The press release below gives you some details but to these basic details we can add a few more. Oregon Products has two locations doing heat treating, one in Portland and the other in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Both operate large rotary retort furnaces, however Oregon in Guelph also operates one small Can Eng mesh belt austemper line-we have to assume that this new installation in Portland is pretty much of a duplicate.

“PORTLAND, Oregon (October 8, 2019) –  Oregon Products recently awarded CAN-ENG Furnaces International, Ltd. a contract to design and commission a new Continuous High Capacity Mesh Belt Austemper Heat Treatment System for Oregon’s production facilities. Oregon, a leading global manufacturer of saw chain and other replacement products for the forestry industry, plans to use the new equipment as part of a long-standing commitment to continuous quality improvement. “The primary business driver of this project is quality. We sought out leading international thermal processing equipment suppliers to support our premium quality forestry cutting products which demand a high quality austempering system,” said Kaitlyn McNaughton, Director of Engineering and R&D Labs. “This new furnace is primarily targeted to raise the bar on quality for our harvester chain products, which perform under the highest loads and most extreme conditions.” Through collaboration, CAN-ENG was favored largely due to its ability to demonstrate consistent bainitic structure metallurgical properties and advanced equipment design expertise, which allowed for a compact system footprint.  The Austemper system integrates a computerized loading system, pre-wash system, atmosphere-controlled mesh belt austenitizing furnace, molten salt quench conveyor system, post quench residual salt removal and recycling system, mesh belt parts drying oven, unloading system and CAN-ENG’s PET™ system which provides vital features such as individual lot/product traceability, detailed process data collection for continuous process improvements and comprehensive Industry 4.0 equipment diagnostics capability. The system is scheduled for commissioning early 2020.”

 
 

It is a year now since we had the chance to visit the US headquarters of furnace builder ECM in Pleasant Prairie, WI. Our last visit was to view the company’s brand new Synergy Center, a state of the art R & D facility designed to test customers parts. The Synergy Center consists of the latest ECM designed NANO low pressure vacuum system with a 20 bar high pressure gas quenching system, along with CMM measurement equipment and a full metallurgical lab. They have recently added a modular temper system to the facility which works with the NANO’s in line single piece flow design.  The mission of the Synergy Center is to provide customers with short term results of measured heat treat parts with low pressure vacuum carburizing or vacuum hardening and also to work on new thermal processes in other markets than heat treating. By the way we hear that ECM recently received an order for a large vacuum carburizing system from a US customer-hopefully we will shortly have a formal press release about it.

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Gord Montgomery, Dennis Beauchesne, President ECM, USA,  Spencer Wolf, Technical Specialist, Vincent Lelong, Synergy Center Supervisor

 

Chris has spent his entire life in the heat treating industry; almost 13 years at Applied Process in Livonia, Michigan (Applied recently became part of the Aalberts Group of companies), a short stint at Metlab in Wyndmoor, PA (who boasts some of the largest pit carburizing furnaces in North America) and Robert Wooler Company another commercial heat treater in  PA. It would appear that Chris has just left the industry as he is working at a company by the name of Jerith Manufacturing who provides aluminum fencing-perhaps they heat treat in house? The photo below dates back 5 years (Chris is on the left) and was taken at the Applied Process facility in Michigan.

According to “The Monty” https://themonty.com/largest-european-commercial-heat-treaters-february-2019/ Hauck Heat Treatment with 27 plants around Europe is the second largest commercial heat treater in Europe (we will remind out readers that when their parent company Aalberts Industries recently acquired Applied Process the company became one of the larger heat treaters in North America as well). This prelude leads to this press release from the company telling us how their location in Eindhoven, Netherlands just expanded and is in the process of installing a new vacuum furnace. The attached photo shows a vacuum tempering furnace this location added in 2016; “Hauck Heat Treatment Eindhoven B.V. on October 4th 2019 opened its new production hall during the yearly staff party. Because of the company growth during the last few years and looking forward to continued growth in the future the decision was made in late 2018 to expand the building. The expansion was completed recently and has a floor area of 1.000 m² and an elevated floor of 250 m² for storage of goods. In the addition a new full metal vacuum furnace with dimensions 1200x1200x2000mm is being installed and in early 2020 a new cleanroom for brazing assembly will be commissioned.”

