We are going to start this weeks “Monday Morning Briefing” with people news starting with John Carroll. For almost 6 years John was Plant Manager at commercial heat treater Metals Technology Corp., in Carol Stream Illinois before he recently parted ways with the company. It appears that he has left the heat treating industry and is now General Manager at a company by the name of Arnold Magnetic Technologies in Marengo, Illinois. We move on to Joe Saliba. Joe spent roughly 14 years at furnace builder Can Eng in Niagara Falls, Canada before moving to a furnace builder by the name of ONEX in Erie, PA, USA. We didn’t realize until recently that Joe made another move and earlier this year became Business Development Manager for Mexican furnace builder Nutec Bickley a company which we have a very high opinion of. While he is working for Nutec he is working out of Canada.
How about Sue Harrod? Sue worked for furnace builder Beavermatic for over 20 years until ending up as COO of furnace builder Diablo Furnaces in the Chicago area (we will add that in 2015 Beavermatic was acquired by Premier Furnace in Michigan who continue to market furnaces under the Beavermatic name, as a matter of fact the company is just preparing to supervise an installation in the US Northeast but we digress). Sue recently parted ways with Diablo and is now Senior Buyer at a company by the name of “A Great Place” again the Chicago area. We move on to Tim Wilson who is entering the heat treating industry with a company by the name of Duraloy Technologies, in PA a company which provides alloy components to the industry. “Duraloy Technologies is pleased to announce Tim Wilson has joined our organization. Tim will be responsible for business development and technical support. His background in working with Petrochemical and Steel customers in coatings for their various processes and furnaces is well suited to enable Duraloy to continue to excel in service to these two primary industries.”
From people news we move to a press release about Quaker Chemical and Houghton International (fluids for the meatal working industry) combining. We searched for a photo to go with this and came up with a picture of Scott MacKenzie of Houghton who we always think of as the “face of Houghton”.
“Quaker Chemical Corporation and Houghton International have combined to create Quaker Houghton (NYSE: KWR), the global leader in industrial process fluids to the primary metals and metalworking markets. Along with the new name, the company revealed a new logo and brand representing the combined companies. The company will continue to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange and trade under the “KWR” ticker symbol. The combined $1.6 billion revenue company employs 4,000 associates serving 15,000 customers worldwide.
Quaker was founded in 1918 and Houghton in 1865. “We are rooted in companies commonly acknowledged as authorities in industrial fluids and valued experts in customer processes,” said Michael F.
Barry, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President of the new company.
Mr. Barry, who previously served Quaker Chemical in similar capacities, went on to say, “Our similar cultures and values, combined with the talent and resources we bring to Quaker Houghton, create exciting opportunities to deliver innovative solutions that will help our customers’ operations run even more efficiently and effectively.” The company’s combined breadth of product and service offerings can be found in end-markets such as aerospace, aluminum, automotive, machinery, can manufacturing, industrial parts manufacturing, mining, offshore, steel, and tube and pipe industries. With its expanded products and services portfolio, the company expects that cross-selling opportunities will facilitate continued above-market growth.
Specific products the company offers include metal cutting and forming fluids, corrosion protection fluids, specialty hydraulic fluids, and steel and aluminum rolling oils. In addition, legacy-Houghton customers will benefit from Quaker’s strength in specialty greases, high-pressure die casting, mining specialties, surface treatment and bio-based lubricants, while legacy-Quaker customers will now have access to Houghton’s heat treatment quenchants, offshore hydraulic fluids, metal finishing products, and a broader metal removal fluids portfolio. “Our foundation will be the same customer-intimate operating model that has been key to the success of our customers,” Mr. Barry said. “Moving forward together, we will draw upon our rich history and shared expertise to enhance our product and service offerings and continue to deliver value-added service expertise to our customers.”
