As we all know the main factor when it comes to alloy costs is nickel, which means when nickel goes up the cost of baskets, base trays, radiant tubes and everything else goes up. While it hasn’t gone through the roof you can see in this graph that nickel is edging up which means alloys costs will be edging up also.
Located in Canada commercial heat treater Exactatherm was one of the first in North America to achieve Nadcap accreditation;
“Exactatherm, Mississauga, Ontario, announces that it has been awarded Nadcap Merit status for heat treatment, which means that, instead of having its next Nadcap audit in twelve months, it has been granted an accreditation that lasts until April 30th, 2021. “Congratulations to all the staff at Exactatherm, not only for obtaining Nadcap accreditation again, but for maintaining Merit status,” says Dr Peter C. Lidster, President, Exactatherm Ltd. “This enables Exactatherm to continue to supply the aerospace industry, including Boeing, Safran, Airbus U.T.C., with world-recognized excellence in heat treatment services.” Exactatherm has held Nadcap accreditation since 2006. Having demonstrated its ongoing commitment to quality by satisfying customer requirements and industry specifications, the Nadcap Task Group has determined that Exactatherm has earned special recognition. “A less frequent audit schedule means a reduction in audit costs and associated pressures,” says Michael J. Hayward, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at the Performance Review Institute. “It also demonstrates the trust that the aerospace industry has in Exactatherm, based on its past performance in Nadcap audits.”
Typically most heat treatment exhibitions are held in the fall and 2019 is no exception with 3 major shows worth mentioning. Chronologically the first is “13th Heat Treatment – 2019” an annual event being held in Moscow Russia September 17-19. The event bills itself as the only exhibition of thermal equipment and technologies in Russia and has been held for the past 13 years. A list of the exhibitors shows roughly half of the exhibitors are Russian suppliers, followed by European companies with a smattering of Chinese companies. What makes this show quite interesting this year is that IFHTSE (the International Federation for Heat Treaters and Surface Engineering) will be holding a Congress during the show which should be a major draw for the exhibit. While “The Monty” will be in attendance and providing photos this is the first time we will be attending which mean we can’t comment on size or effectiveness of the show. http://www.htexporus.com/
“Heat Treat 2019” is the largest North American show of the year and our personal favorite. This is how the organizers, ASM describe this event which is the 30th; “Heat Treat 2019, the biennial show from the ASM Heat Treating Society, is considered the premier, can’t-miss event for heat treating professionals in North America. This year’s conference and expo will feature an exciting mix of new technology, exhibits, technical programming and networking events geared toward the heat treating industry.” The event this year covers 3 days October 15-17th and is being held in Detroit, Michigan in conjunction with Motion + Power Technology Expo 2019 (formerly Gear Expo). Again “The Monty” will be at this event and providing live coverage. https://www.asminternational.org/web/heat-treat-2019
“HartereiKongress 19” in Cologne, Germany is a really top notch event and well worth attending. The organizers have this to say; “HartereiKongress is the largest industry meeting for the heat treatment industry in Europe. As a symposium with the top-class program and a renowned trade fair, the HartereiKongress combines knowledge and practice in a unique way. It will cover topics like materials for lightweight construction, intelligent process control, innovations in the field of heat treatment, materials technology, manufacturing or process engineering, partial component heat treatment, and functional layers.” This 3 day event is being held October 22-24th and while the exhibitors have in the past largely been European suppliers it has been changing over the years and the event is becoming more international. We have always found this to be a very interesting event and we will as usual be in attendance this year. https://10times.com/hartereikongress Their banner ad can be found on the right hand side of this page.
Well this is rather a cool picture isn’t it? “GUNSAN, SOUTH KOREA—DELTA H commissioned a Dual Chamber Aerospace Heat Treating (DCAHTTM) furnace system to the United States Air Force while visiting Kunsan Air Base in South Korea. These highly specialized furnaces provide crucial heat treating capacity for military aircraft while adhering to the strict calibration and record standards of the Armed Forces. DELTA H Chief Technology Officer and Founder Richard Conway was there when the innovative technology was presented. “As a USAF veteran, there are few things more gratifying than personally delivering to our warfighters the absolute best and most practical technology possible for heat treating aircraft parts,” Richard shares. DELTA H’s DCAHT furnaces are designed exclusively to comply with the strict aerospace / military pyrometry standards AMS2750E and USAF/NAVAIR Technical Order 1-1A-9. They are also built in accordance with the aviation industry’s uncompromising expectations for reliability and performance. With this exclusive technology, all aviation-grade metals such as aluminum, stainless steel, titanium and ferrous alloys can be rapidly heat treated in a single system. This minimizes critical downtime for mission-critical aircraft. Conway states, “Heat treating is vital to the mission of any airfield. When you look at any aircraft, it is not difficult to imagine all the metal parts – and every single one has been processed with heat in some form or another in order to have the necessary properties required.” Nine Airmen stationed at Kunsan Air Base received certificates of training for Heat Treating Operation. Three outstanding servicemen were also qualified as trainers, and are now authorized to teach future operators how to effectively use the system. “Kunsan AB stands fearlessly in the face of a powerful and serious threat,” Conway said. “Our warfighters deserve nothing less than the best and we are honored and humbled to be among their technology providers.”
