Gasbarre Thermal Processing Systems recently manufactured and commissioned a 48” wide belt, electric, annealing furnace for a world leading manufacturer. This is the 2^nd furnace Gasbarre has supplied this company. The customer chose Gasbarre again because of the quality and reliability of the first furnace. The first furnace provided unparalleled up time with minimal downtime needed for maintenance. This new system was designed to meet the customer’s strict process requirements. The furnace came equipped with 3 heating zones that can heat up to 1200 degrees Fahrenheit. Our customer required a target belt speed of 10 inches per minute in addition to 2000lbs per hour and we were able to achieve all those goals. To aid with unattended loading and offloading Gasbarre designed a special automated parts feeder and a Pneumatic unload mechanism. The furnace was equipped with an Allen Bradley Panelview HMI for complete furnace control and data tracking and trending.

Located in St. Marys, PA, Gasbarre Thermal Processing Systems has been designing, manufacturing, and servicing a full line of industrial thermal processing equipment for over 40 years. Gasbarre’s product offering includes both batch and continuous heat processing equipment and specializes in Temper, Tip Up, Mesh Belt, Nitriding, Box, Car Bottom, Pit, and Vacuum Furnaces as well as a full line of replacement parts and auxiliary equipment which consists of atmosphere generators, washers, quench tanks, and charge cars. Gasbarre continues to service and support Sinterite brand equipment and custom designs and manufactures thermal processing equipment to meet customer’s specific needs.

For more information on how Gasbarre can manufacture custom-engineered heat treating equipment solutions for your specific thermal heating requirements, please contact Bill Gasbarre at (814) 834-2200 or via email at [email protected]. You can also visit our website at www.gasbarre.com and find us on LinkedIn (Gasbarre Products Inc.), Twitter (@gasproinc), and Facebook (Gasbarre Products Inc.

Magnetic Specialties, Inc. (MSI) announces the construction of a new 4,800 SF addition to its plant space on Keystone Drive, Telford, Pa. The new insulated and heated steel building with reinforced concrete floor is contracted with Gorski Construction Engineers Collegeville, Pa. Mike Afflerbach, President of MSI, says the building addition is essential for added efficiencies and expansion of useable floor space in his main manufacturing building. Afflerbach states: “This expansion gives us 25-30% more production floor space, which is significant. When completed, we will have the flexibility to realign the space as needed for better efficiency.” MSI is a manufacturer of heavy-duty power supplies for the electric furnace industry, specialty transformers and reactors for various industries, and smaller specialty transformers for the electrical and electronic industry. For additional information about Magnetic Specialties, email [email protected], call 267-384-5231, or visit www.magspecinc.com.

The just concluding heat treatment show in Moscow, Russia doesn’t deserve a great deal of attention because of it’s relatively small size, however we will leave you with a few further photos. By the way in just 3 weeks we will have a great deal of coverage of the Detroit, USA show followed by the Cologne, Germany exhibition.

Damian Bratcher, SSi, Evgeny Ilichev and Anna Peretyaka of furnace company Nakal.

DCI Thermal (which is US cooling specialist Dry Coolers of Michigan).

Gord Montgomery and Olivier Chevre, Sales Manager of Swiss furnace builder Codere

Michael Taake, PhoenixTm, Germany

We are currently at the “13th International Specialized Exhibition Heat Treatment” in Moscow, Russia which runs from September 17-19th. This is the first time we have attended this event and we will happily even gladly give you our impressions. The main thing to know is that this show is only if you want to sell heat treat products to Russian customers. You do not attend this event for technical seminars (although this year the IFHTSE conference is being held in conjunction with the show which is an exception), and you do not attend this show to meet potential European, Asian or North American customers-you attend to meet potential Russian customers and from that standpoint the show is the best available. With roughly 70 exhibitors (we would estimate half Russian companies and the balance Asian and European) it would be considered a small affair, but reasonably well organized. While we at “The Monty” wouldn’t consider this an important venue several European furnace manufacturers reported that the Russian market is an important one for them with one company saying that almost a third of their sales come from Russia these days. These photos give you an idea.

