The second largest commercial heat treater in North America has these management changes to mention; “Paulo is excited to announce three leadership changes to the Operations team. Tee Rassieur has been promoted to Vice President Operations, Tim Mohr has been promoted to Director of Strategic Programs, and Kyle Moore has been promoted to Plant Manager of the St. Louis Division. Promoting from within and providing leadership development and training is a key part of Paulo’s strategy.”

Wishing everyone a Happy Easter!

Out in Trumbauersville, PA, USA commercial heat treater and brazer Vacu Braze has been busy of late as you can see in these press releases and photos. By the way Vacu Braze is owned and run by a really top notch fellow by the name of Ralph Puerta, his son Doug is CEO of Stack Metallurgical one of the largest commercial heat treaters on the US west coast; 

“Vacu Braze, Inc. has opened a new state-of-the-art facility, Increasing the size of their headquarters. The new facility is open and fully-staffed with industry experts. With this expansion Vacu Braze was successful in expanding the solutions they offer to current and prospective clients. These new and expanded capabilities include: Precision Vacuum Brazing, Ultra-High Purity Vacuum Processing, Small Precision Heat Treatment, Atmospheric Heat Treatment, Oil Quenching, Gas Nitriding, and Glass Beading.

The new facility has enabled more precise climate control abilities and environmentally-friendly practices through the manufacturing process. Vacu Braze is proud to continue their commitment to providing the highest quality possible, while understanding the need for fast turnarounds and progressive processes.  Vacu Braze provides premium metal heat treating services for Medical, Military, Aerospace, Power Generation, Nuclear, and Tool & Die applications. Their work is constantly evolving to meet the various challenges their clients look to them to solve.”

“Vacu Braze is now offering Clean Processing capabilities in their new Bucks County facility. The state-of-the-art processing room is climate controlled and sterile. This development has expanded their capabilities in Vacuum Brazing, Gas Nitriding, Air / Atmosphere Processing, and has provided additional Vacuum Capacity.”

“Nabertherm GmbH, Bremen, Germany, has announced the appointment of Timm Grotheer as its new Managing Director. Grotheer, who previously served as Managing Director of shipbuilding group Lürssen, succeeds Friedrich-Wilhelm Wentrot, who has served as Managing Director of the company for eighteen years. Under Wentrot’s direction, Nabertherm reported that it has seen global success, employing more than 500 staff and achieving a turnover of more than €60 million ($68 million).

A key element in Wentrot’s strategy has been the consistent internationalisation of the business, which now has an export share of 70%, selling its furnaces and plants around the world. As a shareholder and board member, Wentrot will continue to his involvement with Nabertherm for the foreseeable future. It is now expected that Grotheer will guide the company in continuing its worldwide growth and development. https://www.nabertherm.com/“

In the UK commercial heat treater Wallwork which is one of the largest appears to be hinting that they might be setting something up in Europe;

“Exhibiting for the first time at the International Paris Air Show, Wallwork Group is looking to expand its thermal processing services into Europe. “For some time now, we have been establishing firm relationships with European based aerospace component manufacturers and this has encouraged us to exhibit in Paris,” explained Howard Maher, group sales manager. The company is in Pod 10 of the Midlands Aerospace Alliance stand, which is located in the British Pavilion. “Judging from stand visitor interest at the last Farnborough Air Show, we are expecting strong interest in our much expanded vacuum brazing and plasma nitriding services.” With an enviable reputation in ultra-hard PVD coatings, the company will also be championing its range of Nadcap approved Nitron Flight coatings for aerospace that can offer up to 33 times improved life on specific components.

Nitron Flight significantly contributes to reducing life cost ownership, fuel consumption, CO2 emissions and more. Following on from the 2017 acquisition of the Metaltech business, Wallwork has now established the processes of Xylan Fluoropolymer coatings and Molybdenum Disulphide dry film lubricants at other Group locations. Another area of investment has been additional capacity for the processing of aluminium and magnesium components. A strong service ethic backed by highly skilled metallurgists and skilled surface engineers along with full laboratory and substantial in-house testing facilities, enables the company to provide a quality service to aerospace component manufacturers with speedy order turnaround times.”

