Back in 2012 we ran across two super nice guys, Dennis Petrosky and Nick Rosatti who were starting up a small commercial heat treat by the name of Industrial Heat Solutions in Greensburg, PA, USA (you can read the start up history below). Very unfortunately the company just told us they will be closing the doors which is a real shame.

“2012 Press Release; Industrial Heat Solutions (IHS) is a start-up company designed to provide value-added services into the specialty metals industry. This company provides the process of heat treating to the specialty metals used in the aerospace and nuclear industries. IHS provides precise and prompt tempering, annealing and hardening of metallic alloys. With an established quality control system equivalent to ISO 9001 and a fully automated heat treat system, the quality of processing will set a high benchmark from the start. The current facility will allow for expansion plans commensurate with need. The long term outlook of IHS is the controlled growth and profit within an industry that will be sustained for many years to come. Much of the heat treatments that will be performed will be for the U.S. Navy to maintain the fleet nuclear reactors.

Targeted customers are typically metal fabricators within a local or regional area. Many fabricators serve a single primary market such as auto or highway construction and may depend on a few large customers. When the market softens, the fabricator has less demand, in turn reducing demand for coating and finishing companies. IHS will fill the gap in lead times by providing local businesses a means to increase their turnaround rate of production. Operating locally and having the ability to quickly complete the required process, IHS will give these companies a means to be competitive and provide their customers with a higher degree of prompt service. Within Westmoreland County there are over 250 machine shops that require heat treating of some sort throughout the year. Including the surrounding counties almost triples the number of machining facilities to 736 in the Western Pennsylvania region.

IHS will operate as a Pennsylvania Partnership. Dennis Petrosky will serve as the President. Timothy Hebrank will serve as the Quality Control Manager. Nicolas Rosatti will serve as the COO and Director of Sales. Their management team has 25 years of combined experience in this industrial field, with 15 of these years at the industrial management level.”

INDEPENDENCE, KY., May 14, 2019 – The Industrial Heating Equipment Association (IHEA) recently announced its 2019 – 2020 Board of Directors and Executive Officers.  IHEA’s President is Michael Stowe of Advanced Energy; Scott Bishop of Alabama Power Company assumes the role of Vice-President; and Jeff Valuck of Surface Combustion was elected Treasurer.  Serving as Past President is Daniel Llaguno of Nutec Bickley. IHEA also welcomed three new board members: Gary Berwick of Dry Coolers, Bob Fincken of Super Systems, Inc., and Doug Glenn. IHEA President Michael Stowe comments,

“At our recent annual meeting in Sarasota, FL, we were very excited to officially appoint three new board members.  They will each serve a three-year term, with service through the 2022 annual meeting.  These folks represent dozens of years of process heating experience across several different markets.  IHEA is very fortunate to have them serving on our board.” Gary Berwick is a veteran in the heat-treating industry with over 30 years’ experience.  He has been involved with IHEA since the early 1990s and stays active through his engineered sales role with Dry Coolers.  Berwick is also a member of the Metal Treating Institute and the American Society of Manufacturing.  IHEA is fortunate to have Gary’s valuable contributions on the Education committee as well.

IHEA gains a respected industry professional in Bob Fincken of Super Systems Inc.  Fincken is their national sales manager for all of North America with 30 years of experience in controls and sensors.  He is a great asset on IHEA’s Safety Standards and Codes committee and provides input for IHEA’s educational tools to support the association’s knowledge base. To complete the Board of Directors for 2019 – 2020, IHEA is proud to name those continuing their service: B.J. Bernard, Surface Combustion, Inc.; Brian Kelly, Honeywell Thermal Solutions; Francis Liebens, SOLO Swiss Group, John Podach, Fostoria Process Equipment, a div. of TPI Corp., Jason Safarz, Selas Heat Technology Co. LLC; and John Stanley, Karl Dungs, Inc. 

Kern Liebers is a company which intrigues us as they seem to be that very rare of breeds, a company which successfully combines manufacturing with captive and commercial heat treating. Recently they have been promoting themselves with press releases such as this combined with a photo of the plant in Mexico. “We present the two plants KERN-LIEBERS MEXICO in the state of Queretaro. One of them is dedicated to the production of stampings, stampings and heat treatments, while the other is focused on springs. More than 540 employees work in these facilities of 22.400 square meters of extension, where we offer amenities such as a gym for the exclusive use of employees and their families, among others.” To go with this news item we include our original news item from a few months ago along with a photo of part of their heat treating department.

“October 2018 PRESS RELEASE; Do Manufacturers Make Good Commercial Heat Treaters? Kern Liebers; Generally our opinion is that manufacturers who have in house heat treating capacity make poor commercial heat treaters for a wide variety of reasons. However having said that we very recently visited a manufacturer who for years now has been offering commercial heat treating from their in house heat treating departments and has been very successful at it. KERN-LIEBERS is a medium-sized family owned company based in southwest Germany who specializes in the production of highly complex strip and wire parts and assemblies. The KERN-LIEBERS group of companies develops and manufactures precision products at over 50 locations around the world and currently 6 of these locations have in house heat treating capacity which offer commercial heat treating.

