the near future concerning a new installation for the company.

Super Systems–Mexico showing results of continuous growth supporting heat treat operators throughout industrial regions of Mexico and fortified with EMA certifications.

In addition to the great multicultural exchange during the SSi’s International Sales Meeting on September 24th in Cincinnati, Ohio, SSi shared its experiences around the globe and how the business remains strong and the future looks bright.

In its ninth year of operation, SSi-Mexico (Queretaro City) has fourteen highly skilled associates and the service center occupies a new, 5000 ft2 office. The new facility has state of the art, EMA certified calibration and repair lab. The staff performs pyrometry and calibration services in addition to servicing and repairing sensors, process controllers and analyzers. SSi-Mexico earned three calibration accreditations in 2019 which address the needs to perform calibrations around the world.

SSi-Mexico provides solutions for process-control modernization and SCADA innovations to domestic and international companies requiring heat treat services in Mexico. SSi-Mexico continues its growth and is prepared to offer the best solutions, innovation, and dependable support with project engineering, sales support and software development.

For further information regarding our accreditations in Mexico click Here

This news item about 3D printing appeared in Industrial Heating last week. While we don’t find it particularly interesting from a heat treating aspect  it made for some interesting conversation at the Heat treat exhibition in Detroit last week-specifically the conversations revolved around whether any furnace manufacturers were seeing much furnace demand from suppliers of 3D printing systems-the answer is a resounding no. Not a single major furnace builder reported any sales from suppliers of 3D printing systems. While we do know of two furnace builders that are providing small sintering systems that seems to be about the extent of it. We are starting to think that 3D printing will be like wind power furnaces in North America, a great deal of promise initially which at the end of the day fizzled out.  “Kennametal Inc. formed a 3D-printing materials and production business unit, Kennametal Additive Manufacturing, as part of its Infrastructure segment. Kennametal Additive Manufacturing combines the company’s expertise in materials science and wear-resistant solutions with additive-manufacturing capabilities to supply high-performance metal additive powders and fully finished 3D-printed parts for wear, erosion, corrosion and high-temperature applications. The new business unit is already shipping production parts to customers. These high-performance wear components include parts printed with powders specifically designed and optimized for 3D printing.” Last week we this news item about commercial heat treater Cascade Metallurgical out in Kent, Washington;  “36,690 Square Foot Heat Treating Facility for Sale Near Seattle, Washington. Cascade Metallurgical, a Pacific Northwest based heat treating company, has elected to sell their facility located in Kent, Washington. The concrete tilt-up building offers 36,980 square feet sitting on a fully fenced 1.53 acres.  Specialized improvements to the property include an upgraded 5” high pressure natural gas feed to fuel 15 furnaces, 2,000 amps of 480v 3p power, and purpose-built air and heat handling infrastructure.” Just to clarify it is the building for sale NOT the business.

In people news we see that long time heat treater Barry Dunham was recently promoted to Regional Operations Manager for Bodycote. Barry has been with Bodycote for a number of years and most recently was General Manager of the facility in Oklahoma City, USA. We wish him the best of luck and have no doubt but that he will thrive in this new position. November 6th of this year commercial heat treater Paulo will be having an open house at their Cleveland, Ohio facility to showcase their brand new Quintus HIP system (Paulo is the second largest commercial heat treater in North America https://themonty.com/largest-commercial-heat-treats/)  During the open house the President of the company Mr. Ben Rassieur will be giving what we are sure will be a very informative talk. Paulo bills this as a “state of the art” facility, having visited it several times over the years we would agree.

Speaking of HIP systems out on the west coast of the USA Stack Metallurgical is getting close to having their Quintus system up and running. We believe the open house will be November of this year and we are hoping to attend the ribbon cutting. Stack is the largest commercial heat treater in the US Northwest and has a very impressive operation. The “Heat Treat 2019” is over and we still have a ton of photos to show you. We are going to space them out over the next couple of weeks, here are several.

Jack Kalucki, Lilia Jasso (Nitrex Queretaro office), and Paul Gofas.

Steve Pfeiffle (Inside Sales), Tim McCormick (Service Technician), Danny Woodring (QRM/ISO), Tony Stoeger (System/Products Engineering Manager), Connor McDermott (Project Engineer), Lee Miles (Service Technician), and Frank Pietracupa (Head of Engineering NA).

Jerram Dawes and Mike Handscombe (PhoenixTm), Gord Montgomery

Jordan & Dale Montgomery, Eduard Lassel, Roland Weeske

The largest North American heat treat exhibition of 2019, “Heat Treat 2019” is now concluded and is being relegated to the history books. The overall impression-well organized, great venue, lots of exhibitors but not as many attendees as most exhibitors would like. Over the course of the next week we will continue to post photos from the show, for this morning we have this one of Gord Montgomery, David Siddall and Dean Kinter of Cleveland Electric Laboratories along with Jordan Montgomery. By the way over the next two weeks we will visit furnace manufacturer Ipsen at their headquarters in Kleve, Germany, have a look at the heat treat show in Cologne, Germany and also report on a number of captive and commercial heat treaters around Europe. Needless to say lots of photos will be included.

Each of these two photos has a story behind it.  In the first we see from the left Craig Beaumier, Dale Montgomery, Doug Puerta and Jordan Montgomery. Craig and Doug are both with commercial heat treater Stack Metallurgical in Portland, Oregon, USA the largest such operation in the US North West. Stack is in the process of installing a Quintus HIP unit which is part of a recent trend by commercial heat treater in North America to bring this leading edge technology to market. The system at Stack will be in production within the next couple of months and we at “The Monty” plan on being at the opening.

In the second photo we see from the left; Ian Chen, Yong Xia, Janusz Kowaleswski, Andy Chen and Jordan Montgomery. Ian, Yong and Andy are all with Powermax in Taiwan which serves as a rep organization in the country selling for companies such as Solar Manufacturing of the US. In the past Powermax in Shanghai, China was a furnace builder (and at one time the AFC-Holcroft licensee in China) before merging into the Feng Dong furnace company quite possibly the largest furnace builder in China. Janusz probably doesn’t need any introduction as he has been involved with the worldwide furnace building industry for many, many years.

John Hansen. A true icon in this industry and one of the best known heat treat reps in Michigan is the recently retired John Hansen. It was a joy to see him at the show yesterday and we have this photo of him along with Tim Levy of Industrial Heat Treating in Jackson, Michigan and John Young, heat treat rep with Mountain Rep. Corp.

So who is the male model in this picture wearing the “Ask Me About My Super IQ” tee shirt? None other than Mark Hemsath of furnace builder SECO/WARWICK.

Earlier this week we had this photo of commercial heat treater Kowalski Heat Treat in Cleveland, Ohio on the website. It is rather unusual that that we would mention a company twice in the same week but such is the case today. We just learned that Greg McFee a long time heat treater with roots dating back to Lindberg Heat Treat just became plant manager of Kowalski.

We are really pleased to show you this photo of Mr. Dan McCurdy, former President of the Bodycote, AGD Division in North America shortly after he received the George H. Bodeen Heat Treating at the Heat Treating 2019 exhibition in Detroit (Dan’s wife Kim is beside his side in this photo) Dan recently retired but we at “The Monty” are pleased to say that he is a friend and that very few people in the industry have had such a positive impact. His experience will really be missed.