It is with regret that we mention the recent passing of “Billy” Fulton our favorite heat treat maintenance person. Blunt to a fault, obnoxious and sarcastic as hell but very intelligent and extremely capable with a biting sense of humor-we always really got a kick out of his company. Billy worked for a number of commercial heat treaters in Canada before joining captive heat treater and auto parts maker Linamar Gear a number of years ago. With 27 furnaces in house this was certainly a full time job. ” Passed away at South Bruce Grey Health Centre on March 15, 2019. Beloved husband of Dawn Letten. Dear father of Jessie Fulton, step father of Michael Kirmse. Beloved son of William and Jeanette Fulton. Dear brother of Douglas Fulton and Jackie Fulton (Mike Doyle). Uncle to Caelan Fulton (Nicole and Isla). Billy was predeceased by his brother Roger Fulton (2011). Billy’s family will receive relatives and friends at Westmount Memorial Celebration Centre 1001 Ottawa St. S. Kitchener, (519-743-8900), on Thursday March 21, 2019 from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm.Interment will take place at a later date. If desired, donations would be appreciated to the Heart and Stroke Foundation or a charity of your choice. Online condolences at www.westmountfuneralchapel.com“

 
 
 

We are going to start off in the booming city of Logansport, Indiana, USA when fastener manufacturer A. Raymond Tinnerman recently made some major upgrades. The original press release included a lot of “blah, blah, blah” stuff about bending machines and packaging stuff but all we care about is the heat treating equipment. It doesn’t mention it in this press release but the ovens referred to in this article are mesh belt austempering lines, very similar to what the company has in their location in Hamilton, Canada; “Antoine Raymond, CEO of A. Raymond Tinnerman, visited the Logansport plant recently to tour the facility and observe the $3.5 million dollar investment in machinery and equipment recently added to the Logansport plant. A. Raymond Tinnerman has gone through three major upgrades and additions in the facility over the last two years.

The first major investment was the rebuild and upgrade of the heat treating processes including the addition of an endothermic generator. The heat treat ovens received a major rebuild and upgrade in furnace technology and controls and the addition of the new generator. These upgrades improved the quality and reliability of the heat treating process ensuring a higher quality part for the customers. Raymond participated in three separate ribbon cutting ceremonies for each of the additions. He met with the employees in the facility and expressed his appreciation for their hard work and dedication. He stated that the investments are not just in equipment, but also in the employees of the Logansport facility, as without their dedication and willingness to learn all of the new technology, these improvements would not be possible. In 2019 the Logansport facility will be adding another new technologically advanced machine.”

Our good friends at Induction Heating OEM, Ajax TOCCO Magnethermic (whose ad can be found on the right side of this page) recently shipped two large induction lines as you can see in this press release; “Warren, Ohio-based Ajax TOCCO Magnethermic® has announced the delivery of two large induction heat-treating quench and temper lines to facilities in the U.S. Both pipe heat-treating lines process upset tubing inline through multifrequency scheming technology at a rate of 15 to 20 tons/hr. These systems incorporate the company’s water sleeve quenching design, using high-volume precision barrels to accomplish uniform metallurgical grain structures, as required by API-certified tube and pipe. To maintain uniformity for API requirements, the systems incorporate a slow-feeding, rotating cooling bed at the exit of the tempering zone to ensure straightness after heat processing.”

A reader sent us this photo of Eric Jossart of international controls company UPC giving a talk in India; “Featured is Eric Jossart, UPC Director of Sales, speaking at a heat-treating seminar in Pune, India organized by our local representative PMA controls India ltd on April 16. Over 50 participants representing 20 companies from the automotive, aerospace, machine tool, and industrial manufacturing sectors were in attendance to learn how instrumentation (probes, sensors, flow meters), generator control systems, and furnace control system modernization can improve operator efficiency through reliable controls and automated sequences, while realizing a reduction in operation and maintenance costs, and similarly meeting the latest regulatory requirements.”

