Furnace manufacturer ECM based in Grenoble, France is one of the larger furnace builders in the world as you can see in this interview. We had the privilege of meeting and interviewing the CEO of the company, Mr. Laurent Pelissier at his headquarters in Grenoble, France last week.

Laurent I believe you got into this industry for the same reason as many of us do-parents who were also involved in heat treating. Could you tell us about it?

“Yes it is definitely a family business! My father, Mr. Francis PELISSIER, created the foundation of today’s ECM in 1984. After doing an engineering degree I joined him and the ECM adventure 30 years ago, in 1988. I covered many jobs in the company and this gave me a strong understanding of how it works. At the end of 2008 ECM got a new start in its current structure and my wife Marlène joined ECM then as HR director and administrator. My son Arthur, after completing the same engineering degree as me, joined ECM Group in 2017 as Business Development Manager, and he has now moved to a project manager position. Some people in the company I have known their entire professional lives and if you ask around in the workshop you will see that many technicians have spent their entire working career at ECM. We will be celebrating our 10 year “anniversary” March 30th of this year to mark the moment and all employees will be bringing their families for the celebration.”

Can you tell us about ECM-the history of the company, how large the company is in terms of sales, number of employees etc?

“To give you an idea about our vision, the ECM GROUP motto is: “Industry leader in the design, manufacturing & installation of heating treatment industrial furnaces.” Our 2017 turnover was 84 M€ (90% was international). The group employs about 350 people. Shares are mostly held by family, a close friend and management. However in order to help our development we opened about 15% up to institutional and private investors. We have 5 manufacturing sites in France and 1 in China and 8 international subsidiaries: ECM CHINA (Beijing), SEMCO Inc., USA, Texas,  ECM USA (Kenosha WI), ECM INDIA (Bangalore), ECM KAZAKHSTAN (Astana), ECM GREENTECH MIDDLE EAST (ABU DHABI), ECM GMBH (Saarbrücken, Germany) and SEMCO in Singapore.”

When I think of ECM I think of Low Pressure carburizing-is this a true statement and if it isn’t what other types of furnaces does ECM manufacturer?  

“It is true that ECM has been a recognized global industry leader in Low Pressure Carburizing (which is roughly 50% of our production). Now the strength of the group also comes from our ability to adapt our leadership and build competencies in other heat treating areas. So right now we are able to design all kinds of furnaces: vacuum furnaces, special furnaces, crystallisation furnaces for PV industry, melting furnaces, atmosphere pusher furnaces, VPA furnaces, Photovoltaic semiconductor furnaces and Rapid Thermal Processing (RTP) furnaces.”

I have lost track of the number of carburizing cells you have produced over the years but I know it is impressive. Care to tell us the exact number?

“We have 1280 carburizing cells installed around the world”.

Does this make you the largest low pressure carburizing furnace supplier in the world?

“Yes we can say so: with our INFRACARB® patent we are the worldwide leader in this field.”

A number of years ago the prediction was that low pressure carburizing was going to take over the heat treating industry at the expense of atmosphere carburizing. While to some extent this has happened in two specific areas, automotive transmission gears and fuel injection nozzles it does not appear that the technology has been adapted in many other areas. Would you agree or disagree with this statement?

“Regarding LPC, the automotive industry is still the main market but not the only one anymore. We believe that our new ICBP FLEX, ICBP NANO and DUO machines (which are specifically targeted to heat treaters) will accelerate this market diversification as we are seeing some strong interest from many other industries.”

Let’s change gears a little bit-I remember it as a very interesting story about how ECM got started in North America all those years ago. Care to give us all the details?

“Well the interesting story is probably the human side of it. We first started to be interested in the US when we figured there might be some opportunity to export one or 2 furnaces! Then to cut a long story short we (Yvan Trouillot, Dennis Beauchesne & Fred Otto) built commercial heat treater MTV and ECM (both in Wisconsin) at the same time in 1998. The starting point was one specific customer order …and like you North Americans like to say: the rest is history! ECM USA is our most vibrant foreign subsidiary because of its existence and recognition in the heat treating community.”

Do you still have an affiliation with Midwest Thermal:

“Of course! Mostly thanks to our history and also the incredible support the MTV / Otto family has given us throughout the years, we hope they will always remain our partners.”

