We are looking forward to an interview early next week with Mr. Thomas Doppler of furnace builder Aichelin of Austria. Also upcoming is a visit to furnace builder ECM in Wisconsin, USA, news of some upcoming auctions featuring some heat treating equipment and talk of several individuals in the heat treating industry in Europe and North America changing positions.

Recently we published our list of the most influential in the North American heat treating industry, a list which can be found at  https://themonty.com/25-most-influential-people-in-the-north-american-heat-treating-industry-6/ It came as no surprise that this generated a number of comments both good, bad and indifferent. Two readers commented on the lack of females on the list-well we can think of several top notch females in the industry some that come to mind are Elena Ritoli of Metallurgical Processing in CT, Debbie Aliya of Aliya Metallurgical in MI and Kathryn Byington of Byington Steel Treating in CA however none of these names were mentioned to us. Several people lambasted us for not mentioning Steve Thompson of SSI while a number were very pleased to see the name of Mario Ciampini of Bodycote. At the end of the day we went with the names that were suggested to us. By the way two people asked when we are going to put together such a list for Europe, the answer is sometime in the future.

This press release tells us how Standard Aero has just celebrated the expansion of their facility in Hillsboro, Ohio, USA-what it doesn’t tell us is whether this includes any expansion of their heat treating department. It is certainly possible since their locations in Miami, Florida, Winnipeg, Manitoba and others have substantial vacuum heat treat departments which includes both horizontal and bottom load styles (Ipsen and Vac Aero both come to mind).

“StandardAero Component Services recently celebrated the grand opening of the company’s 30,000-square-foot expansion of its Hillsboro, Ohio engine component manufacturing and engine component repair facility. The additional working space and capital improvements included the building and additional equipment to support aerospace engine low pressure turbine vane manufacturing. The expansion also provides additional space for further growth. Kerry O’Sullivan, Chief Operating Officer of StandardAero, and Rick Stine, President of StandardAero Components, Helicopters & Accessories, joined Mark Greene, Vice President & General Manager of the company’s Hillsboro facility, his leadership team and employees to dedicate the new expansion on Sept. 20. The Hillsboro location expansion completes StandardAero’s current plans for new building and expansion investments, which have also occurred at its Cincinnati, Miami and Kansas City locations over the last 18 months. StandardAero Component Services provides a complete suite of complex, high precision manufacturing capabilities including CNC milling, turning, drilling, grinding (creep feed, CBN & radial), welding (TIG, EB, & resistance), unconventional machining (EDM & SEG), brazing & vacuum heat treatment, thermal spray (APS, HVOF, & Wire), shot peen, inspection (CMM & NDT), and plating (anodize, chrome, cadmium, nickel, etc.). Providing a full suite of capabilities lowers TAT for its aerospace, oil & gas, and military customers.”

If you recall September 12 of this year we had a news item about German furnace builder ALD shipping a “SyncroTherm” furnace system to China-along with that item we had a few comments about how many such systems the company has sold over the years (the original article can be found further down). In response to our comments Dr. Klaus Loeser, Senior Vice President of ALD sent us a very informative response:

“Gord, correct, we delivered 5 SyncroTherm lines to the USA. Since the introduction of SyncroTherm a total of more than 30 lines have been delivered worldwide. The spectrum of application ranges from the automotive industry and its suppliers, the aviation industry, tool manufacturers to contract heat treaters. Let me say a few words about the costs of the system, which at first glance appear high. For our customers, the total production costs in the manufacturing chain count. They invest in SyncroTherm technology if, for example, the low-distortion heat treatment in this system can significantly reduce their hard machining costs, or if, for example, a hardening press can be dispensed with. The costs of the pure heat treatment system are then subordinate. We have customers who have invested in two technologies for their product range, in a SyncroTherm system with 2D-small batch production technology for components that cannot be treated differently due to distortion reasons, and in a ModulTherm system with 3D-large batch production for the remaining components. Best regards, Klaus Loeser, Senior Vice President Heat Treatment, ALD Vacuum Technologies GmbH”

September 12/2019 News Item; German furnace builder ALD of Hanau started offering their SyncroTherm thermal processing system a few years back and this press release tells us how the company has shipped their first system to China. The SyncroTherm system offers some advantages over other furnace systems but the very high cost is certainly a detriment to a lot of potential customers. We are unsure of how many systems the company has in the worldwide market place but we can say that our understanding is that the company has 5 such systems installed in North America, two at Milwaukee Electric Tool in Mississippi, USA (which were installed in 2013) and 3 at an aerospace components supplier with 2 locations in the US.

“The vacuum heat treatment systemSyncroThermcreates completely new perspectives for an effective and more economical hardening of high-quality components. This new and unique technology improves productivity meanwhile simultaneously reducing negative effects such as distortion of the treated components and a high degree of environmental compatibility.With the delivery of the first SyncroTherm to a well-known institute in the Beijing area, ALD has been able to create an important reference and provide impulses for technological developments. The carburization of components made of micro-alloyed steels is carried out at high temperatures above 1,000C without unwanted grain growth. In addition, single-layer charging permits individually controlled and component-adapted high pressure gas quenching for a wide variety of component geometries. With the SyncroTherm, our customer will be testing novel steels for high-temperature vacuum carburization, which in the long term can make a significant contribution to cost-effectiveness and environmental protection. Our delegation of customer was convinced of the quality of the system after the preliminary acceptance. It is now prepared for shipment to Beijing.”