Showing us once again how small the heat treat industry is we have this news item. Carlos Sartori was a long time heat treater in Sao Paulo Brazil before taking the position of Operations Manage at Voestalpine in Canada (Voestalpine has one of the nicer heat treats we have seen-this plant features a number of Ipsen vacuum furnaces up to 12 bar and 60″ cubed). Well Carlos loved the job and the country but his wife was rather homesick and he moved back to work as a Heat Treat Specialist at Villares Metals in Sumare, Brazil. As a Canadian I have to say it is our loss and Brazils gain.

We continue the discussion the Part 2 presentation of this epic journey. Now the United States of America with NSA are now really planning the ultimate Lewis and Clarke experience by opening up the passage/route/journey to our nearest interplanetary neighbour, which is that of Mars.

How will the journey to be undertaken to from Moon to Mars?

The first portion of the journey will be undertaken by making use of current material science technology for the selection of the Moon vehicle. This would most likely be constructed from conventional materials with newly developed materials and thermally strengthened in some manner, either by

The above are just a few suggestions of the establishment of repeatable heat treatment.

Moon Base Construction

Knowing the likelihood of failure improves the likelihood of success. The more data that can be acquired and accurately calculated, analysed and understood, the success of the mission improves significantly. They need;

Materials and Moon Base Establishment

The absolute first consideration must be to set up a moon base with an area that the vehicular transport of the Mission to mars can be assembled. It is quite surprizing to see the almost replicated geometric design of Orion in relation to the early Apollo missions. The command module design has almost become a ‘design feature’ of ‘proven design’ with a much-improved communication and navigational systems.

Planning the Journey

In order to start the planning of the mission journey, the knowing and understanding of the potential likelihood of failure will most certainly improve the strong probability of the mission success.

Courtesy Lockheed Martin. Impression of the Mars Mission Vehicle

Apollo Command Module Construction Illustration for earth to moon to establish a Command Centre Lunar base. (Courtesy NASA and Lockheed Martin) of the opinion that it will necessitate a number of missions from earth to the moon, to both build a moon base, as well as carrying the mission vehicle components to the assembly base, to assemble the vehicle that will make the journey to Mars. The architecture for Moon Base 1 will be unlike any architectural structure that has ever been designed or built here on the planet Earth. In itself, it will be an architectural wonder, designed by man!!

Command Module Cross Sectional View (Courtesy NASA and Lockheed Martin)

To assemble the vehicle that will make the journey to Mars. The architecture for Moon Base 1 (named for the purpose of this article), will be unlike any architectural structure that has ever been designed or built here on the planet Earth. An architectural wonder, designed by man!!!

A suggested type of Low-Pressure Residence and command post. Courtesy NASA

The site for the Mars Vehicle Moon Base 1 would have to be chosen with great care, with the primary concern being to ensure a construction site as flat as possible and of a large enough size as to allow both constructions of Moon Base 1 and the assembly and launch pad for the mars mission vehicle.

An artist’s impression of Moon Base 1 under construction (Courtesy NASA)

I envisage that the assembly ship carrier that would carry the construction material for Moon Base 1 would not be unlike the well-known and proven vehicle design of the space shuttle, possibly larger. The construction tools materials and construction crew could be put down onto the moon surface utilizing one of the following methods;

The Earth to Moon transportation vehicle would also need to incorporate a fuel tank system to enable the shuttle vehicle to lift off for the journey back to Earth for its next moon base material construction load.

The shuttle would not only be carrying the moon base construction materials but the construction crews themselves, as well as well as assembly tooling; that is drilling and earthmoving tooling or moon moving tooling, and sustenance for the assembly crew on the Moon Base 1.  

The metallurgy involved in the assembly tooling, the construction materials, must be of the highest level of architectural design in relation to the material development and selection, thermal processing, heat treatment, that has ever been developed by man.

Lunar Surface Construction Methods

The first consideration for construction material would need to be the choice of suitable construction materials. Heat treaters and metallurgists know that no matter what type of steel is used, there is always potential for the formation of retained austenite. The low temperatures that the lunar environment can drop down to as low as approximately that of -225°F. Thus, any retained austenite present will decompose to untempered martensite and become massively brittle. There would also need to be consideration to the material temperature gradient between the lunar atmosphere and the internal vehicular assembly area.