Hugo Bosio, Bill Disler, Mark Ruetsch

Thomas Mueller and Walter Hacker (Rubig), Gord Montgomery

Sarkay Sasi (Sistem Teknik), Gord Montgomery and Evren (Sistem Teknik, Turkey)

Jean-Michel Bechir, VP Sales, Swiss Furnace Builder Solo/Borel

Auto parts supplier American Axle & Manufacturing recently closed down their facility in Charleston, SC, USA (this was the former Torqtek facility). Thursday October 17^th starting at 10:00 AM the remaining assets which include CNC Hobbers, gear shavers, chamfering machine, machining centers, turning centers, grinders, heat treat and much more will be auctioned off. While the auction mentions heat treat equipment most of it has already been sold and what remains will be fairly limited.

A Simple Review of the process of Annealing.

We know that the purpose of annealing is to make the steel soft and malleable. We know that the process of normalizing will provide a uniform prior grain structure and flow. We know that the process of stress relieving will reduce induced stresses in the steel as a direct result of cold working and machining of the steel.

Why is carbon added to the steel?

Carbon is added to iron to transform the iron into steel, because that is what steel is. Simply an alloy of iron plus carbon. However, the more carbon that is added to the steel, the worse the surface finish will become. The strengthening effect of carbon in steel is the fact that the carbon is in solid solution in the steel. The grain size and type of phase formation is an important consideration to the machining characteristic of the steel as well as it ability to respond at the final heat treatment. The grain size grain orientation will also influence the steel’s ability to resist (not eliminate) cracking at the final heat treatment. Once the carbon percentage exceeds 2.3%, then the steel is becoming cast iron. Cast iron can exist with either graphite nodules in the form of round nodules, or long stringers of graphite. Cast iron can also exist as white or gray cast iron.

The cast irons are simply iron with an excess or super saturated solution of carbon in iron. Cast Irons do not usually have any carbide forming elements present in solution. Because cast irons have excellent compressive strength, they have been traditionally used in machine tool applications. It is interesting to note now, that in present day machine tools other materials are being used for compressive strength.

The following illustration shows the effects of carbon in a plain carbon steel. It further shows the importance and effects the quench medium and the transformation of austenite to martensite. Please remember that this is for a plain carbon steel, not an alloy steel or tool steel. The top line displays the hardness results based on a good transformation to martensite, and the bottom line shows the effects of only 50% transformation from austenite to martensite.

The previous illustration (shown above indicates) the approximate maximum hardness achievable despite the increase in carbon % above approximately 0.65The following illustration once again shows, the principle alloying elements that are typically added to the steel ladle when the steel is being made.

There are other elements which are used as trace elements and are not shown here. Each of the alloying elements creates different properties and reactions within the steel when the steel is austenitized, quenched and tempered.

Manganese

Manganese is used as a deoxidizer and desulfurizer. It is usually present in amounts from 0.30% up to a maximum of 2.0%. However, there is a steel called Hadfield’s Manganese steel with 12.00% manganese and 1.00% carbon. The steel is soft (austenitic) at room temperature but will rapidly work harden making it very useful for high abrasive wear. The influence on the hardness properties of steel by the introduction of suitable alloying elements.

Silicon

Silicon is present in most steels as one of the principle deoxidizers at the steel melt operation. It is usually kept to a maximum content of 0.40% maximum. If that value is exceeded, then a reduction in ductility will be seen. Silicon will also assist in hardenability if combined with manganese or molybdenum.

A graphical interpretation of the change in the mechanical properties due to various elemental additions to an alloy steel.

The illustration below is of a plain carbon steel exhibiting a coarse grain structure.

Comparison of coarse grain steel in relation to fine grain steel.