Rumor has it that Ipsen Group has started off well in 2019 with first quarter new equipment bookings of 30 furnaces globally into 12 different countries covering diverse industrial segments and even selling a furnace to a University research institute.  Metal powders company Titan International in PA, USA is adding vacuum sintering capacity. Nickel Pricing remains constant (as we can see in the graph below) which brings joy to every heat treaters heart.

And to round things out we have this photo from the largest commercial heat treater in Italy, Grupo TTN. We ran a similar photo from this company earlier this year after we visited them but we received so many comments about this the we are now showing you another angle. What you see are several pit gas nitriders with a working depth of 30’ but what is most amazing is that this is just the first step. The pit is designed to hold a 75’ deep pit nitrider which will happen one of these days.

“Can-Eng Furnaces has been chosen to design and commission a high-capacity, heat-treatment system for a Tier 1 Global Automotive Manufacturing Company. The new system provides T-6 and T-7 processing capabilities for lightweight aluminum High Pressure Die Casting (HPDC) automotive components.  Features of the system include Can-Eng’s proven Lean Manufacturing robotically integrated part handling system, individual part processing features that deliver predictable metallurgical and part dimensional properties, Precision Air Quenching (PAQTM) Technology, Level 2 automation system for the managing of individual component parameter traceability, system diagnostics and CQI-9 reporting. 

The system is scheduled for Commissioning Q1, 2020 and will support a next model generation Luxury SUV being released in 2021. CAN-ENG Furnaces International is a global provider of state-of-the-art thermal processing systems for ferrous and non-ferrous metals and is a significant supplier to the automotive community through direct and tier supply.  For further information, please contact Tim Donofrio – Vice President, Sales at [email protected]. CAN-ENG Furnaces International Limited is an ISO 9001:2015 certified company with its head office and manufacturing facility located in Niagara Falls, ON, Canada.”

 
 
 

Induction heating giant Ajax TOCCO Magnethermic (whose banner ad can be found on the right side of this page) faces a similar dilemma to many manufacturers in North America-where to find good people? As you can see in this note the company is looking for people to fill a number of good, well paying positions and yet they still are having a hard time filling these positions; 

“Ajax TOCCO Magnethermic has worldwide operations in nine countries. It designs and makes industrial heating and melting equipment. Ajax TOCCO is looking for skilled labor at its manufacturing headquarters in Warren. “What I mean by that is welders, machinists, assembly workers, those people that can read a drawing and understand what’s required to assemble or make the pieces and parts necessary for the equipment we supply to our customers,” said Tom Illencik, president of Ajax TOCCO. The company’s customers are steel mills, foundries and forge shops, among others. It makes things like heat treat scanners, conveyor rolls and power inverters from scratch.

“We’ve got a wide variety of stuff going here. We never make the same thing twice. The person has to be fairly dynamic and adapt to change,” Illencik said. Ajax TOCCO has been around since the early 1900s. Sherman Tanks used to be made in the factory during World War II before Ajax TOCCO moved in. Today, it continues to raise the bar while maintaining a commitment to quality, service and delivery. It’s proud that two people in the plant will celebrate their 40th anniversary with the company next week. “There’s no end to a person’s capability to advance in this company,” Illencik said. “I started out as an engineer and continued to move up in the process, and I’ve been here 35 years myself.”

 
 
 

Ever have a desire to tell your boss to take a hike and run your own commercial heat treat shop? Then we have a solution. Later today we will have some details about a relatively small (but profitable) commercial heat treat shop for sale in the US. While we hesitate to describe this as a “starter” company that is the way we would consider it. Details to come.

