Baker Furnace, a division of Thermal Product Solutions, announced the installation of a quench tank for a supplier in the heat treatment industry as part of their aftermarket services. The customer had two quench tanks and three drop bottom furnaces and needed the third quench tank in order to optimize quench loads per day. The quench tank has three impellers capable of 27,000 GM on a 15,000-gallon tank. This style of agitation allows for thick, large castings to dissipate heat faster. The system runs on VFD’s, which allows for cost savings and the ability to adjust as needed when less agitation is required.
“The customer had two existing quench tanks: one hot water and one cold water. Having only two tanks hindered quenching on all three drop bottoms, being that it takes 6 hours to heat or cool the tank. Adding the third, dedicated cool water tank, allows the customer to run two more loads per day, which is critical for a commercial heater.” – Sergio Luevano, General Manager. Baker Furnace took on all parts of the project, including the civil engineering, city permitting, and installation. During the installation, three crane rail tracks were extended. To do so, Baker Furnace had to break the concrete, reinforce the concrete to accept the crane rail, and reinstall the crane rail. There was limited space in the facility for the third quench tank; the hoist required a 24’ height and the building was 24’3”. With limited space and a low-profile quench tank design, the system was able to be installed.
Unique features of this hoist tank include:
- Impellers
- VFD on each impeller
- Wireless remote to operate crane and quench tank
Regular readers of “The Monty” will be aware that over the course of the past year the name “Härtha Hardening Industries” has been popping up with increasing regularity in our news items which is really no surprise as we ranked the company as one of the larger commercial heat treaters in Europe https://themonty.com/largest-european-commercial-heat-treaters-february-2019/ After recent visits to their HÄNDLE location in Tübingen, Germany and their SABO plant in Boxtel, The Netherlands we had the opportunity just last week to see their headquarters in Aldenhoven, Germany where we learned more about the company as a whole which makes for a rather interesting story;
The HALEX Group, managed by the Halex Holding, Germany has two divisions; Halex Extrusion Dies and Härtha Hardening Industries- combined the company has 14 subsidiaries with a total of 550 employees, all based in Europe. As usual our interest starts and ends with the heat treating portion of the business, Härtha Hardening. The company entered the commercial heat treating business as a family business in 1993 with a facility in Weissenburg Germany and over the years other locations have been added including HÄNDLE in Tübingen, Germany (2016), SABO in Boxtel, The Netherlands (2016) a greenfield expansion of Härtha in Verona, Italy (2018) and the acquisition of Forte in Stollerg, Germany (2018). The end result is a total of 9 independent heat treat shops in 4 countries.
Now that we have covered the Group as a whole let’s have a look at the Aldenhoven location We would consider the plant to be larger than the average commercial heat treat in Europe with over 50 employees, a production floor of 1,625 m2 and sales of over 6.5 million Euros annually. The focus of this plant is largely on vacuum hardening and gas nitriding, though also offering various other processes And our impression-well these photos tell the story. A nice clean modern shop, with clean, quite new equipment-impressive in short and we look forward to seeing some of the other Härtha locations in the future.
Sven Killmer, CEO, Gord Montgomery, Ralf Einenkel, Engineering Manager
It is perhaps too soon say that “Hipping” (hot isostatic pressing) is a growing trend in the North American heat treating industry, however we have certainly run across more new or planned installations in the past year than we have in the past 30. One company which has been mentioned as getting into this field is the largest commercial heat treater in the US Northwest, Stack Metallurgical in Portland. In the photo below you see their new unit which is getting pretty close to completion. By the way we see that the founder of the company Harald Stack recently passed away; “Harold E. Stack, age 103, passed away peacefully at his home in Madison Park on June 14, 2019. Seattle born and raised, Harold graduated Roosevelt HS in 1933 and from UW in 1937 lettering in Skiing and a member of Phi Sigma Kappa. Active sailor, skier, fisherman, served in US Navy for over 5 years during WWII, departed at rank of Cmdr., then rejoined family steel distribution business started by his father. Innovative, industrious and active locally and with the Steel Service Center Institute, Harold grew Stack Steel and Supply Co. with the help of many loyal employees to a regional business with branches in Seattle, Spokane, Anchorage and Portland.”
In people “stuff” we hear that Harvey Hornung who was General Manager at commercial heat treater Nevada Heat Treating in Carson City, Nevada, USA will be making a big change. Harvey is poised to become an Ipsen salesperson based in Nashville, Tennessee. Talking about Ipsen we should mention that last week was the 10th anniversary of the first “Titan” vacuum furnace. Apparently the company has now sold over 300 of their “Titan” vacuum furnaces in 28 countries around the world which jogs our memory about one of our favorite features of the furnace-the programmer is set up for something like 20 languages. Pick the one you want, English, German, French, Chinese whatever and you are away to the races-we always thought this was pretty cool.