Greater distortion factor than with fine grain steels.
Deeper depth of hardening than with fine grain steels.
Lower ductility factor than a fine grain steel of the same analysis and hardness.

Sulfur is present in the first instance as a trace impurity. Sulfur is also added as an element to assist with free machining capabilities.

High sulfur will also cause segregation at the grain boundaries in significant amounts.
If the steel is a bearing steel, then sulfur will improve the fatigue life.
In the free machining steels, the sulfur is anywhere betwe0.08% up to 0.32% ca
If there are high manganese contents and high sulfur contents, the sulfur can react to form insoluble manganese sulfide stringers which are insoluble.

Phosphorous

Phosphorous is also seen as an impurity in high concentrations, of greater than 0.04%
Phosphorous has the ability to reduce both ductility and impact toughness.
High phosphorous contents can also cause temper embrittlement in the alloy steels, and it can also help and assist with hardenability.

Aluminum

Aluminum is a strong deoxidizer at the steel making procedure, and also a grain refiner.
Aluminum is also a strong nitride former and will react to for hard nitrides.
Aluminum can also assist in the reduction of surface oxide formation. Do not be under the impression that it will eliminate surface oxidation, it will only reduce it.
The higher contents of aluminum are generally added to the heat resistant alloys to reduce the oxidation problem.
Aluminum can also be added to improve the corrosion resistance of low carbon corrosion resistant steels.

Chromium

Chromium is a carbide former and is used in tool steels as well as alloy steels to form hard carbides with carbon.
Chrome carbides assist in the resistance of abrasion due to their very hard nature.
The chrome carbides will retain hardness values at high operating temperatures.
Chromium will improve the corrosion resistance of a steel as well as assist in the reduction of surface oxidation.

Molybdenum

Molybdenum is an exceptionally strong carbide former in the presence once again of carbon.
Molybdenum has the ability to improve the secondary hardness characteristic of some of the highly alloyed tool steels.
Molybdenum will assist very strongly as a grain refiner.
Molybdenum will improve both hardenability and fatigue strength.
Molybdenum also has the ability to improve the corrosion resistance of a steel, although not as well as chromium.
It is also used to reduce the creep strength of low alloy steel that operate at elevated temperatures.
Molybdenum is also used in some stainless steels to help reduce pitting corrosion.

Boron

Boron is generally seen in steel in very small amounts of between 0.0005% up to 0.0035%.
It will improve the depth of hardening very dramatically of all of the other alloying elements in solution in the steel.
Large amounts of Boron make it very brittle. Its only benefits are seen with the lower concentrations.
Boron is also a useful element in assisting a steels weldability.

Nickel

Nickel is a non-carbide former and will do nothing in the steel to assist with the formation of both carbides and nitrides.
Nickel will raise the hardenability of certain steels.
Nickel will also assist in improving fracture toughness and fatigue resistance.
However, in a carburizing steel, high nickel contents tend to promote retained austenite.

Tungsten

Tungsten is among the carbide formers and will readily for strong carbides. As the tungsten content increases, the carbide formation will increase.
High percentages of tungsten will assist in the secondary hardness phenomenon in certain tool steels.
The presence of tungsten will enable the steel (high speed steels and hot works) to retain their high hardness values at red heat.
Tungsten will also minimize the risk of grain growth at elevated temperature. Therefore, tungsten is a grain refiner.

Cobalt

Cobalt is not a carbide former, and on its own it will reduce the hardenability of steel. However, if cobalt is present with chromium, the steels hardenability will improve dependent on the percentages of both elements.
Cobalt will raise the Martensite Start line on the Tim Temperature Transformation diagram.
Cobalt will also inhibit grain growth.
Cobalt will further improve the temper and high temperature strength.
The use of cobalt is usually restricted to the high alloy tool steels, such as HSS Hot Works.