Furnace builder SECO/WARWICK recently landed an order in the US for a Nitrocarburizing line although we aren’t sure who the end customer is;“SECO/VACUUM, a SECO/WARWICK Group company, inks an order for a high-volume nitrocarburizing line serving a major car maker via a tier one supplier. The horizontal retort furnace is well known for its precision nitriding capability and productivity. The furnaces will allow the customer to produce, in North America, a significant number of parts used by automotive suppliers, and will be integral to a larger investment in the firm’s component manufacturing operations. In addition to ferritic nitrocarburizing, the furnaces can also provide clean, stress relief processing. Lower operating costs, attractive return-on-investment (ROI), precise control of case depth, and high-volume processing are trademarks of SECO/WARWICK Group furnaces and automated handling systems. “Ferritic nitrocarburizing (FNC) is a form of gas nitriding and SECO/VACUUM offers many standard sizes and options suitable for both small commercial heat treaters as well as large automotive suppliers,” said Piotr Zawistowski, Managing Director of SECO/VACUUM Technologies. FNC is gaining much popularity due to the resulting wear and anti-corrosion properties offered, including coupling with post-process high-temperature oxidation.” Advanced Heat Treat Corporation out in Iowa has been making some large investments recently which we have been announcing. We have this photo of the addition to the Burton street facility in Waterloo, Iowa.
In Quebec, Canada we see an auction coming up which will most likely include some heat treating equipment. Located in Richmond, Quebec the company was formerly known as Groupe Trudo but now goes under the name Ontario Drive & Gear Ltd., or ODG Groupe Trudo. The heat treating equipment will probably include a small electric batch IQ furnace which came out of a Timken Bearing facility in New Hampshire-nothing fancy but probably a buyer will surface. And to round things out we have this photo of our friend Cihan Balaban in Turkey. If you want to know anything about the heat treating industry in Turkey, Cihan is the man to talk to; “Cihan Balaban, founding partner and general manager of Fornax, was the guest of the industrial agenda program Endustri Radyo this week.”
The sale of Applied Process to Aalberts Industries earlier this week demonstrated yet again that there is a strong demand in the market for commercial heat treat companies-although this is no surprise to anybody in the business. That being said we are aware of 3 others currently on the market. One is a reasonably large one located in Canada, the second is a small operation in the Rocky Mountain region with sales of under $1 million USD per year and the third is in the US Northeast again with sales under $1 million USD. We confidently predict that the two small operations in the US will find buyers this year-if you would like more details let us know.
Earlier this week we had this very interesting news item; “It would appear that Netherlands based conglomerate Aalberts N.V. has acquired commercial heat treater Applied Process, one of the largest commercial heat treaters in North America. Aalberts, through their “Hauck” division is the second largest commercial heat treater in Europe as ranked by “The Monty” https://themonty.com/largest-european-commercial-heat-treaters-february-2019/” In the official press release about the acquisition it was stated that Applied had annual sales of $26 million USD. When you combine this with sales at their Accurate Brazing facilities in NH, USA and SC, USA you quickly come to the conclusion that Aalberts has now become a substantial player in the North American commercial heat treating industry, so much so that we are going to have to update our list of the largest commercials in North America https://themonty.com/largest-commercial-heat-treats/ Our rough guess would be that they would rank as 9th largest-between FPM and ALD. By the way the rumor mill has been working overtime on this acquisition saying that Aalberts made an extremely aggressive offer for the Applied Process operations.
We have come across a complete metallurgical lab which is available for sale. Located in the USA this is part of a captive heat treating operation which closed down recently. Included in the offering are a New Age Model Identron an ATM Brilliant 250 Precision Saw. An ATM Opal – 460 Mounting Press, a Hardness tester, microscopes and various other items. Some of these items can be viewed at https://themonty.com/lab-equip
“Preserving the tradition originated by the late Robert Peaslee, a brazing pioneer who invented the first nickel-based brazing filler metal, Wall Colmonoy offers a fall session of Modern Furnace Brazing School on October 22-24, 2019 at Wall Colmonoy’s Aerobraze Brazing Engineering Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. Engineers, technicians, quality managers, production managers, and others will participate in “hands-on” practical applications while learning about brazing technology from the industry’s leading brazing engineers. For over 60 years, Wall Colmonoy engineers have been gaining practical experience on actual problems in brazing plants around the world. This three-day seminar offers knowledge and practical application on:
- Brazing Design
- Metallurgical Aspects / Brazing Operation
- Brazing Atmosphere and Furnace Equipment
- Brazing Material Selection and Applications
- Quality Control
Modern Furnace Brazing School instructors are:
- Lydia Lee, BSE, M. Eng, MBA, Director of Brazing Engineering Center, Alloy Products Group, USA
- Russ Wilcox, BME, MBA, Technical Sales Manager, Alloy Products Group, USA
- Ron Yarnall, Sales Manager, Aerobraze Engineered Technologies, USA
For seminar details and registration information, contact Jim Nicoll, Marketing Associate, at
E. [email protected], T. 248.585.6400, ext. 233 or visit www.wallcolmonoy.com/brazing-school/”
Atmospheres
The question is often asked, “What is an atmosphere?” A simple description of an atmosphere is a gas that can be introduced into a thermal process furnace with the objective of providing:
- A surface protection environment
- A controlled oxidation environment
- The introduction of elements for surface modification
There are many ways that a heat treatment atmosphere can be a generated. The atmosphere can be a synthetic atmosphere, or simply gas that is pre-mixed/pre-stored.