Almost exactly one year ago commercial heat treater ThermTech, one of the largest in the US Midwest issued this press release. As an update to this story the company is planning on  an open house October 25th of this year to celebrate the completed expansion.

“ThermTech Announces Major Expansion, WAUKESHA, WI (September 21, 2018) – ThermTech of Waukesha announces expansion plans to better serve its customers.  The company will add 11,000 square feet of production space to its facility at 301 Travis Lane in Waukesha, WI along with two new major equipment lines.  

The addition of these two furnaces will enable us to shorten lead times and reduce testing costs for carburizing and forging customers respectively.  ThermTech has also made additional improvements in blast capabilities with the installation of a large roto-blast cell installation from Pangborn.

With the new expansion, ThermTech will now occupy 75,000 square feet at its Travis Lane campus, with an additional 85,000 square feet at its Pearl Street campus. Steve Wiberg President, Quote: “ThermTech is adding floor space and capacity. The new large AFC equipment will allow ThermTech to decrease lead times and decrease customer testing costs by increasing batch size.  While not unique, it is one of the largest batch IQ furnaces in the Midwest.” Mary Wiberg Springer, Vice President, Quote: “ThermTech strives to remain responsive to the needs of our customers, and this expansion is one example of that. The ingenuity of the American manufacturing sector has been unleashed!  Especially in the pipeline, fracking, mining and construction markets. With the huge influx of business that we have experienced in the last 600 days, we are excited about the new capacity and capabilities this IQ line will allow. We look forward to continuing to serve our customers at the highest level, improving turn around and maintaining high quality.”

The new line will result in several additional jobs.  ThermTech is firmly rooted in the Waukesha Community, founded by Charles E Wiberg in 1982.   Currently owned and operated by brother and sister, Steve Wiberg, President and Mary Wiberg Springer, Vice President.   In 2017, they also purchased the building at 1511 Pearl Street.  Currently they employ 140 people on the two campuses. About ThermTech: “Since 1982, ThermTech has been a recognized leader in providing quality heat treating services. Serving tooling, defense, oil & gas, mining, construction, medical, and general metal manufacturing companies, ThermTech’s highly skilled staff, of experienced professionals, embracing servant leadership, has been recognized as being able to meet the rigorous quality standards required by our major customers. ThermTech is certified for ISO 9001:2015 and AS9100D in both metal heat treat and metal finishing. They are the only commercial heat treat company also certified by the American Petroleum Institute (API)for heat treating services. The company has an in-house laboratory and offers a full menu of testing and metallurgical consultation. Lastly, ThermTech utilizes the Bluestreak™ Manufacturing Execution and Quality Management System software designed exclusively for the metal finishing industry. www.go-bluestreak.com”

In Louisville, Kentucky, USA we see that a company by the name of Multi-Metals has closed with the equipment going to auction this week. This would appear to be a pretty standard PM facility with a mixture of presses, lab equipment, machine tools and you guessed it sintering furnaces. Looks like there are a number of furnaces and in the mix are a couple of vacuum sintering HIP units one of which was manufactured by AVS. At first glance everything appears to be pretty tired however perhaps it is just the fact that generally PM facilities are very hard to keep clean. Our guess is that the belt sintering furnaces will attract little interest and the vacuum sinters? Probably 50/50 for a buyer.

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It’s an interesting world these days with manufacturing being truly global. In this case we are looking at a pump manufacturer from Texas who set up shop in Viet Nam-a shop which now boasts a very impressive in house heat treating facility. The equipment is a mixture of used Ipsen equipment (although not that old) and new equipment provided by McLaughlin Services of Avilla, Indiana, USA as can be seen in the photos below.