Vanadium

Vanadium is an excellent carbide former and will strongly improve the steels hardenability.
Vanadium is also a strong nitride former and will for strong nitrides.
Vanadium is also a grain refiner and will improve the tensile strength and toughness.
Vanadium is used in the micro-alloyed steels as a strong carbide and nitride dispersion.
Vanadium will also assist in tempering and it will raise the steels ability to cut and it will raise the steels ability to cut and retain its hardness at red heat.
Vanadium will also help to retain the edge of a cutting implement because of the strong carbides.
It will also assist in the ease of welding of heat treatable steels.

Lead

Lead has been the element of choice to add to steel for free machining properties.
Lead has been used in a range of 0.20% up to 0.50%
Lead will begin to evaporate from the surface of free machining steels at elevated process temperatures such as carburizing. It will leave a slight surface porosity.
The use of lead as a free machining element is declining almost to the point of extinction, because of it being hazardous to health.

Nitrogen

Nitrogen is usually present in solution with the steel.
However, it can be added as a solid solution by the decomposition of (for example) ammonia.
Nitrogen is also an austenite stabilizer. In other words, during the process of carbo-nitriding, Nitrogen will suppress the Upper Critical Lines of the Iron Carbon Equilibrium diagram, thus reducing the austenitizing temperature. (Reducing the distortion).

Niobium and Tantalum

Niobium and Tantalum are strong carbide formers, but are not present in large percentage amounts.
Both elements are also strong grain refiners and will increase the yield strength of the steel.
Niobium is used predominantly in micro alloyed steels to create an increase in the steels yield strength.

Copper

Copper is not a usual alloying element in steels. Copper will increase the steels hardenability
The presence of copper will improve the corrosion resistance of steels if present in appreciable amounts. If above 1% in stainless steels, it will improve the resistance to acidic corrosion.

Zirconium

Zirconium is added to HSLA steels to improve the steels resistance to nonmetallic inclusion formation such as occurs with manganese sulfide.
Zirconium is also a very strong carbide former and will react with readily with carbon in the steel to form zirconium carbides dispersed through the matrix of the steel.

We will continue with part 2 in the next issue. Sincerely, David

We happened to see on one of the social media sites that Mr. Paul Dymond of Bodycote was celebrating 35 years with the company (Paul is now Regional General Manager-Western USA). This prompted our recollection of a picture we posted of Paul back in 2010. In this photo you can see Paul arm wrestling with Don Longenette (who was with Bodycote at the time) over the bar bill. We remember this as a very fun evening.

With the help of our readers (just over 300 different suggestions in total) we have completed our 2019 list of the 25 Most Influential People in the North American Heat Treating Industry. The basic criteria we suggested to make the list is that the individuals named are in positions to change the course of the captive and heat treating markets in North America either in terms of presenting new technologies, influencing purchasing decisions, deciding what type of heat treating to do or effecting current heat treatment practices. Examples could include pioneers in new forms of heat treatment, the fellow at a major captive heat treater who decides which furnaces to buy, CEO’s of major furnace builders, large commercial heat treaters or consultants who advise on what equipment should be used. In addition, to make the list individuals must currently be active in the industry which means that those who are deceased will not be included (we are not being facetious, time marches on at least 3 individuals who made previous lists are no longer with us, Jeff Pritchard of Vac Aero, Mr. George Pfaffman of Ajax Tocco and Steve Graham of American Axle & Manufacturing).

We received some very interesting (although in some cases puzzling) suggestions. Some suggestions we received who did not make the list were Dan McCurdy of Bodycote (just retired), Mr. Bill Andreski, President – MetConsult LLC who received one very complimentary suggestion from a large captive heat treater (by the way we also have a high opinion of Bill) and Don Longenette formerly of Timken and Bodycote (who very recently changed career paths). It is interesting how much the list has changed since our last update-13 out of 25 names on this list did not appear all those years ago.

We do want to stress that all of these names were suggested to us by multiple people, but unfortunately we are sure that some who deserve to be named were not for one reason or another.