Two weeks ago we visited the Schramberg, Germany location which has the ability to offer Gas Nitriding, Nitrocarburizing – also of stainless steels, case hardening, carburizing, austempering and vacuum hardening. One look at the equipment tells us why the company is successful at commercial heat treating, it is new andvaried In addition as Kern Liebers services a number of different industries they have a wide variety of certifications including  IATF 16949 and  CQI9 to name a few. While a majority of the heat treat capacity is dedicated to their own products by sales volume, the commercial heat treating side of the business is substantial and contributes a significant part on it. It is important to note that while the company probably did not set out to be a commercial heat treater they certainly treat it as an independent profit center with worldwide heat treatment . Mrs. Li Haas [email protected] is working for the sales department in Germany, who is connected to all the heat treatment teams of the other locations. Other locations offering commercial heat treating include China – Taicang near Shanghai and Tianjin near Beijing, India –  Tumkur near Bangalore, Czech Republic – Budweis, and Mexico – Querétaro .

While many of the processes are duplicated in the various locations some such as  Plasma Nitriding is only available in one location (Taicang/Tianjin, China) or Induction Hardening which is only available in India and the Czech Republic. As we speak the company is making major investments in many of their plants, including two new pit furnaces from Rohde Furnaces in Germany-one for the Mexico location and another for the Czech Republic. Rohde is also in the process of installing 2 new  vacuum nitriding furnaces in Mexico. Rohde has already equipped all worldwide Kern Liebers plants with either pit or chamber furnaces. Other planned additions include more of an emphasis on nitriding capacity especially in China and especially as it relates to heat treating of stainless steels. So while we feel that most captive heat treaters do not make a good commercial heat treater we can point to Kern Liebers and say; “here is a company that manufactures a very good product and is also a darn good commercial heat treater.”

Pit carburizing furnaces on the used market are rather unusual items, when they are available nobody wants them, when everybody wants one they cannot be found anywhere. In this particular case we were aware of an excellent condition Unitherm pit carburizing furnace just 4 years old with working dimensions of 36″ diameter X 72″ deep on the used market in the USA. As it turns out it turned out to be a perfect fit for another North American heat treater and a deal was promptly concluded even though the line was on the market for a relatively short period of time.

Commercial heat treater Thermetco in Canada has been gradually moving into a new 55,000 square foot facility over the past two years and the move is now almost completed as we saw last week. The operation now has over 110 employees and has available most heat treating processes. We’re going to let these photos tell the story of the company although we will add some thoughts. In the first photo below we see the owner Mr. Vincent Houle along with Cedrick Lamarre and Yannis Thierrey in the carburizing department. When we asked Vincent how the move went his answer was that this will be the last move he ever makes. In the second photo we see a brand new BMI Vacuum Nitriding furnace which we mentioned in passing this past Friday. We would guess this is the largest BMI vacuum installation in North America. We also have in our third photo an overview of the whole plant which will complete our story about Thermetco at least for today.

Thursday May 16 Continental Castings in Palmyra, MO, will auctioning off a bunch of equipment. Included in the offerings is a Wheelabrator and a few ovens. None of these items look real exciting but there is always a demand for Wheelabrators and ovens so they will probably sell for at least a few dollars. In Cleveland, USA commercial heat treater Kowalski Heat Treating is expanding as we can see in this note. Kowalski is a family owned business offering a number of different  processes including nitriding, vacuum heat treating and salt processing. The company is lead by Mr. Stephen Kowalski who is almost annoying because he is so happy, enthusiastic and energetic (but hey we can’t help but like the guy); “Just west of the apartment row that is shaping up on lower Detroit Avenue in Ohio City, Conveyer & Caster and Kowalski Heat Treating occupied adjoining properties where they have worked out among themselves a solution to the same problem: finding room to grow. The outcome for the north end of the block between West 33rd and West 38th streets easily might have been different. Owners of Conveyer & Caster sold the company’s three small buildings to Kowalski after moving to Westlake. Indeed, Conveyer & Caster’s owners, the Stohr family, rebuffed three unsolicited offers from real estate developers produced by word-of-mouth reports that the company, through Storefront LLC, had paid $2.9 million for a building at 29570 Clemens Road in Westlake. Instead, an affiliate formed by Stephen Kowalski, president of Kowalski Heat Treating, submitted the best offer for Conveyer & Caster’s three buildings. They will provide room to expand for the family-owned Kowalski, which already occupies six buildings that it has purchased since setting up shop in 1975 at 3611 Detroit Ave.”

AMETEK Superior Tube in PA has been reawarded Nadcap accreditation for heat treating and brazing; “AMETEK SMP Superior Tube, a leading manufacturer of small diameter precision metal tubing for the aerospace and defense industries as well as other sectors, has announced two successful reaccreditations from Nadcap, formerly known as the National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program. Superior Tube met all Nadcap’s requirements based on the exacting standards around heat treating and welding/brazing. Nadcap provides independent accreditation and certification of special manufacturing processes and products to companies working across the aerospace and defense sectors. Superior Tube was re-awarded the heat treating and welding/brazing reaccreditations based on its ongoing commitment to continual improvement in the aerospace industry, as demonstrated in specific manufacturing processes. These include chemical processing, metal coatings, conventional machining, heat treating, non-destructive testing and welding.”