Remember this news item about Epiroc in Sweden investing in an in house heat treating department? It sounds as though there will be two furnace lines (each is a different technology) and one will utilize salt quenching. “Epiroc has held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new heat treatment plant for rock drills at one of its global manufacturing hubs in Örebro, Sweden. With heat treatment an essential part of rock drill manufacturing, the top-modern plant – to be built through an expansion of the current workshop building – will further boost rock drill quality and performance, according to Epiroc Production at the 1,400 m² heat treatment plant will be able to run 24 hours a day thanks to automation. It is expected to be up and running by late-2020.”
Down in Texas commercial heat treater Worldwide Heat Treat is pretty pleased with the fact that they recently obtained ISO 9001:2015.
And to round things out we have this photo of Mr. Udo Fiorini, Publisher and Director of S+F Editora down in Brazil. Amongst the magazines Udo publishes are Industrial Heating, Gear Magazine and Forge.
Last week we met with the new CEO of furnace group SECO/WARWICK. As a follow up to that meeting we have this press release from the company which provides a few more details.
It has been a month, since the Supervisory Board at the SECO/WARWICK Group unanimously decided to entrust the function of President of the Management Board to Sławomir Woźniak. The new President has been appointed for the same period as the joint term of the new Management Board, which spans the next three full financial years. “The Group boasts strong financial foundations, promising growth prospects, a stable product portfolio, and an excellent team of specialists. We want to fully harness this tremendous potential and strengthen our position. In order to do so, we will work, among other things, on developing our product range and on further improving the entire production chain,” says Sławomir Woźniak, the new President of the Management Board at the SECO/WARWICK Group. Sławomir Woźniak is a graduate of the Institute of Electrical Engineering at the University of Zielona Góra, and has been connected with the SECO/WARWICK Group since the beginning of his professional career. For 25 years, he has been observing the organisation’s culture in various parts of the world, which has also allowed him to gain rich sectoral, industrial, and corporate experience. “We have entrusted the function of President of the Board not only to a man who has developed the company, but also to a highly experienced manager. I am convinced that his abilities and amazing competencies will contribute to the further intensive growth of SECO/WARWICK,” comments Andrzej Zawistowski, Chairman of the Supervisory Board at the SECO/WARWICK Group.
“It is a great honour to assume leadership of the Company, which I have been associated with since the beginning of my professional career. We are facing the extremely important and ambitious task of determining the further directions in which the Company should go. Together, we will create a global culture of accountability throughout the entire SECO/WARWICK Group’s organisation, and involve all the Group companies in the fulfilment of our objectives, which will allow us to increase our economy of scale. I believe that with such a professional international team of specialists, stable foundations, excellent technologies, proven products, and excellent references, it will be possible to create the innovative and reliable solutions that the Group is known for, which, in turn, will strengthen our market and financial position,” says Sławomir Woźniak, the current president of SECO/WARWICK S.A., in a letter to employees.
Sławomir Woźniak’s career at SECO/WARWICK started with an apprenticeship as an electrician. After graduating from the Institute of Electrical Engineering at the University of Zielona Góra, he became a Service Engineer. After the CAB product segment was separated, he became the Deputy Manager of CAB. After 3 years, in 2005, he assumed full responsibility for this product group, this time as Head of CAB. 5 years later, he became Deputy Managing Director SECO/WARWICK Retech China. He was appointed Managing Director of SECO/WARWICK Allied in India for another 2 years, as well as Chief Operating Officer of the SECO/WARWICK Group. From 2014 to 2016, he again took the role of Managing Director of SECO/WARWICK Retech China. During this time the company stabilised its financial position and competitive advantage in that market. From 2016, he held the position of Managing Director of SECO/WARWICK Allied (India). By the end of 2016, he had been appointed Managing Director (Asia) and Member of the Management Board at SECO/WARWICK S.A., and in 2018 he became the Vice President of the Management Board at SECO/WARWICK S.A. and the Chief Operating Officer of the SECO/WARWICK Group.
Sławomir Woźniak has acquainted himself with nearly every aspect of SECO/WARWICK’s business by performing a number of functions and carrying out many projects that cut across a variety of fields in the Group’s key business areas – both product and geographic. From the very beginning, the company’s operating philosophy has been based on the development of products and technologies to meet the needs and expectations of customers. In reality, perhaps, not so much as to meet those requirements, as… to jointly define and create a technological empire of heat processing. “SECO/WARWICK owes its strength to people who have unity in their DNA, trust and respect in their hearts, and reliability in their blood. People who create with pride and courage, collaborate with commitment, work responsibly and honestly – this is the potential that we have and which allows us to be a reliable partner and technological expert who is, and will be, trusted by hundreds of employees and thousands of customers,” concludes Mr Woźniak.
Dowa Thermotech. This past week we had the privilege of meeting the new President of Dowa Thermotech Co., Ltd., Mr. Ryuji Tsuji who took over from Mr. Toshiro Sumida a little while back. Dowa Thermotech is part of the Dowa Group of companies which is one of the largest conglomerates in Japan. The Dowa Thermotech division offers commercial heat treating on two continents, Asia and North America and in addition is quite possibly the largest furnace builder in Japan. To describe the scope of the company’s involvement in the heat treating industry would take some time so we will summarize by saying they have multiple heat treating shops in Japan, Thailand, the USA and Mexico and the furnace manufacturing part of the company had installed thousands of furnaces over the years including at least 250 in the USA.