So we proceed to the fun part–the actual list. The #1 suggestion for the most influential individual in the North American heat treating industry is none other than Mr. Stephen Harris, CEO of Bodycote. We have listed his name first along with the reasons he was suggested. The other 24 names are in alphabetical order. We appreciate all the suggestions and look forward to another updated list in 2020.

Stephen Harris, Bodycote International. As CEO of the largest commercial heat treater in North America (although based in the UK) Stephen decisions have an enormous effect on the industry. In North American alone the company has 67 facilities between Mexico, Canada and the US and sale of over $400 million USD per year-the company’s footprint has doubled over the past 7 years. Other readers mention the fact that under his 11 years of leadership the share price has gone from 115 pence when he started to 760 pence today.

Pete Batche, Emerald Steel. So why Pete? Since 2005 the heat treating standard for automotive components has been CQI-9 which covers most aspects of the heat treating process. The standard was developed by a team from the automotive industry, one of which was an individual by the name of Pete Batche. While we recognize that Pete is just one part of the CQI-9 team his name keeps popping up and several people suggested him. Pete has been going strong for many years and is currently Quality Manager/Metallurgist at Emerald Steel in Michigan.

Bill Braddock, Braddock Metallurgical. Family owned Braddock Metallurgical based in the US Southeast is ranked as the 7th largest commercial heat treat in North America https://themonty.com/largest-commercial-heat-treats/ and this is largely due to the efforts of Bill and Steve Braddock (unfortunately Steve has passed away). Bill has been on our lists in the past and while he is not as involved in the day to day operations as he once was, several people suggested him. Bill’s title these days is executive Vice President.

Bill (B.J) Bernard, Surface Combustion. When introduced in the last century Surface Combustion’s, “Allcase” batch IQ furnaces completely changed the direction of heat treating. As owner and President of the company Bill Bernard (Senior) had a direct impact on the industry. In turn his son B.J. Bernard who is now President of the company has a very strong influence in the industry.

Bill Disler, AFC-Holcroft. Bill has spent virtually his entire working career in the heat treating industry and for the past 13 years has been President and CEO of AFC-Holcroft (part of the Aichelin Group located in Vienna Austria). As one of the largest furnace builders in North America his decisions about what new technologies should be pursued and what products to offer can and do affect the entire industry.

Mario Ciampini, Bodycote. Mario has not been on our list before, however with his history in the industry we agreed with each of the suggestions we received about including Mario. 18 years with Ipsen (1987-2005) of which 13 were in the capacity of President/CEO. Two major accomplishments: Acquisitions integration of Abar Ipsen and Ipsen Industries followed by the acquisition of Vacuum Furnace Systems. This was followed by joining the Bodycote Group in 2006 and establishing the Asia footprint in China, SE Asia, India and Japan for a period of 6 years, followed by operational responsibilities in North America, and M&A for past 3 years.

Fred Hamizadeh, AAM. A brand new entry on our list is Mr. Fred Hamizadeh of American Axle & Manufacturing who has the title of Director – Global Manufacturing Services – AAM Heat Treat & Facilities Process. Fred has over 30 years in the industry with companies such a Surface Combustion, Williams Industrial and AAM where he makes the heat treating decisions for one of the largest captive heat treaters in the world. Without a doubt Fred deserves to be on our list.

Mark Hemsath, SECO/WARWICK. Director of Nitriding & Special Vacuum Furnaces-Thermal GM, SECO/WARWICK. Like many of us in the industry Mark was born into it as his father was very prominent in heat treating. We had a total of 6 suggestions that Mark be included which is very impressive. Mark offers a lifetime of experience in heat treating and new technologies.

Jeff Hemmer, Bluewater Thermal. Jeff has been in the heat treat industry for almost 40 years and has worked with commercial heat treaters such as Industrial Heat treating and NDT services which was acquired by Lindberg which was then acquired by Bodycote. Since 2008 he has had a leadership role at Bluewater Thermal and is currently President and CEO. Overseeing over 550 people Jeff has a very decided influence on heat treating.