Ron Graham has bounced in and out of the heat treat industry with stints at furnace builder Surface Combustion, furnace builder AFC-Holcroft and commercial heat treater Paulo where he worked out of the Cleveland office for one year. It would appear that he has left the industry again just one month ago and is now involved in Business Development at August Mack Environmental in the Ohio area.

Now this is an interesting question, one which deserves some more attention in the near future-basically what is the cost of in house heat treating? We have condensed the original question but the gist remains the same. The question reminds us of a very large captive / commercial heat treater in New York State who told us during a meeting a couple of years back that the heat treat department was far and away the most profitable department in the entire company-we were suitably impressed. However after some more discussions it was revealed that the energy costs for the entire plant were allocated on a square foot basis rather than by department. As most of the plant consisted of assembly and machining it was immediately obvious that if the energy costs were allocated on a departmental basis the profitability of the heat treatment department would drop substantially. We will look at this more in the near future.

“Gord I am reaching out about a particular problem I’m having with our heat treat department. That issue is determining the most accurate way to assign costs to our heat treated parts. We are an internal heat treater only, and heat treating makes up only one part of our manufacturing process. As such, it becomes difficult for us to associate how much cost should be associated with each part-any suggestions or rules of thumb?”

Braiding machine manufacturer (we are not entirely sure what a braiding machine is), Mayer Industries in South Carolina, USA has closed their doors and the remaining equipment is going to auction October of this year. Our interest and yours is in the fact that there are a few heat treat items of interest included in the auction, the main one being a rather nice looking CI Hayes Vacuum Carburizing furnace with these specs; 2400 Degrees Max. Operating Temperature, 24” x 12” x 9” Working Dimensions, 100Lb. Maximum Load; Parts Door Approx. 18″ W x 15″ H. CI Hayes was at one point in time the leader in vacuum carburizing technology and the company made hundreds of these systems. These days when they come on the used equipment market their value ranges from zero to substantial-it is always hard to tell because the demand fluctuates enormously but this appears to be a nice looking unit and will probably attract some reasonable offers. An official announcement about the closing is below along with some photos which might be of interest.

“An Orangeburg braiding machine manufacturer is closing its doors after nearly 50 years of business. “Mayer Industries Inc. has been a longtime resident in Orangeburg,” Mayer CEO George Fischer said. “It is with no small sense of sadness that the Mayer family had to make a difficult decision to consolidate manufacturing at the German headquarters of Mayer & Cie. The current consolidation of the braiding machine business into the German operations follows the consolidation of the knitting machines business in the early 2000s,” Fischer continued. “This consolidation will provide diversification and improved asset utilization.”

“We are extremely pleased to announce the addition of Gregory Scheuring to our team, as Plant Metallurgist for Solar Atmospheres of Western PA (SAWPA). Greg is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering. Having extensive metallurgical experience from his time with A&T Stainless, AK Steel, and the Ellwood Group, Greg brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to his new role as Plant Metallurgist with Solar Atmospheres. Greg applied to Solar after developing a keen interest in vacuum thermal processing and wanted to gain real world experience with the advantages of vacuum heat treating.

Bob Hill, President of SAWPA, says, “We are excited to gain Greg’s knowledge base of many materials. Along with assisting with daily metallurgical questions, Greg will be instrumental in expanding our materials testing laboratory.” Greg resides in New Castle, PA with his wife, Rachel, and their five children. For additional information about Solar Atmospheres, contact Mike Johnson at 1-855-934-3284 or [email protected], and visit us at www.solaratm.com.”

One of the larger family owned commercial heat treats in North America is East Carolina Metal Treating in Raleigh, NC-a company we know fairly well. The company sent us this press release about their 6^th Nadcap audit.

“After many successful years undergoing rigorous Nadcap audits, East Carolina Metal Treating has completed it’s 6^th audit successfully! This audit completed in August has given the company a merit based certificate that will allow them to complete their audits on an 18-month schedule rather than the traditional 10-month schedule. Special congratulations to East Carolina Metal Treating and their quality team for working hard to ensure that quality and customer service is a top priority on a day to day basis. East Carolina Metal Treating has been in business since 1976 with locations in Raleigh, North Carolina and Lynchburg, Virginia.”

Premier Furnace Specialists’ and BeaverMatic have completed a major 2.5 million dollar building expansion at one of their Farmington Hills facilities. This expansion provides 45’ high ceilings with two large (25 ton and 10 ton) overhead cranes to complement the existing two (10 ton) overhead cranes. The total square feet under one roof is now 40,000. The expansion was needed for the continued growth of both companies, the magnitude of the furnaces being built, and to employ additional employees. We are looking forward to future prospects and growth.