 

Now this is a rather eerie picture (pun intended). In Erie PA, Modern Industries is both a manufacturer and a commercial heat treater, as a matter of fact probably the largest commercial heat treater in the area. Recently they had a small nitrogen leak which produced this rather unreal photo; 

“At approximately 8:30pm on the night of April 15th 2019 a pipe connecting our exterior Liquid Nitrogen storage tank ruptured and started leaking.  This fault happened near the shutoff valve for the unit, which froze open, so we allowed the tank to empty into our parking lot and onto 12th street. The nitrogen gas that was released from the tank was not harmful to the people nearby or the environment. The fog, while cool looking and was harmless, caused the Erie Fire Department/HAZMAT team to close off 12th street for a couple hours until it dissipated. As the temperature of liquid nitrogen rises it is converted to nitrogen, which is the gas most plentiful in our atmosphere. We already have a repair crew out working to fix the problem. There is expected to be minimal interruptions to our customers as we make the needed repairs.”

October 22-24/2019 will see the 75th Heat Treatment Congress (HK) in Cologne, Germany. Organized by AWT this is in our opinion the best European heat treat trade show there is and well worth attending.

“This year the AWT (Working Group for Heat Treatment and Materials Technology) will be organising their Heat Treatment Congress (HK) for the 75th time. Come and join the celebrations! The anniversary event will kick-off on Tuesday, 22 October with a ceremonial address by Dr Stefan Hock, General Secretary of the “International Federation of Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering” (IFHTSE) and an honorary member of the AWT. He will be speaking about the importance of the HK and the changes it has undergone, and will also talk about future challenges with regard to raw materials.

News from the trade fair; Nitrex Metal, a Canadian based company, celebrates its return to HK event after a long absence. They are one of the leading companies in the field of controlled nitriding and nitrocarburising turnkey systems. Together with their affiliate United Process Controls, they will present distinctive solutions for the German and European markets including license-free nitriding/nitrocarburising systems and new case hardening technologies for stainless steels. At the moment there are still some free spaces available for exhibitors. An up-to-date hall plan with free spaces marked can be found here www.hk-awt.de/hallenplan-hk-2019. There is also an attractive special offer for first-time exhibitors. In the exclusively designed Newcomers’ Area, first-time exhibitors can present their companies for an all-in price of EUR 3,350.

Your benefits as a visitor; Exhibitors provide regular information about new products and job opportunities in the online marketplace on the website www.hk-awt.de. The Matchmaking tool allows visitors to prepare perfectly for the trade fair. They can arrange appointments with exhibitors in advance and mark favourites and presentations, and they can also use the calendar tool to create their own timetable for the event. The app for Android and iOS will then navigate perfectly through the event on site.

Further highlights of the congress; This year’s plenary speech will be given by leading communications expert Isabel Garcia on the theme of “Think cleverly, communicate cleverly”. In addition to this, there will be 30 top-class specialist presentations, on the following focal topics:

As always, simultaneous interpreting services from German into English and vice versa will be provided at the congress event. The complete congress programme will be published at the end of May on the website www.hk-awt.de. Entrance tickets can also be booked in the Ticket Shop from the end of May onwards.”

As part of the “Monday Morning Briefing” yesterday we mentioned in passing that Metex in Brampton, Canada had recently added another mesh belt furnace line, today we can give you a few more details. After installing a 3000 lbs/hr continuous mesh belt line in 2018, Metex has installed another 3000 lbs/ hr line in 2019. This line was built by Can-Eng and this will be the 7th mesh belt furnace line the company now has in operation.

In total they will now be able to process over 25,000 pounds per hour which must make them one of the largest commercial heat treaters in North America when it comes to mesh belt capacity for fasteners. FPM in the Chicago area probably rivals them but whether they are larger or not we couldn’t tell you. At the same time Metex also continues to add Induction heat treating capacity with several more systems added in the past couple of years.

A few weeks back we had some shocking footage of the very large, in house heat treating department of Mercedes in Sao Paulo, Brazil being flooded. What we see is a rather typical heat treating department of a transmission components manufacturing facility with a mixture of pusher furnaces, nitriders and rotary hearth furnaces. To see the devastation being caused by the flood waters is a very upsetting sight. We had so many comments on these videos that we are running them again as you can see below.