Bob Hill, Solar Atmospheres. Commercial heat treater Solar Atmospheres is one of the largest commercial vacuum heat treaters in North America and several people suggested Bob. We will leave it up to Bill Jones, CEO of the company to tell us why Bob should be in included on our list; “Bob is a degreed metallurgist with over 40 years’ experience in the heat treating industry. His career began in 1977, with Precision Heat Treating Co. of Southampton, PA. Within two years, Bob was promoted to Plant Manager. In 1995, Bob left Precision HT to join Solar Atmospheres of Souderton, PA as Plant Manager. In 2000, Bob established Solar Atmospheres of Western PA (Hermitage) from a greenfield site, with the first 24’ car bottom vacuum furnace for annealing large Ti rolls, some 50,000lb workloads, and, at the time, the largest car bottom vacuum furnace of its kind. Bob has since expanded the plant to 75,000sf of factory floor space, with an additional 18 vacuum furnaces, including a metallurgical lab and testing facility. Bob is well recognized as a heat treater for large aerospace components, medical, and other critical materials, including Ti, high temperature SS alloys, magnetic metals, and vacuum brazing large assemblies. Starting from nothing, the Solar Hermitage plant now generates over $20m in sales per year and is growing. Bob is a past President of the MTI (2014) and former ASM Board of Trustees member (2010). Respectfully submitted by William R. Jones, Owner of the Solar Family of Companies”

John Hubbard, Thermal Process Holdings. You could certainly make the argument that the most successful commercial heat treater in North America is John Hubbard. From humble beginnings he formed a small commercial heat treating group by the name of Hinderliter which became part of Bodycote which lead to him becoming CEO of the company. After retiring for a few years he re entered the industry and is now part of Thermal Process Holdings which has 5 locations around the US with more to come.

Bill Jones, CEO of Solar Atmospheres, Souderton, PA. (Commercial vacuum heat treating) and Solar Manufacturing (new vacuum furnaces). Bill is a true innovator whose research into vacuum heat treating furnaces has had a very definite impact on vacuum heat treating. My personal opinion is that there are very few in the vacuum industry that can rival Bill’s knowledge. In an uncertain world it is always nice that some things never change and one is Bill Jones of Solar.

Michel Korwin, President of Nitrex Metal Inc., Montreal, Quebec. Michel is probably more responsible than any other individual in North America for the growth of Gas Nitriding. In addition Michel created one of the largest furnace controls company’s in North America, United Process Controls. Michel was on our original list many years ago and while perhaps he has slowed down a bit we still see him at various trade shows and he continues to have an impact on the industry.

Scott MacKenzie, Houghton International. Scott is Technical Consultant of Houghton International, one of the largest manufacturers of quench products in the world. Scott is in turn one of their technical experts who is regularly invited to lecture. Scott is truly a staple of the heat treatment industry and can be found at various trade shows all over the world quite often as part of IFHTSE (International Federations of Heat Treating & Surface Engineering).

Bill Mayer, Industrial Heating. Bill was in the top five for the number of nominations we received. Bill is Managing Editor of Industrial Heating, the largest and oldest publication in the heat treatment industry in North America. He has had more than 9 years at IH and the general consensus was that his decisions on what to print have a day to day effect on heat treaters.

Pat McKenna, Ipsen. Pat is now President of Ipsen North America which is one of the largest furnace builders on the continent. He like many (most) on this list became involved in the heat treatment industry at quite a young age and has worked his way up through companies such as Nevada Heat Treating. We predict that his star is going to continue to rise in this business for quite a few years to come.

