To go with this press release from SECO/WARWICK we have this photo. What you see in the picture is an older version of the furnace (manufacturing date 2006 to be exact) mentioned below which is currently installed at a Timken Bearing facility in the US;
“A global manufacturer of cutting tools has purchased an additional vacuum temper furnace from Pennsylvania based SECO/VACUUM (SVT), a SECO/WARWICK company, for its North American manufacturing operations. The new furnace, which will be used for tempering and stress relieving metal parts, is part of the company’s growing manufacturing expansion and complements another commissioned earlier in 2019 at this facility. The horizontal, front-loading furnace is purpose-built to accommodate the customer’s needs with an all-metal hot zone for clean vacuum processing. As with the earlier furnaces, one of which was installed at a different facility, the new furnace includes a convection fan and a pressurized gas quench for quick cooling. The repeat order is a testament to SVT’s on-time performance and the furnace meeting all promised parameters.”
This press release from hot isostatic press manufacturer Quintus refers to an order the company received from an additive manufacturing company. It remains to be seen how heat treating fits into this very interesting new technology but for the time being we mention this because several commercial heat treaters in North America recently placed orders with the company. We can also refer interested readers to an interview we recently did with the CEO of the company https://themonty.com/mr-jan-
“Quintus Technologies will deliver a hot isostatic press (HIP) with uniform rapid quenching (URQ) to the FIT Additive Manufacturing Group. Coming online in September 2019 at FIT’s main facility in Lupburg, Germany, the HIP will enable the additive-manufacturing (AM) specialist to boost productivity while meeting the heightened industrial requirements for 3D-printed metal parts. Operating at a temperature of 2552°F (1400°C) and pressure of 30,000 psi (2,070 bar), the press has a capacity of 264 pounds (120 kg) per load in a work zone that measures 10.6 inches (270 mm) in diameter and 19.7 inches (500 mm) in height. The proprietary URQ feature allows heat treatment and cooling to be combined in a single process, known as high-pressure heat treatment (HPHT). HPHT and HIP are used for the consolidation and densification of metal, ceramic and plastic parts, producing a maximum theoretical density, ductility and fatigue resistance in high-performance materials.”
AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group NV Reports First Quarter 2019 Results. If you’re interested AMG Group reported their first quarter financial results which can be found at https://finance.yahoo.com/
Commercial heat treater Southwest Metal Treating down in Fort Worth, Texas, USA just got finished installing this new 9,000 CFH Endothermic generator provided by McLaughlin Furnace Group. This is a True-Mix 9000 which has a turndown to 800CFH. In this photo we see on the right Ryan Fussell, President of Southwest and on his right Jeff McLaughlin of McLaughlin Furnace Group.
Last summer we told you about the new Applied Process (ADI) facility in Arkansas-we have this photo of the new location to go along with our description from last year; “This will be one of the largest new heat treating facility investments in North America in 2018. “Livonia, Mich.-based Applied Process opened its doors to the public to celebrate the beginning of operations in Fort Smith. The company purchased and renovated an abandoned building at 5400 North 6th Street for $2.751 million starting in January. The overall expansion has been between $8 million and $10 million, counting the addition of industrial equipment. “We started as a half-size facility with three furnaces, and we’ll grow out to six, says Rusty Rainbolt, Plant Manager ” he added. The current plant size is about 51,000 square feet.
What’s upcoming? Later this week our home page is going to feature an interview with Mr. Brian Reid, President of furnace manufacturing company Park Thermal, a company which has been around for over 50 years-we’re sure Brian will tell us exactly how long the company has been around. We’re also going to have a few pictures from another furnace manufacturer, Pyradia located just outside of Montreal along with some pictures from a couple of companies in the area doing heat treating. It’s still a few weeks out but also upcoming will be profiles of a few captive and commercial heat treaters in Germany, which is always interesting. Going back just a bit we had a news item about commercial heat treater Thermex out in Alberta adding a second SECO Vacuum nitrider. Well it is now up and running and we have this photo of the unit.
What’s it worth? Now this is an item always in very high demand in North America, an electrically heated temper with working dimension of 36” X 48” X 36” capable of 1400F and with nitrogen addition. Manufactured by Surface Combustion in 1994 this is a “Unidraw” and it is in very good condition. We would suggest that it is worth $39,000 USD and will sell fairly quickly, we will see how good our prediction is.
We have always considered that captive and commercial heat treating in the US Southeast was the “Mecca” of heat treating with so many manufacturers and their heat treating needs moving into the region. Well even paradise has issues as you can see;
Eaton Hydraulics in Greenwood, SC closed their In-house Heat Treat department and disposed of the equipment. The majority of the product they were heat treating was transferred to their plant in Mexico. The few parts that they maintained are being heat treated locally at a commercial shop. All the employees were transferred to other departments within the plant.
Richmond/Ohio Gear (Regal Beloit) in Liberty, SC also closed down their heat treat and disposed of the equipment late last year. They outsourced their heat treating to a sister plant and a local commercial heat treat. They had one of the oldest Surface Combustion Pushers that we know was still in operation. 1952 3-Row Pusher that operated everyday until the department closed.
Recently we had a news item suggesting that Kevin Walters of captive heat treater OMG in Agawam, Massachusetts, USA was now working at commercial heat treater Bodycote. As it turns out this information was incorrect and was 100% our mistake. We very sincerely apologize to Kevin for confusing his name with that of Dan Walters at Bodycote.