Three retort Endo thermic gas generator
If one considers a wood fire and the flame being generated from that wood fire is seen as a bright yellow, then the flame is a carbon rich flame. If one considers wood charcoal that is commonly used for a barbecue, then the gas generated as a result of the combustion is carbon monoxide, which is a carburizing gas and carbon dioxide which is considered as a decarburizing gas.
Because of the increasing demand for repeatable metallurgical results, great emphasis is being placed on the use of consistent gas analyses for various metallurgical processes. (Carburizing for example) It is necessary to understand the basic reactions of the industrial gases chosen for metallurgical processing. Depending upon the application in question, one can use individual gases or combinations of gases. The principal gases used in the heat treatment of steel are as follows:
- Oxygen is perhaps the most freely available gas that there is. It is present in many generated gases such as the endothermically generated gases. Oxygen will react readily with iron in steel to produce iron oxide, more readily known as scale. It will also create Inter Granular Oxidation in the surface of an atmosphere carburized component
In addition to this, oxygen will react with the carbon present in the surface of the steel and cause surface decarburization. It must be said at this point, that some processes take advantage of the presence of oxygen in order to create a controlled surface oxidation. This is accomplished to provide a corrosion resistant barrier on the surface of the steel.
- Nitrogen is usually present in an atmosphere as molecular nitrogen which is passive to ferrite and is most satisfactory for use in the processing of low carbon steels for annealing. The grade of nitrogen must be chosen very carefully due to the potential for the presence of moisture in the gas. If the gas does contain moisture then the surface oxidation and potential decarburization will take place.
- Therefore, clean dry nitrogen is necessary for successful annealing of low carbon steels. If atomic nitrogen is used (this means if the gas is cracked to provide atomic nitrogen for a fraction of a second) then the nitrogen will begin to react with the iron (and alloys) to form finely divided nitrides (Iron Nitrides) that will be present in the surface of the steel.
- This will cause an increase in hardness of the surface and in some cases brittleness, particularly at sharp corners. Nitrogen is often considered by many to be a neutral atmosphere. This is a misunderstanding of the action of nitrogen under heat. Nitrogen will prevent surface oxidation, but it will not stop surface decarburization.
- It should be remembered that in order to prevent surface decarburization, the carbon potential of the furnace atmosphere needs to be in equilibrium to the surface carbon potential of the steel.
- Carbon dioxide. At elevated austenitizing temperatures, carbon dioxide will react with the carbon in the steel surface and will produce carbon monoxide as shown in the following the reaction:
(C) + CO2 = 2CO
The above reaction will continue to occur until there is no carbon dioxide available in the furnace atmosphere or until the steel surface has completely lost it’s carbon. In other words it can be seen that the carbon dioxide is an oxidizing gas.
- Hydrogen is considered to be a reducing gas which will reduce iron oxide to iron or copper oxide to copper. At temperatures above 1300 ° F. Hydrogen will have a decarburizing affect on the surface of the steel. Below 1300 ° F. the decarburization is almost negligible. If water vapor is present, then this will increase the decarburizing effect because of its dissociation and providing atomic nitrogen and oxygen. The reaction will also react with carbon in the steel surface to form methane in the following manner:
(C ) + 4H = CH4
- Walter Vapor. If one is using an endothermic gas generator, then the air that is being used to form the endothermic reaction contains water vapor from the atmosphere. Water vapor will oxidize the iron in the surface of the steel and will combine also with the carbon in the steel surface to form carbon monoxide and hydrogen:
(Fe) + H2 O = FeO +H2 (Reaction 1)
(C) + H2 O = CO + H2
This is why steam is often used as a bluing agent for motor laminations as it will oxygen eyes the surface of the steel and if the temperature is correct at around 700 ° F., then a blue color will be seen.