“Solar Atmospheres, in conjunction with the William and Myrtle Jones Foundation, has donated and installed a laboratory furnace for Lehigh University’s Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science. The furnace, The Mentor®, was designed and built by Solar Manufacturing. With SolarVac® Polaris control system, a hot zone capable of holding up to 250 pounds and a maximum temperature of 2800°F, the furnace was installed by Solar in Lehigh University’s Whitaker Lab, along with the necessary Solar-built transformer and water cooling system, specifically designed for the installation. After a tour of Lehigh University in early 2019, Solar founder and CEO William R. Jones was struck by an idea to benefit Lehigh, their students, and Solar. “Bill was thoroughly impressed during his tour of the metallurgical labs,” says Tim Steber, Regional Sales Manager for Solar Atmospheres. “He saw an opportunity to advance Lehigh’s capabilities and launch them into another area.” “The need for a pre-production size vacuum furnace for heat treating of additive manufactured printed parts and other metallurgical heat treating became apparent for Lehigh University and their teaching and experimental research,” Jones states. “As a result, Solar Atmospheres, Inc. has donated a Mentor® vacuum furnace to Lehigh University.”
“In December 2016, Euroricambi, a manufacturer of transmission components based near Bologna, Italy, decided to invest in its own heat treatment line. Euroricambi’s products serve the global aftermarket for commercial vehicle and bus transmissions. Previously, the heat treatment was carried out at local contract heat treaters using conventional, atmospheric furnace technology. The decision to invest in vacuum heat treatment technology in-house was the intention to reduce dependence on external service providers and to improve quality, i.e. surface-oxidation-free, clean and low-distorted transmission components after heat treatment. Due to the requirements described above and the request to treat the entire, very broad product range of Euroricambi in one system, the company opted for ModulTherm® technology from ALD Vacuum Technologies GmbH in Hanau. At the end of 2017, a ModulTherm® system with 3 treatment chambers, a high-pressure gas quenching chamber and a vacuum oil bath was delivered. The fully automatic system consists additionally of a washing-machine, several tempering furnaces which are also used for pre-oxidation, cooling stations and an external transport system, which connects the components of the ModulTherm system with the peripheral system components. The system enables high process flexibility. Solid gear components such as shafts, spur gears and bevel gears are carburized in the plant and hardened directly in the oil bath. Other gear components are again carburized and hardened in the gas quenching chamber using up to 20 bar Nitrogen with particularly low distortion. Components with a high risk of distortion, such as synchronizer rings which cannot be hardened freely, are carburized in the system, cooled in the gas quenching chamber with low gas pressure or low gas velocity and then reheated in an induction system and hardened in a quenching fixture. The outstanding optical quality of the components quenched under vacuum in an oil bath was a particularly positive surprise. The used oil is a special development, which was designed in cooperation between Euroricambi and a local supplier and delivers excellent quenching results. After the plant has proven itself in daily production and being fully utilised, Euroricambi brought forward the planned expansion of the plant and decided to invest in 5 more treatment chambers at the end of 2018. Due to the foresighted configuration of the basic plant in the planning phase of the first delivery step, the current capacity expansion of the plant can be handled with the least possible effort and disturbance of the ongoing production operation. In the final expansion stage with 8 treatment chambers, the plant will have a heat treatment capacity of approx. 40,000 kg daily from October 2019, based on a case hardening depth of 0.8+0.4 mm.”
Al Hutwagner with almost 25 years heat treating experience at companies such as Bodycote, Bluewater, American Heat Treating and Aremac Heat Treating just became the principal Heat Treat Engineer at JTEKT North America Corporation in Greenville, SC, USA. We haven’t see Al in a number of years but he always struck us as a very friendly competent fellow. JTEKT is a bearing manufacturer who incorporates in house heat treating at many or most of their facilities.
“Lindberg/MPH announced the shipment of an Electrically Heated Four Chamber Hot Stamping Furnace to the Gestamp Research and Development facility located in Auburn Hills, MI. Gestamp is an international corporation that designs, develops, and manufactures metal automotive components. This hot stamping furnace features one stack of three high heat chambers and one low heat chamber. The maximum temperature rating of the high heat chambers is 1050°C and the low heat chamber is 540°C. Each furnace chamber was designed with load space dimensions of 36” W x 30” D x 8” H. The furnace is integrated at the Gestamp facility with a robotic transfer system and hydraulic hot stamping press. The four chambers operate independently with the top chamber designated for aluminum treatment. This type of hot stamping system allows the customer the flexibility to treat different steels simultaneously and takes up a much smaller footprint than a continuous system. Click here to view a video of the integrated hot stamp furnace at the Gestamp facility.”
“Centorr Vacuum Industries, headquartered in Nashua, New Hampshire, USA, has shipped its new Sintervac AM furnace for the debinding and sintering of additively manufactured parts to a leading company in the Additive Manufacturing market. The company is an established supplier of sfurnaces to the global Metal Injection Moulding industry. The new furnace, which the company states is designed around its 2 ft3 furnace design, is rated for operation to 1600°C. Centorr’s graphite furnace design reportedly includes graphite tube and block elements created for long service life, with a four-sided hot zone and integral graphite retort for temperature uniformity. According to Centorr, the retort also compartmentalises the residual offgassing from binder-jet materials used during part production, allowing them to be caught in the dual trapping system. The graphite insulation design provides long-term service even in the presence of process off-gassing and residual binder contamination. The company explains that the Sweepgas® debinding system allows for effective ‘sweeping’ away of the process contaminants, and furnace control is operated via the PLC/Programmable Controllers with Centorr’s custom-designed HMI visualisation interface. The Sintervac AM design is available in sizes of 2, 4.5, 9, 12, and 16 ft3 volumes.”
Bluewater Thermal based in SC has consistently made our list of the largest commercial heat treaters in North America for many years now
https://themonty.com/largest-