In Europe Aalberts Industries based in the Netherlands is probably the second largest commercial heat treater based upon their Hauck Heat Treatment division (details at https://themonty.com/largest-
“Aalberts N.V. has reached an agreement to acquire 100% of the shares of Precision Plating Company, Inc (PPC) based in Chicago, USA, generating an annual revenue of approximately USD 36 million with 150 FTE. Founded in 1904, PPC is active in the field of reel-to-reel plating and barrel & rack plating processes with a strong focus on R&D, customised engineering and innovation. The company develops and builds its own machinery to continuously improve the efficiency of the plating processes. The customers of PPC are active in general industries, aerospace and automotive end markets. PPC’s reel-to-reel surface treatment technology is similar to the technology of PEM in France, acquired in 2018. They will work closely together to exchange technology, processes and machine know-how, to further improve their performance and to service global key accounts in Europe and North America. The existing experienced management team of PPC, Gary Belmonti and Robert Zitella, will drive the expansion plan to grow the business in the coming years, utilising the footprint, investment power and knowledge of Aalberts.”
We are looking for more details to go with this news item but for the time being this is what we know. McLaughlin Furnace Group just built and installed this car bottom furnace at a facility in the US Southeast. The furnace has 2 cars with a transfer car that is in a pit that moves side to side . The furnace has working dimensions of 10’ Wide x 10’ High x 24’ Long and can handle a load of 100,000 pounds. Temperature range is from 250F to 2150F with a uniformity of +-15F and the furnace was designed and built in 6 months.
“EAST TROY, Wisc., April 29, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Wisconsin Oven Corporation announced the shipment of five (5) Electrically Heated Standard Draw Batch Series Ovens to East Carolina Metal Treating in Raleigh, N.C. The standard draw batch ovens (SDB ovens) will be used for stress relieving and have maximum oven operating temperatures of 1,250° F. The basket dimensions of each oven are 2’0″ wide x 3’0″ long x 2’0″ high. Guaranteed temperature uniformity of ±10°F at set points 300°F, 750°F, and 1,250°F was documented with a nine (9) point temperature uniformity survey in empty oven chambers under static operating conditions. “East Carolina Metal Treating has been incredible to work with, and we look forward to working with them for many years to come. ECMT even filmed the installation process for these five batch ovens, and the time lapse video is available to watch on both the WOC and ECMT Facebook pages.” – Mark Schahczinski, Sales Engineer”
“Dr. Valery Rudnev, FASM IFHTSE Fellow, awarded to be this year’s speaker at the Woodside Lecture, of the Detroit Chapter of ASM. This prestigious invitation is a great honor, as the Woodside Lecture is named for William P. Woodside, the founder of ASM in Detroit (1913). Dr. Rudnev will be discussing “Recent Theoretical and Practical Novelties in Induction Heat Treatment.” Further info regarding the meaning and history of the Woodside Lectures can be found on page # 2 of announcement below. All of us at Inductoheat are extremely proud of Dr. Rudnev and this recognition, and look forward to this lecture. The 77th Woodside Lecture will be held at the Burton Manor (27777 Schoolcraft, Livonia, MI 48150) Monday, May 13, 2019 from 5:30 – 8:00 p.m.
Dr. Valery Rudnev is the Director of Science & Technology at Inductoheat, Inc., an Inductotherm Group Company. He is considered by many as one of the leading global figures in the induction heating and heat-treating industry. Dr. Rudnev has more than 40 years of experience and is known within the ASM Int’l and among induction heating professionals as “Professor Induction.” Dr. Rudnev has been elected as a Fellow of both: ASM Int’l and International Federation for Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering (IFHTSE). His credits include a great deal of “know-how,” more than 50 patents and inventions (U.S. and International) and more than 250 engineering/scientific publications.”
Furnace builder SECO/WARWICK issued this press release about recently delivering two CaseMaster vacuum furnaces. To add to this news item we are including this photo of Jordan Montgomery of “The Monty” standing in front of a CaseMaster furnace which is installed and in operation in North America.
“Aerospace and automotive industry customers benefit from heat treating with SECO/WARWICK’s CaseMaster EvolutionR vacuum furnace. Recent deliveries of two CaseMaster EvolutionR (CMe) vacuum furnaces to an aerospace components manufacturer and an additional CMe furnace to a performance automotive manufacturer provide further evidence of the benefits of low pressure precision vacuum carburizing with follow-on vacuum oil quenching from SECO/WARWICK Group company in US. The unique CMe furnace allows customers who are new to vacuum heat treating a way to transition from atmosphere while providing flexibility for both oil quenching and gas cooling capabilities, making the furnace design extremely flexible. The CMe is cost efficient to operate and delivers repeatable, high volume processing with very low consumption of carburizing gases. Case depths are predictable with SECO/WARWICK software, and vacuum oil quenching produces minimal distortion, both features that are critically important to industry OEMs. As a highly efficient vacuum carburizing furnace, the CMe is characterized by an extraordinarily high coefficient of carbon transfer due to the vacuum (or partial pressure) nature of the process. It provides excellent carbon penetration when carburizing densely packed loads and complex shaped workpieces or blind holes and produces better quality parts thanks to no grain boundary oxidation and precise case uniformity.”