- Hydrocarbon gasses are those gasses which are rich in carbon, that can be easily cracked and shown in the following:
(CH4) = Methane
(C3 H8) = Propane
(C2 H6) = Ethane
(C2H2) = Acetylene
These gases will produce carbon rich atmospheres within the furnace process chamber. The chemical activity which will take place at the surface of the steel will depend upon the surface temperature of steel in order to decompose the carbon rich gas into nascent carbon. One needs to be very careful in the selection of the carbon rich gas in order to minimize the risk of sooting occurring within the process chamber.
- Ammonia is often used for one or both of its elemental gases (nitrogen and/or hydrogen). The ammonia can be used as a source of nitrogen for the nitriding process, or a source of hydrogen for a reducing process. The ammonia can be produced as a generated gas, a bottled gas, or a bulk storage gas.
- Argon is truly an inert gas and that will not react with a metal surface. Its use is more often seen in the aerospace industry, providing a truly non reactive atmosphere gas. The major drawback of using argon is the cost.
Process Troubleshooting
Protective atmospheres for heat treatment shops (captive or commercial) can fall into five categories:
Endothermic Atmospheres
Endothermic based atmospheres are manufactured in an endothermic gas generator. The gas generator is a very simple furnace construction and its principle of operation is extremely simple. The generated gas is simply a mixture of a hydrocarbon and gas and air in very specific ratios. As one is aware, air will always carry moisture. The two gases of air and hydrocarbon are mixed together followed by a compression. The compressed gas is then passed through a nickel impregnated catalyst which will act as at catalyst to decompose and clean the gas of heavy carbon (soot). The compress gas is passed through a heated chamber which holds the nickel catalyst at temperature of approximately 1900 ° Fahrenheit. The gas output composition will be approximately in the following percentage by volume:
- Nitrogen (N2) = 1 %
- Carbon monoxide (CO) = 6 %
- Methane (CH4) = 3%
- Carbon Dioxide (CO2) = 4 %
- Hydrogen (H2) = 6 %
This is based on an atmospheric temperature of 72 ° Fahrenheit to produce a dew point at approximately 50 ° Fahrenheit. The carbon potential of the gas will be approximately 0.3%. The gas ratio of gas to air should be approximately 2.8 volumes air to 1 volume of gas. This will vary according to the ‘natural gas’ source.
On exhausting the from the furnace, the process gas passes through a cooler which is there to condense out any heavy carbon and to prevent it from being carried over to the process furnace. At the process furnace it is there where one can decide how to blend the gas with the enriching gas
Troubleshooting the Endothermic Generator
If atmosphere problems arise at the process furnace, it is prudent to check the performance of the endothermic gas generator. The following sequence is a suggestion to commence trouble shooting.
The function of the endothermic generator is based upon the performance of the nickel catalyst cubes, and it is necessary to keep the catalyst cubes clean and clear of residual carbon. A simple operation is necessary to ensure the cleanliness and the ability of the generator to produce good clean gas. The procedure is called burnout. The sequence of the burnout procedure is simply to reduce the cracking temperature of the generator to approximately 1500 ° Fahrenheit, with the process gas turned off. The generator is then run with only the air compressor operating. The presence of air inside the process retort at 1500 ° Fahrenheit will cause the carbon to ignite. The time taken to complete the burned-out procedure will be determined by the amount of carbon present in the nickel catalyst. Generally, the time can be between one to four hours.
Below is given a chart which will show the relationship of dew point to process temperature in relation to the common potential of the atmosphere being sampled either at the generator or the process furnace.
Trouble Shooting the Process Furnace Atmosphere
If it has been ascertained that the endothermic generator is functioning correctly, then the next step is to observe the process furnace atmosphere conditions. There are five common methods of testing and controlling the furnace atmosphere which are as follows:
- Shim analysis, by weight or by controlled burning
- Three or four gas analyzer
- Dew point
- Oxygen probe
- CO2/Infra red analyzer
Perhaps the most common method of testing the furnace atmosphere will be by using the dew point method. This method is an old but tried and tested method of atmosphere control. It is usually supported by one or two other methods of control which shim analysis (Fig 4) are using the formulae as follows:
Carbon Potential = Final Weight – Original Weight X 100% + Original Carbon Content.