So, could we consider aluminum alloys?  Those of us who are familiar with heat treatable aluminum alloys are aware that in order to keep aluminum soft after solution treatment, cold treatment is utilized. Thus, with temperatures that can drop down to approximately -225°F, then the aluminum alloy will remain permanently soft and susceptible to micro meteorite penetration.

The next alternative may well be to go under the Lunar surface. That too has its problems!! Firstly, if blasting is considered, to go subterranean, because of the low gravitation conditions, the detonation would most likely create a long-term dust storm. If subterranean drilling is considered, the drill bits as we presently know them would not function too well. This would be because;

I believe that this is THE project that will make America truly, great again, and to lead the world in interplanetary flight open new routes to the stars, and may it continue  with the same vision that  Lewis and Clarke  in opening a new route to the North West Pacific Coast. Going where no man has gone before, is now becoming a true and visible  reality!!! (Courtesy Star Trek The Last Frontier)

Helium is used in some vacuum furnace gas quenching applications, we can think of a few installations around the world that rely heavily on helium-every one of which recycles. Having said that recycling is never 100% effective which means there is always some losses which is where this article comes in.

“The third helium shortage in slightly more than a decade has prices soaring faster than a kid’s balloon lost in a windstorm. But the problem runs well beyond children’s birthday parties. These days, helium — much of which is a byproduct of natural gas or LNG production — is used in everything from MRIs to smartphone manufacturing. “There are five major global suppliers of helium. Two of them have been rationing supply since February 2018,” said Phil Kornbluth, a helium industry consultant based in Bridgewater, N.J. Kornbluth said producers have been forced to cut supply because of a number of maintenance outages and delays in new projects, including a ruptured underwater pipeline in Qatar. With just 14 liquid helium plants in the world, those outages are enough to send helium prices skyward. “I’ve seen price increases as high as a hundred per cent in some case,” Kornbluth said.

Helium is an extremely versatile gas used in myriad industries and applications. In many of those uses, there is no suitable alternative. “There are major industries that rely on helium in their manufacturing processes, for instance semiconductor manufacturing, optical fibre manufacturing, the aerospace industry,” said Kornbluth. The single biggest user of helium is probably MRIs, which use the liquid form as a coolant, Kornbluth said. But helium is also crucial in particle accelerators and nuclear fusion research. It’s used in some metals refining applications as a controlled atmosphere.Helium is used as a leak detector. It’s also used as a carrier gas in gas chromatography, a process in chemistry to identify and separate compounds.”

SIFCO Forge Fire. SIFCO provides forgings to the Energy and Aerospace Industries from locations in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, Italy and Orange, California. Back on December 26th the Orange facility suffered a bad fire as you can see from this press release from the company;  “We experienced a fire at SIFCO’s Orange, California manufacturing facility (“Orange”) on December 26.  The damage is significant to one of three manufacturing buildings.  As noted in more detail below, we have taken steps to address such damage and minimize disruption.  We are thankful that no one was injured in this event.  The two buildings not directly impacted were back in service on December 28.  We have been actively working containment and return to service of the facility.” 

Destroyed in the fire were 6 mesh belt annealing lines. Originally the company was looking to replace these furnaces with used items however our understanding is that SIFCO was only able to find 1 used line that fit the bill and as we speak the others are being replaced with new furnaces.  Wisconsin Oven Corporation announced the shipment of one (1) Electrically Heated Horizontal Solution Treat System with a chiller system to a manufacturer in the aerospace industry. The Horizontal Solution Treat System has a maximum oven operating temperature of 1,100°F and work zone dimensions of 12’3″ wide x 3’11″ long x 4’6″ high. Guaranteed temperature uniformity of ±10°F at set points of 870°F, 920°F, & 985°F was documented with a twelve (12) point profile test in an empty oven chamber under static operating conditions and was performed in accordance with BAC 5621F specifications.