Now this Monday Morning Briefing should appeal to everybody in the heat treating industry around the world whether you are a furnace manufacturer in Europe or Japan, an Aerospace company in North America or a commercial heat treater in the US Midwest.

In Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA we see that a commercial heat treat by the name of Metals Engineering has a new owner-but first the background from the company’s website https://www.metalsengineering.net/ “Metals Engineering was founded in 1967 and purchased in 2001 by Tom Kemen. Significant investment into equipment and personnel set the company on a growth track that continued under Tom’s son, Ted Kemen, who bought the company in 2005. The addition of new technology and equipment following the 2014 acquisition of Omega Metal Treating boosted the efficiency and capabilities of Metals Engineering’s De Pere facility.” On March 29th of this year Ted Kemen, the current owner formally sold the company to an individual by the name of Dean Re. Metals Engineering is an average sized commercial heat treater who can offer stress relieving, carburizing, Induction hardening and carbonitriding to mention a few.

Back in October of 2016 GKN Aerospace/ASTECH Engineered Products in Santa Anna, California, USA went though some major changes in their in-house heat treating department. This involved decommissioning 8 Ipsen vacuum furnace and replacing them with 3 new Ipsen horizontal vacuums and two new Ipsen bottom load vacuum furnaces. The older furnaces remained in place looking for a buyer. Unfortunately at the end of the day most prospective buyers decided these were past their “best before” date and the furnaces were scrapped very recently. What made these furnaces really interesting was the size, the largest were 80” in diameter and 120” long. In this photo we see one of the furnaces.

If you are a furnace manufacturer in Europe we would imagine that this news item about Japanese furnace builder Dowa Thermotec and 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 the art, cutting edge technologies in the field of heat treating  for the European market.

The equipment 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 the ground by a new relationship and partner, Italstart supported by Italstart subsidiary Meapforni for furnace parts, after sales support 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.”

Kinyon Gorton who was involved in the heat treat department at Caterpillar in East Peoria, Illinois, USA recently retired. Caterpillar certainly needs no introduction but we will add that they are the largest captive heat treater in North America. “Schumer demands end to aluminum tariffs! OSWEGO, NY, USA. Novelis brass joined rank-and-file employees on Tuesday to welcome Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer to the company’s Scriba plant, where the Brooklyn Democrat called for an end to what he said are unnecessary and harmful aluminum tariffs. Tariffs put in place in the past year were aimed at protecting the U.S. steel and aluminum industry, but officials say the move is negatively impacting Novelis, which has operations across the border in Canada.

One of Oswego County’s largest employers, Novelis Inc., is seeking relief from the tariffs and Schumer has vowed to support the company in those efforts and push for an end to tariffs imposed on U.S. allies.” This article was taken from a local newspaper in NY andwe actually really don’t care what Mr. Schumer in the US has to say about aluminum tariffs but what caught our eye was the reference to Novelis, In NY and Ontario. Novelis is an enormous supplier of aluminum both new and recycled and as such requires a great deal of very pure Nitrogen. After a long study the company recently started producing their own nitrogen on site, something which you see on an occasional basis in the heat treat industry. We have always been puzzled as to why so few heat treaters install their own nitrogen generating systems for one reason or another it does seem to be quite unusual.

In Canada commercial heat treater Metex just finished installing a new addition for them-a 3,000 pound per hour AFC-Holcroft mesh belt furnace line bringing their total to 7. More on Metex tomorrow. DCL International Inc., a manufacturer of catalytic converters based in Concord, Canada recently completed installation of a brand new SECO/WARWICK vacuum furnace. This is the second SECO vacuum furnace the company has installed. And speaking of SECO we see that Jędrzej Malinowski who has been with SECO, Poland for many years was recently promoted to Sales Team Leader, Thermal Furnaces Team. And that is a wrap for Monday April 22/2019.