Stack Metallurgical out in the Northwestern US announced last year that they were investing in a new facility for their brand new “HIP” system. They are moving right along as you can see here; “Stack HIP is coming!  Perfect spring weather in Oregon has construction of our new HIP facility ahead-of-schedule.  That big hole in the ground is the future home of a Quintus “mega-HIP” which will offer the largest high-pressure HIP capacity in North America.  We look forward to the installation and qualification of our new equipment this fall, and the launch of commercial services in 2020.”

In upcoming news you can look forward to profiles about captive and commercial heat treaters in North Carolina, USA next week. First up is East Carolina Heat Treating in Raleigh, North Carolina this Wednesday followed by several industry suppliers along with hopefully a captive heat treater or two.

Furnace and oven builder Pyradia in Canada is a company we have been bumping into more and more over the years, so much so that we decided a visit was again in order this time along with Bob Fincken of SSI. The company has been around for over 40 years during which time they have always offered basic ovens but it would appear that as time progresses Pyradia is getting more and more involved with higher temperature furnaces largely for the aerospace and aluminum industries although they have also built carburizing systems in conjunction with their Swiss partner Codere (whose banner ad can be found on this  page). A visit this week showed several systems all capable of over 2,000 F and all going to aerospace customers (unfortunately we just missed seeing a couple of big “carbottoms” which just shipped). We went through our notes about the company and came across this press release from 2016 which mentions the promotions of Carl Martel and David Ross who can be seen in these photos.

“February 2016 Press Release; More than 40 years after creating and building-up Pyradia, co-founders Michel Hémond and Mario Bouthillier, respectively President and Vice-President of the board, are proud to announce the following nominations. Cumulating over 20 years of experience at Pyradia with 10 years as R&D and Engineering Director, Mathieu Laguë becomes Managing director. With 12 years of experience working for Pyradia, Carl Martel, previously Web Converting Product Manager, takes responsibility for sales management. David Ross, previously Industrial Ovens Technical Leader, has also been with Pyradia for over 12 years and is promoted R&D and Engineering manager. Geneviève Bousquet, Administration manager et Claude Beauchemin, Production manager, already in place, complete the management team. Pyradia’s mission remain the same and the new management team will continue operating with the same objectives in mind. Pyradia is a manufacturer of heat treating, web converting and dust collection industrial equipment.

David Ross, Bob Fincken, Carl Martel

David Ross, Engineering Manager, Pyradia, Carl Martel, Sales Manager, Pyradia, Bob Fincken, Sales Manager, SSI

A relatively unusual sight in North America is that of a BMI vacuum furnace. Located in France BMI is a manufacturer of vacuum furnaces and good ones at that but you see very few of them in North America which makes the sight of several in a row a very unusual sight. In this photo you see a brand new BMI vacuum nitrider which is installed in North America alongside several BMI vacuum tempers. Monday we will give you some more details about the North American company which has this furnace and several others installed and in operation.

Today we visited a commercial heat treater in the Canadian province of Quebec to see what they have been up to lately. As it turns out quite a bit. The company recently made a number of substantial investments which include a really impressive TOCCO single spindle Induction scanner able to handle parts up to 54” long and a very large Solar Vacuum tempering furnace both of which are shown below along with a photo of their Pyradia drop bottom oven for processing aluminum parts. The company is very proud of the fact that the company is NADCAP approved although according to one of the owners, John Spencer the indirect labor costs involved in NADCAP outweigh the direct labor costs. In other words there is a tremendous amount of investment involved in achieving and continuing with NADCAP certification which is not apparent to the untrained eye.

We always run across our good friend Andrea at all of the European Heat Treat Exhibitions and indeed we always look forward to it. As it turns out Andrea recently moved from After Sales Service at SECO WARWICK to After Sales Service at Ipsen International. Based in France Andrea has also worked at other heat treat suppliers including Avion.

Over the years the most common heat treating furnace in North America the “Batch Integral Quench Furnace” (also known as a sealed quench or controlled atmosphere furnace) has grown from a slim, svelte size of 30” wide X 48” deep X 30” high to  the larger 36” X 48” X 36” configuration. Ask any new furnace builder what is selling these days and they will tell you that except for certain areas such as the US west coast all heat treaters want the larger size, 3,500 pound capacity furnaces. 

What this means of course is that the demand for used furnaces this size has also increased which brings us to the point of this story which is that there will be a number of this size of furnace coming on to the used market in the next little while, both gas and electrically heated. They come mainly from captive heat treaters with surplus capacity and will be sold through a few used equipment dealers. The question is will enough come on the market to depress pricing? We think not, adding 10 or 20 used furnaces to a market as large as North America will have little effect and probably none at all on the new market as most heat treaters either buy new or used with few seriously considering both options.