Jeff McLaughlin, McLaughlin Furnace Group. Interesting fellow Jeff. He started in the heat treating industry at a very young age and up until just a few years ago his name was not one commonly recognized. Over the past few years his company McLaughlin Furnace Group has grown by leaps and bounds and is now quite a recognized name all around North America both for atmosphere and vacuum furnaces.

Jim Oakes, SSi. We had several suggestions about Jim Oakes, Vice President of Business Development at controls company SSi. Interestingly enough the suggestions concentrated more on his involvement in organizations such MTI and Nadcap than his efforts at SSi. Jim is President Elect of Metal Treating Institute and will become the President this fall.

Rich Ott, Linamar. Global auto parts supplier Linamar is an amazing success story moving from a 1 man operation 50 years ago to a multi billion dollar per year, global supplier. Based in Canada Linamar offers captive heat treating on 3 continents and this includes vacuum carburizing, nitriding, nitro carburizing-you name it and Linamar probably does it. And the man in charge of their heat treating-Rich Ott with over 40 years experience.

Ben Rassieur, CEO Paulo Products. No way can we ignore the President of the largest privately owned heat treat group in North America. Paulo remains the largest privately owned heat treat group in North America and Ben remains CEO of the company. Paulo has seen tremendous growth over the past few years and continues to invest in new technologies.

Gary Sharp, Owner and President of Advanced Heat Treat Corp. in Waterloo, Iowa. Many years ago when Ion Nitriding was introduced to the North American heat treating market the technology got off to a very rocky start and languished for many years in the wilderness of heat treating. Gary saw an opportunity and has grown Advanced into the largest commercial Ion Nitrider in North America. Gary made our original lists but has not slowed down in the slightest and continues to grow the company which we consistently rate as one of the largest commercial heat treaters in North America.

Jeff Smith, SBS Corp. We have to confess that Jeff’s was not a name which occurred to us, however because of his efforts water cooling of quench oils is largely a thing of the past. We had several people suggest his name including Dean Russell who said this; “I would like to nominate Jeff O. Smith the founder of SBS Corp. Jeff truly changed the Heat Treat Industry by solely focusing on one objective, To convert existing integral quench furnaces, and convince new customers that the only way to cool quench oil is with air coolers. No small task for a small start up company. But one by one, and year by year he stayed focused, and accomplished his objective. I played a part in the early years, and I can thank Jeff for introducing me to a fabulous 40 year career, in an industry I love. Sincerely, Dean L Russell. Industrial Thermal Systems”.

Geoffrey Somary, Ipsen Inc. My how Geoffrey’s star has risen over the years. From beginnings outside of the heat treating industry he has slowly but gradually moved up the ranks at Ipsen, very recently becoming CEO of Ipsen Group one of the largest furnace builders in the world. In this position Geoffrey has ultimate authority over product development, marketing and new technologies.

Pat Torok, United Process Controls. What an excellent suggestion this was by several readers and one which would not have occurred to us much to our embarrassment. Pat has always been involved in the controls side of the business and many of his ideas have been truly ground breaking such as “The Furnace Doctor” (a portable 3 gas analyzer) which he brought to market quite a few years ago. Since that time he has worked with one of the larger control companies in the industry, United Process Controls and continues to come up with innovative ideas.

Valery Rudnev, Inductoheat. Inductoheat is the largest induction supplier in the world and the good doctor is Director of Science & Technology at the company’s office in Michigan. His name regularly pops up in connection with Induction heat treating technology and in particular for various awards, all based upon a lifetime spent in the industry. Valery by the way is the only Induction “fellow” to make our list.

Furnace builder AFC-Holcroft of Wixom, Michigan, USA (part of Aichelin Group) just last week held an open house as we can see in this photo. We see what appears to be a total of 4 large batch IQ furnaces in various stages of construction-no idea who they are going to.

Thermal Modification Technologies. Out in Tualatin OR, USA we find commercial heat treater Thermal Modification Technologies (which used to be called Beaver Heat Treat by the way, a name which rolls off of the tongue a lot easier than Thermal Modification Technologies but that is just our opinion). The company is quite justifiably proud of this beast which they installed not that long ago. It is a very large carbottom furnace with working dimensions of 12’ wide x 10’ tall x 45’ long.