Final Weight
In order to ensure that no contamination is carried into the process furnace, it is then necessary to ensure that the part is cleaned prior to entry into the process furnace. Cutting fluids, cutting oils, and lapping compounds may contain chlorides, sulfides, silicones and hydrocarbon compounds.
These surface contaminants may lead to a serious disturbance in the furnace atmosphere as well as at the work surface. In addition to this it must be ensured that the work piece surface is free and clear of surface oxides prior to entry into the furnace.
The presence of oxides on the work piece surface will lead to non uniform case formation (if carburizing). It is then necessary to ensure that the parts are pre-cleaned or degreased prior to entry into the process furnace.
If high dew points are being experienced in the process furnace atmosphere, then it is likely that air is present in the furnace atmosphere.
There are many sources of air ingress into the furnace. Check first that all door seals are not broken or damaged. The next area to observe would be all pneumatic cylinders that operate inner doors and elevators.
If the furnace has an internal mechanical handling the device, then the external drive housing that is mounted onto the side of the furnace could be improperly sealed, or the seal could be damaged. Another source of oxygen/air that is often overlooked and could contribute to high dew point levels is the external air itself.
High air humidity levels will contribute to high furnace dew point levels. If high water vapor levels are present within the furnace atmosphere, then there is a serious risk of causing the following reaction:
- Fe + H2O Fe O + H2
It can be seen that water vapor will cause serious surface oxidation to any alloy steel at an elevated temperature and it will combine with carbon in the steel to form carbon monoxide and hydrogen as shown in the following reaction:
- (C) + H2O CO + H2
A further effect of the presence of moisture within the furnace atmosphere will be to cause a grain boundary oxidation. Grain boundary oxidation can have a serious adverse effect on the steel surface particularly if there is no further machining to take place after the heat treatment procedure.
The following graph shows the effect of dew point in relation to process temperature, in the relation to carbon percentage within the furnace.
Trouble Shooting the Carburizing Furnace Atmosphere
The carbon potential in the process furnace atmosphere to ensure a good carburized case should be determined by
- The type of steel to be treated
- The carburizing process temperature
Generally, one would use an atmosphere carbon potential between the eutectoid line on the Iron Carbon Equilibrium diagram at approximately 0.8 percent carbon and up to 1.2 percent it carbon (maximum). If control of the Carbon potential is not exercised then there are numerous problems that can occur on the resulting formed case:
- Retained austenite
- Grain boundary oxidation
- Intergranular cracking
- Surface cracking
- Low surface hardness
- Carbide networking
The carburizing furnace atmosphere is made up either of:
- Endothermic atmosphere carrier gas, plus city gas as the enrichment gas
- Nitrogen/Methanol carrier gas, plus city gas as the enrichment gas
If one is satisfied that the carrier gas is being generated in a satisfactory manner and there are no problems occurring with the carrier gas in terms of dew point, yet problems are occurring at the process furnace, then one should check the quality of the city gas. (Methane enrichment gas)
The following problems can occur as a result of the lack of control on the enrichment gas. Sooting. This problem is as a direct result of too much carbon presence in the furnace atmosphere and can be visibly seen precipitating out of the atmosphere.
Usually this condition would occur at carbon potentials that are approaching 1.6 % or greater. This condition will cause the furnace refractory to become overloaded with diffused carbon into the refractory brick, which will lead to difficulties in control of the furnace atmosphere.
Further to this, the carburized surface of the steel will lead to a serious potential for the formation of retained austenite. The obvious remedy is to cut back the enrichment gas or to dilute the furnace atmosphere with air.
The problem with air dilution is that there becomes a greater risk for the formation of grain boundary oxides, and surface oxides. Great care needs to be exercised when adding air into the enriched atmosphere that one does not create the problem of oxide formation.
If the furnace has been operated at high carbon potentials for extended periods of time, it will be necessary to burn out the carbon from the furnace refractory.