Hightemp Furnaces in India is part of the Dowa Group and is in turn far and away the largest commercial heat treater in the county and also the largest furnace builder. The president, Mr. Gopal Mahadevan can be seen in two of the photos below. We all know about the tremendous manufacturing growth in India-Hightemp is a perfect example as it adds new locations on what seems to be a continuous basis. You can see the new Sanand, India location under construction just 7 months ago.
Meapforni in turn is a furnace builder in Italy who formed a partnership with Dowa a few months ago as we see in this press release; “April 2019 Press Release. If you are a furnace manufacturer in Europe we would imagine that this news item about Japanese furnace builder Dowa Thermotecand Italian furnace manufacturer Italstart/Meapforni will be of a great deal of interest; “Dowa Thermotec Ltd., one of the top Furnace manufacturers and heat treaters globally is pleased to announce that Dowa will be entering the European market to offer their latest state of art cutting edge technologies in the field of heat treating for the European market. The equipment’s offered to the European market will take into account user preferences in terms of makes/ assemblies complying with European standards in terms of furnace operation. This initiative by Dowa will be supported on ground by a new relationship and partner Italstart supported by Italstart subsidiary Meapforni for furnace parts, after sales and maintenance. Technology by Dowa with active support from Italstart on sales and service will offer unmatched quality of service and support. Dowa and Italstart are confident that technically advanced heat treat systems supported by an efficient sales and service support will bridge a long felt need of European customers.”
With this background out of the way we show you two photos which were taken just last week. The one shows the Dowa/Hightemp group at the recent Thermprocess show in Germany, the second shows the Dowa/Hightemp team visiting Meapforni in Italy just a few days ago. In addition to these photos we also include one from the Dowa, Hamda, Japan which we visited a few years ago. All of this serves to remind us about how the worldwide heat treating industry has become a very tight knit group.
Mr. Ryuji Tsuji, President, Dowa Thermotech Co., Ltd., second from right.
Second from left Francesco Pieropan (Meapforni, Italy), third from right, Ryuji Tsuji (Dowa, Japan), second from right, Gopal Mahadevan (Hightemp Furnaces, India)
Dowa Hamda
Sanand Plant
Back in March of this year we mentioned that Jens Baumann & Edgar Falkowski in Germany had parted ways with controls company UPC (the UPC ad can be found on the right side of this page). We lost touch with them, however we learned that they both very recently started with a company by the name of Millivolt GmbH also in Germany about whom we know nothing. The original press release is below.
“March 2019; One of the world’s largest and best known suppliers of controls for the heat treat industry, United Process Controls has seen a couple of personnel changes in Europe; “United Process Controls GmbH and Messrs Edgar Falkowski (previously Director Engineering) and Jens Baumann (previously Director Sales) parted company on 25 February 2019. As current contact person in place of Mr. Falkowski in the Engineering Division please contact our Ms. Soldani, phone +49 7161 94888-38, e-mail; [email protected]. Our existing team will continue to work with you in a professional and uninterrupted manner; the replacement of both positions is already in progress.”
Yes we did say that we had completed our coverage of the recent heat treat exhibition in Germany however we came across these final two photos.
“Fluke Process Instruments. Fluke was demonstrating a really cool thermal imaging camera at the Thermprocess show. On the left side of this photo we have Dr. Martin Budweg and on the right the “ZZ Top” guy is Stewart Griffiths of Bodycote and Hauck fame.”
“Russia’s largest furnace manufacturer, “Nakal” has over 14,000 furnaces installed and roughly 300 employees. In this photo we see Mr. Ilichev Evgeny, Commercial Director and Gord Montgomery.”
Yesterday we mentioned the passing of Bruce Hynes, founder of used furnace equipment company Furnaces, Ovens and Baths in Michigan. The obituary mentioned the rather unusual way that he entered the industry-from barber to used equipment dealer which is a new one on us. In spite of the fact that he entered the industry by accident he proved to be a natural and he turned Furnaces Ovens and Baths into probably the largest dealer in the North American heat treat industry. The company continues to prosper under the leadership of his son Jeff and daughter Jennifer. Proving once again how this industry is so family oriented we should add that Bruce, Jeff and Jennifer are not the only Hynes in the heat treating business. Bruce’s nephews Steve and Brad own one of the largest commercial heat treaters in the state, Heat Treating Services based in Pontiac, Michigan. We searched through out file photos and found this picture showing Steve Hynes at his facility in Michigan just a few years back.
We have some final photos from the heat treat exhibition in Germany last week.
No show is complete without temperature profiling company Phoenix TM. In this photo we see from the left; Bastian Sulinski, Michael Taake, Carola Konitzer and Dr. Steve Offley. Steve is holding a PTM 1220 datalogger.
Furnace Builder Aichelin of Austria. First on the left Carsten Stoelting. Mr. Thomas Dopler (who we will be interviewing in October), Hugo Bosio and Bill Disler of the AFC-Holcroft division.
Italian furnace builder IVR.