Alloying elements in Tool Steels

Iron (Fe)

This element is the primary ingredient to make the tool steel. Iron is obtained naturally from the earth’s crust in the form of:

Manganese (Mn)

Manganese is present in all steels, including alloy steels as well as Tool Steels. There is no dividing line between carbon steels and manganese alloy steels. Generally, Manganese is present in amounts above 0.6%. It is used to reduce oxide formations (deoxidizer) and it will form with sulfur to reduce embrittlement in the steel. It also assists as a low-cost hardener in some of the lower alloyed Tool Steels. If it is present with Chromium and Molybdenum it will help to resist deformation on air hardening. It is also found in the A series Tool Steels.

Carbon (C)

Carbon is the universal hardener is all steels. It can be found in amounts from 0.01% up to 2.3%. It does not take a significant amount of carbon to affect the hardness of the steel. This element will interact with the elements listed below to form carbides. Once the carbon content approaches or even surpasses amounts greater than 1%, it will usually combine with other elements such as:

Sulfur 

Sulfur is considered to be an impurity and at the primary steelmaking it is deliberately reduced. However, there are instances when it is necessary to add sulfur in controlled amounts to improve the steel’s machinability.

Silicon

This material is used primarily as a deoxidizer during the steel making process. However, in large amounts it will begin to affect the steel’s ductility. However, in the high alloy heat resisting steels, it will assist in the resistance to oxidation at high temperatures.

Chromium

Chromium is found in a wide range of tool steels and in varying amounts. Chromium is one of the elements that has a tendency to form carbides with Carbon in the steel curing the heat-treatment procedure. Chromium will assist in:

  • Deep hardening
  • Slight improvements in corrosion resistance
  • Wear resistance
  • It can be a disadvantage if the tool steel is held too long at the austenitizing temperature by causing grain growth.

Nickel

Nickel will not form carbides with carbon. It will promote toughness when it combines with Chromium and is added to promote toughness. It will also tend to reduce the steel’s hardening. Hardening temperature and is found in oil hardening steels rather than air hardening steel. It is usually found in quantities around 3.0% on some of the alloy case hardening steels.

Tungsten

Tungsten will raise the hardening temperature (Austenitizing temperature). It forms very stable carbides with carbon. It will inhibit grain growth at elevated temperatures. It is found extensively in High Speed Steels which usually will form the excess carbides within the matrix of martensite. The primary function is to give high red heat hardness in both High Speed Steels and Hot Work Steels.

Vanadium

Vanadium has two primary functions in tool steels: As a grain refiner, and a stabilizer of carbides at high temperatures. It will have a stabilizing effect on martensite. This function makes it difficult to temper. The cycle times on tempering tend to be longer and require multiple tempering.

Molybdenum

Molybdenum will also form the complex carbides with carbides. It will improve the deep hardening characteristics of the steel.  It is found in tool steels such as:

  • Hot Work
  • High Speed Steel
  • Usually found at concentrations of around 4% plus.
  • It also makes the steel resistant to tempering and also assists in “secondary hardening” characteristics of the steel.

Cobalt

This element is not usually seen in large quantities and is more usually found in the super alloy special High-Speed Steels. It will however tend to reduce the steel’s hardenability (not hardness) It will tend to improve a High-Speed Steel’s cutting ability.  Because it will reduce the hardenability it will be necessary to increase the carbon content. It is usually found in steels such as T15 and M33.

Do it Right the First Time, Because the second Time costs Money!!

By: David Pye

We are going to start out in Mexico where we are anxiously awaiting a press release from a company by the name of Metalsa Commercial Vehicles in the Monterrey area. Metalsa is a Tier 1 supplier of components to the auto and truck industries and the company is in the process of buying a new furnace to go in their new heat treat area where it will be used to heat treat heavy truck components. We expect a formal announcement and photos towards the end of this year.  In a ceremony this past weekend Mr. Jim Oakes of controls company SSi was sworn in (wonder if that is the correct term) as the new President of MTI (Metal Treating Institute). In this photo you see Jim on the left, his father in the center (which was a complete surprise to Jim that he would be in attendance) and Steve Thompson, President of SSi.