Some of the modern-day integral quench furnace manufacturers will build the furnace with a built in burnout system. This means that the furnace operator only has to go to the program mode for burnout and the burnout will be completed automatically. With the older type furnaces, one simply reduces the furnace temperature to approximately 1600 ° F. and removes any ferrous atmospheres that might be present within the process chamber.
The doors of entry and exit to the furnace are opened and air is simply blown into the process chamber. The air can be supplied either by and external air blower or by lines of compressed air simply blowing into the process chamber. This will cause any carbon present in the refractory brick to ignite and burn.
The temperature control instrument should be observed as a rise in temperature will be seen to be occurring, and the temperature will continue rise until all the of the refractory carbon is burned out. Generally the burnout time would be approximately two to three hours.
- Low Hardness. Low hardness can be caused as a result of too low a carbon potential in the process furnace. The causes of low carbon could be as a result of too low a dew point in the process gas, too low a carbon potential, and too slow a quench (if the atmosphere is within the required carbon potential). Too much residual retained austenite as a result of too slow a quench or too much carbon in the surface of the steel. The remedy would be to check the furnace atmosphere carbon potential and adjust accordingly, also to check the quench medium temperature that it is not too hot and causing a slack/slow quench
- Grain Boundary Oxidation. This can be caused by the presence of oxygen/moisture that is present within the furnace atmosphere. The remedy would be to check the furnace for potential air leaks, and to check the volume of dilution air being used and adjust accordingly. Close and careful control of the dilution air is necessary to reduce the risk of the formation of the grain boundary oxide formation
These are just some of the potential problems that can occur as a result of minimal control of the furnace atmosphere. Control of the atmosphere is critical to the success of heat treat practices, especially with the carburizing process. It is also necessary that the furnace operator has an understanding of the process, its control feature and the cause and effect of corrective and non corrective actions. There are many aspects to the control of the endothermically generated gas as well as the blended process gas both for hardening as well as carburizing. The endothermic gas generator is a simple unit, to both operate and maintain, however the maintenance is so often overlooked, in particular the burnout procedure. When the question is asked when an atmosphere problem is present,” when did you burn out the generator?’
The answer is usually, “We don’t need to” or ‘What do you mean?’ It is a necessary maintenance procedure, and the recommended frequency of burn out can be seen in the Operation and Maintenance Manual supplied by the equipment manufacturer.
It is also necessary to do the procedure on the process furnace, particularly when operating with high carbon potentials. The high carbon potentials will very quickly load up the refractory brick with carbon, making it difficult to control the process and also the final product quality.
Trouble Shooting the Exothermic Gas Generator.
The Exothermic gas generator is a unit that is designed as lower cost producing atmosphere generator and has been used for many years. The rich exothermic generator is a combustion chamber that is usually filled with a catalyst.
The internal process chamber is usually constructed with a gas combustion burner supplied with a gas air mixture for combustion. The important part of the unit is the combustion burner that must ensure a close tolerance ration of air to combustion gas.
The general problem that occurs with the exothermic generator can usually be traced back to the air to gas mixing system. Or to the gas cooler on the reacted gas discharge side.
In some instance depending on the gas quality required, the exothermically generated gas may pass through a refrigerant dryer. The refrigerant dryer will require the periodic recommended preventative maintenance as directed in the manufacturers Operating and Maintenance manual. Without maintenance, one can expect problems to arise.
Conclusion
The trouble shooting of furnace atmospheres can be dramatically reduced if standard operating procedures are written for both incoming material inspection as well as for the furnace equipment.
The material for heat treatment can cause considerable atmosphere problems if the incoming material is not prepared and pre-cleaned prior to the process treatment.
In addition to this, any residual surface contaminant can cause surface problems on the steel being processed in terms of corrosion, pitting, appearance as well as quality. Oils, greases, lapping compounds, marker ink, paint and cutting fluids should be removed by washing or degreasing.
The standard operating procedures for the generators and furnaces should include the burn out procedures as well as the method of furnace operation. If the operator/furnace technician understands both the process and operational procedures, then they would become as valuable an asset as the equipment is. It is because of their practice, that management’s capital investment will be well protected.