Furnace and oven builder Pyradia sent us this press release about a new order they received from a company by the name of Unicast in New Hampshire, USA.  The company is based just outside of Montreal, Canada and we have seen it grow by leaps and bounds over the past 20 years. We expect to be visiting the operation in just a few weeks and will give you some more details then; “Uni-Cast is expanding their factory located in Londonderry, NH and they chose Pyradia for the purchase of 2 electric drop bottom ovens with a temperature uniformity of +/- 10 °F. Uni-Cast is a major manufacturer of sophisticated aluminum investment castings which has built an enviable reputation in the industry for strict quality control and the capability to produce some of the industry’s most challenging designs.”

Cambridge Heat Treat, Canada. We ran across a press release in a Thermal Processing magazine late last week which talked about commercial heat treater Cambridge Heat Treat adding some equipment. The item left us rather puzzled as this news item is now almost a year old. Our friends at family owned Cambridge did indeed place an order last year for two brand new, top of the line batch IQ furnaces with working dimensions of 36” X 48” X 36”. At the same time the company purchased two used units with exactly the same dimensions and these were installed last year. What we can tell you which is “new” is that Cambridge has just placed an order with controls company SSI to update the controls on the used furnaces. This photo shows you the entire line.

Are the Chinese taking over? We have had several stories recently about how a Chinese auto parts company has purchased a European builder of vacuum furnaces (scroll through our news for the past couple of weeks to find all the details). There is only one small catch to this story-the vacuum furnace manufacturer is saying that this is not the case leaving us very puzzled. There appears to be confirmation on Chinese websites but until we have 100% confirmation by both parties we are going to give this story a rest. In Mexico we recently mentioned how Paulo had just bought a really, really nice vacuum furnace for their facility in Monterrey. Well according to the company it was commissioned just last week and is ready to go. This is the furnace.

French furnace builder BMI is telling the world about another vacuum furnace installation they have in Taiwan meaning that the company has now sold 145 into the country-quite something. “In December 2018, BMI shipped a complete heat treatment line to Taiwan. The production line included three vacuum furnaces: one double chamber gas quenching/oil quenching furnace, one tempering and low pressure nitriding furnace and one gas quenching furnace as well as the peripherals and loaders. This production line was recently installed in a brand new heat treatment workshop. Today, the total number of BMI furnaces in use at Taiwanese customers has reached 145 units.”

In people news we see that Heather Falcone is now CEO of Thermal Vac in Orange, California, USA. Thermal-Vac is a really impressive commercial heat treater started by our friend Steve Driscol many years ago. Heather we have never met but we understand she has been with the company for 16 years in a number of different positions. And in the UK, Mike Oldham has just become Vacuum Technical Manager at one of the leading providers of heat treating equipment in the country, Vacuum & Atmosphere Services Ltd. Mike come with a wealth of experience having worked with companies such as Bodycote and Abar Ipsen.

Back on March 28, 2018 we had a news item about an auction of the remaining equipment at a Caterpillar facility in Waco, Texas. Subsequent to our original news item we mentioned that all of the AFC-Holcroft batch IQ furnaces had been purchased by a used equipment dealer. Well the used equipment dealer certainly didn’t own them for long, we found our yesterday that all of the furnaces were bought by one of the largest commercial heat treaters in the State, Texas Heat Treating http://www.texasheattreating.com/ which has two locations, Round Rock and Fort Worth. These furnaces (which have working dimensions of 36″ X 48″ X 72″ by the way) will be installed in the Fort Worth location where they will join a number of other batch IQ furnaces. The President of the company Mr. Buster Crossley stated that he has never seen such nice looking used equipment “it looks like it was rarely used”. The one photo below called “Fort Worth” shows the facility in Fort Worth as we saw it a couple of years ago. The second photo shows the equipment at Caterpillar.

“Caterpillar, Inc., Waco, Texas, USA; Back in February of 2018 Caterpillar announced that they would be closing their Work Tools facility in Waco, Texas-a facility which made buckets, couplers, and hammers. The plant did indeed close with production moved to a Caterpillar location in Wamego, Kansas or outsourced to external suppliers. The remaining equipment will be going to auction this week-March 28 to be exact. The plant had a substantial heat treat department which included several fairly new and quite large AFC-Holcroft UBQ furnaces which can be seen in the photos below. While the auction has obviously not been held yet we understand these furnaces have already been bought and removed from the auction. What does remain is a Williams carbottom and several other heat treat related items.”