We see that commercial heat treater Hauck, one of the largest in Europe is expanding their Dzierżoniów, Poland facility. We visited this location a few years back and at that time what we saw was a brand new plant with brand new batch IQ (sealed quench) furnaces. The man most responsible for this is the GM Mr. Bart Olegnik who can be seen in the centre of the one photo below.

Down Mexico way as they say we see that commercial heat treater Procesos Termicos HTMX has joined a small, select group of heat treaters in the country who are NADCAP accredited. The company offers batch IQ processing amongst other processes and operates under the direction of Mr. Humberto Ramos Fernández, Director General. While a fairly new company they would appear to have come a long way in a short period of time.

According to this press release SECO/WARWICK received an order for a vacuum carburizing system from an aerospace manufacturer in the US-no idea who this might be; “SECO/VACUUM Technologies (SVT), a SECO/WARWICK Group division, with its headquarters in Meadville, PA is privileged to be working with a prominent aerospace equipment manufacturer to bring their low pressure carburizing and hardening work in-house. SVT will be supplying its signature CaseMaster Evolution® (CMe) dual-chamber vacuum oil quench furnace to improve their lead times and quality objectives.“We developed the CaseMaster Evolution® to help customers in aerospace and other critical industries solve some of the more challenging issues with traditional integral quench furnaces, as well as to produce clean parts typical of vacuum furnaces, said Maciej Korecki, VP, Vacuum Heat Treatment Furnaces, SECO/WARWICK. “So, the CMe is a hybrid combining the best of both worlds, resulting in clean parts from a non-toxic work environment, providing greater repeatability of workloads, with no CO/CO2 emissions, exhaust hoods, or endothermic generators.” The Bodycote (commercial heat treating) facility in Berlin, CT, USA is pretty pleased that they recently added some more vacuum furnaces. This plant is pretty typical of most commercial heat treaters in the US Northeast in that it concentrates on Aerospace and Defense manufacturing. The Berlin plant carries Nadcap, AS9100 and ITAR to support a diverse group of Aerospace and Defense manufacturers. The plant specializes in vacuum heat treating, aluminum heat treating, raw material processing, & Electron Beam Welding.

A Giant Amongst Men? We have this rather interesting photo of Jeff McLaughlin of McLaughlin Furnace Group doing an install of some heat treating equipment in Viet Nam. This particular very large installation is for a captive heat treater making gears and the equipment is a combination of used Ipsen Sealed quench furnaces and new McLaughlin equipment.

The IFHTSE (International Federation of Heat Treating & Surface Engineering) meeting is taking place in Moscow as we speak which make this news item rather appropriate. “Professor Marcel A.J. Somers has been awarded the dual honour of both receiving a rarely bestowed medal and giving a commemorative lecture at the 26th Congress of Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering in Moscow. Several years may pass between each awarding of the medal by the IFHTSE-The International Federation for Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering, a global association of heat and surface treatment organizations-to particularly prominent researchers within the field of heat and surface treatment of metals. Best known is probably his metallurgical scientific work with gas-based surface treatment of stainless steel, which his research group was one of the first to reveal the true nature of, and which laid the foundations for taking out a number of patents and forming the company Expanite.”

And to round things out we see that Terry O’Leary recently became Sales Manager Europe at Bodycote Surface Treatments after several years as the UK Sales Manager-good for him.

For sale is a small commercial heat treater in the Rocky Mountain, USA region of the USA. This is quite a small operation with sales of under $1 million USD but it is a classic example of how commercial heat treating can be very profitable. This is an absolutely perfect opportunity for an individual to realize his life long dream of owning his own business while at the same time making a much higher than average income. If you would like more details please let Jordan [email protected] know.