It’s always interesting to see trends developing in the industry and certainly the expansion of Hot Isostatic Pressing in the commercial heat treating market can be considered a trend (although with the initial cost of the equipment being quite high we certainly do not expect Joe’s Bar & Heat Treat to be entering the market). Last year Paulo announced that they were investing in the technology and the company has kindly provided us with this update about the installation. We are also throwing in a photo of the Cleveland plant as we saw it last year. “Exciting news from Paulo’s Cleveland Division where the Hot Isostatic Press has been delivered and is currently being installed. The furnace arrived after a long voyage from Sweden where it was built by Quintus Technologies. The modular elements as well as the pressure vessel and yoke are being set in place currently. The installation is on schedule and the vessel is slated to be ready for production early September. The 30,000sqft expansion to house the HIP vessel is complete and will provide the Cleveland Division room for additional expansion to support customer needs. Rigging is nearly complete as the many large components are set in place, the heaviest is the yoke, weighing in at over 80,000lbs (pictured below). The yoke contains the vessel while under pressures, which can reach 30,000 psi. Also pictured are the power and pumping modules which form the structure around the vessel. Paulo is excited to add HIP to its service offerings especially in light of the recent growth of additive manufacturing. “Many of the products we heat treat are HIP’ed prior to us receiving them, adding HIP allows us to be a one stop shop for many customers as well as growing our presence in the world of Additive Manufacturing,” said Phil Harris, Marketing Manager. Installation and startup will continue for several weeks with both cold and hot testing and training to be completed by September. The construction of the expansion is nearly complete as seen below. Founded in 1943, Paulo is one of the largest providers of thermal processing and metal finishing solutions in North America. Headquartered in St. Louis, Paulo operates six divisions servicing the Midwest, Great Lakes, and Southeast regions of the United States and northern Mexico.”
As we have mentioned French furnace builder BMI received an order from Aero Engine Corporation of China (a division of AECC). This furnace is a carbottom style which will be used for titanium annealing and stress relieving applications, among other processes. The useful dimensions are 2500 x 2500 x 1300mm High for a max load of 5 tons. This furnace will be equipped with a full metal hot zone designed and made by long-term Austrian Partner, PLANSEE. This furnace is similar to another one also delivered to China a few years back. The previous furnace had even larger dimension at 2500 x 7000 x 1500 mm for a max load of 7 tons. That particular one was the largest ever built by BMI.
“Wisconsin Oven Corporation announced the shipment of one (1) Electrically Heated Four Zone Conveyor Oven to a manufacturer in the oil and gas industry. The electrically heated conveyor oven has sufficient capability to heat 25 parts per hour with a heating time of 48 minutes and a cooling time of 12 minutes. Each chamber in this four-zone conveyor oven has a maximum temperature rating of 400°C and dimensions of 1’8” wide x 2’0” long x 6” high. The oven has a guaranteed oven temperature uniformity of ±6°C at 310°C (±10.8°F at 590°F) for a minimum of 6 minutes per heating chamber and with a belt speed of 2 inches per minute. The cool down features a 1,500 CFM propeller fan to cool the parts utilizing top-down airflow, where cooling air will be discharged into the shop from below the unit.”
Now this is more interesting news to start off the week. It would appear that Netherlands based conglomerate Aalberts N.V. has acquired commercial heat treater Applied Process, one of the largest commercial heat treaters in North America. Aalberts, through their “Hauck”division is the second largest commercial heat treater in Europe as ranked by “The Monty” https://themonty.com/largest-
“Applied Process, the industry leader in salt quench heat treating, announced today that it has been 100% acquired by Aalberts N.V. (Aalberts), a Dutch public company. Aalberts, one of the largest heat treating
Richard Wright, COO of the US Division of Aalberts Material Technology stated “Aalberts is very excited that Applied Process is joining our team of world-class service providers. Applied Process is the world-wide leader in austempering heat
We are very grateful for our customers’ business and look forward to continued growth together. We are also excited about the new business opportunities that will come as we join the Aalberts family. We are confident our new ownership will serve us all well and provide incremental technical, capital and human resources to further strengthen our superior technical support, unrivaled customer service, and perfection in heat treating services. Our brand and Hostile Duck will continue on, as will the entire leadership team. Our customers, prospects, and friends should expect “business as usual” after the transaction. In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Richard, Harold or Steve Metz with any questions.”