From Abbott Furnace in St. Marys, PA, USA we have this announcement about a new hire. St. Marys, PA is of course the powdered metal capital of the world and we mean that literally, there can be on other location in the world with as much industry dedicated to powdered metal as St. Marys. “We are pleased to announce that Mike Jacobs has joined the company as Marketing Manager, directly reporting to Mike Gelsick.  He will be responsible for managing the company’s marketing strategy.  Mike previously worked for another industrial furnace manufacturer where he worked on various furnaces for almost 15 years, most recently managing the company’s Controlled Atmosphere Brazing (CAB) business as well as the Roller Hearth product line and was very involved with atmosphere generators.  His extensive experience with high-volume production furnaces as well as low volume batch furnaces has given Mike a unique perspective on the aluminum brazing and heat treating market.”

The ongoing General Motors strike is undoubtedly starting to have an effect on their suppliers which in turn effects both captive and commercial heat treaters. As an example, Linamar, a Tier 1 supplier and very large captive heat treater (as an example the company boasts the largest batch IQ installation in North America) is reporting large losses every day that the strike drags on and they are only one of many suppliers to be feeling the pain. “Linamar Corp., Canada’s second largest autoparts manufacturer, expects to lose up to $1 million every day of the General Motors Co. strike in the United States, the company said in a news release Wednesday. That means the Guelph, Ont. company’s bottom line has already taken a hit of up to $18 million as the labour action nears the end of its third week. About 49,000 United Auto Workers have been on strike since Sept. 16, resulting in manufacturing stoppages across North America’s deeply integrated supply chain. “The resulting decline in GM orders are currently estimated to impact Linamar earnings at a rate of up to $1 million CAD/day of strike,” Linamar stated in an investor update on market conditions that have changed since it last released financial results in August.

We ran across quite an interesting interview with Bob Hill of commercial heat treater Solar Atmospheres of Western, PA. While an interview with Bob is always interesting what caught our attention was the fact that the interview revolved around heat treating of additively manufactured parts-in other words 3 D printing. https://www.todaysmedicaldevelopments.com/article/5-questions-additive-manufacturing-robert-hill-solar-atmospheres/ Where are they now-Marc Walters. Marc has spent most of his working life in the heat treatment industry with companies such as Bodycote (commercial heat treating) and McLaughlin Services (furnace manufacturing). Marc has now been working with GeoCorp a supplier of thermocouples for a little over two years now. Furnace controls company SSi is having a technical seminar in Queretaro, Mexico October 24th of this year; “SSI Mexico Seminar Queretaro; SSI Mexico will be conducting a seminar on 24 October 2019 at the Four Points Hotel In Queretaro, QRO, Mexico. The topics will include Quality & Metrology for Heat Treatment, Endothermic Atmospheres, SCADA, Controls, Flow technology, Oxygen Sensors and Troubleshooting, Carburizing, Induction and Pyrometry requirements. There will be an interactive show room displaying technologies to meet the rigorous requirements of CQI-9. The seminar will include lunch and a post-seminar happy hour.”

And to round things out we have this photo from Brad Foote Gear Works in Pittsburg, PA which we took a couple of years back. Brad Foote has one of the largest pit carburizing installations in North America.

There has been a great deal of turmoil at bearing manufacturer Regal Beloit in Valparaiso, Indiana with a two month long strike tuning into a decision by the company to close the plant which in turn lead to further negotiations-the details are below. It is of interest to us as this location maintains a fairly large in house heat treating department which includes several batch IQ furnaces, freezers and a reasonably large vacuum heat treating department. “After two months, striking Regal Beloit workers have agreed to return to work so the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 2018 can bargain to try to save the 109-year-old Valparaiso factory and more than 170 jobs. The union and Wisconsin-based company reached an agreement that 110 striking hourly workers, who hit the picket line for better pay and more affordable health care on June 30, will report back to work Tuesday so the two sides can negotiate Regal Beloit’s decision to close the plant and try to maintain some work in Valparaiso. The International Machinists Union also is appealing to the White House to intervene after Regal Beloit’s announcement that it will close the longtime Valparaiso factory. The plant once made golf clubs and electrical safety products and switches, but now makes bearings for the aerospace industry, including military helicopters.”