What are the main geographic areas for ECM when it comes to sales and installations?

“ECM has been able to address all geographic areas, all countries. No region is predominant and we usually find a pretty balanced ratio between the Americas, Europe and Asia. Depending on the local economic climate, some years the North and South American market is the largest and some years the European market is the largest but typically it is 1/3 Asia, 1/3 Europe and 1/3 the Americas.”

Do you notice a difference in attitudes in different markets? For instance does an American or an Asian have different requests or needs which differ from a German or a French customer?

“We could probably talk about this topic for hours! Dealing with complex international projects has taught our teams that yes indeed there are differences and they can be divided into 2 main parts: specifications and regulation differences on one side and cultural differences on the other. Now you see where I am going with this idea: depending on their culture customers do not address specifications and regulations the same way!! We have a very diverse workforce in ECM and this often helps us to at least to reduce some of these cultural challenges.”

There is a lot of talk these days about single piece part flow, meaning that rather than our tried and true model of a batch furnace processing a load of parts furnaces would be handling parts one at a time on a continuous basis. Do you see this as the future of heat treating?

“This can also be debated for a long time! We have definitely seen some market requests for smaller batches and have started developing some products around this need a while ago. Our ICBP NANO product category (now fully marketed) is able to produce parts in an almost completely robotized manner and with extremely low distortion. This system has been designed to work in single piece part flow production scenarios.  We are very proud of this product range which is also getting a strong signal from various markets.”        

The last question leads me to ask this one; on a regular basis I am asked about “lights out” heat treating meaning a completely automated furnace (s) with little or no human interaction. What is your opinion-is this the future, the distant future or not in the future?

“This is a medium term goal. In preparation we have created a robotics business unit to integrate robots into furnace automation systems. We are also working on Factory 4.0. As an organization we have made a lot of investments already in automation to help our customers. First we have a full robotics division which is integrated within the group. This has already helped us design a totally autonomous installation. ECM currently has several installations which are completely automated and in production. Second, we believe that integrating the furnace and the robotics will provide better results for our customers.” 

Out of all the numerous processed available, gas nitriding, plasma nitriding, vacuum heat treating, gas carburizing etc., which do you believe enjoys the brightest future with the most growth?

“I firmly believe that LPC is the future of heat treating which is why we concentrate on this technology. We have created both modular and batch solutions especially with our new DUO system which is able to replace a standard batch IQ furnace.  LPC has demonstrated that it is environmentally friendly with low CO2 emissions, part quality second to none, safer operation and a better working environment for the operators. New car technologies are showing real opportunities: for example in hybrid related products there will be a need for low distortion gears and improved metallurgy which will mean heat treaters will need to invest in new technologies to meet these tougher requirements. We are also enjoying repeat orders for  ICBP systems.”

2018 was a tremendous year for most of us involved in the worldwide heat treating industry-what fearless predictions would you like to make about 2019?

“2018 was an excellent year for ECM and we are expecting that 2019 will be even better. So far our order book is showing excellent promise of major investments in all heat treating markets.”

And last but not least what does the future hold for Laurent Pelissier and ECM? What can you share with us today about where you are going?

“ECM believes in innovation. This is what has led us to where we are now. Right now are working on a number of projects around preventative maintenance, connected machines, or Factory 4.0 just to name a few. As an example ECM consistently invests 10% of our sales into our R & D efforts.  But we are very flexible in our R&D path and what we consider innovative today might become something totally different altogether. In the short term 2019 should see some new LPC type batch furnaces (our DUO product) being installed that will replace the current generation of furnaces. Going forward we see our growth coming from a combination of new products and external acquisitions.”

Laurent Pelissier , CEO, ECM

ECM, Grenoble, France

Fred Ott, Midwest Thermal-Vac, Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA

We are focusing initially in this particular presentation (Part 2) on the pack carburising. The last leg of the first presentation shows five methods of carburising.

 Pack Carburizing compounds are generally made up in the following manner with activators.

 Carburizing Surface Reactions.

The carburizing container (that is filled with the carburising granulate) will always contain air. When heat is applied, the air will interact with the carburising granulate and release both nitrogen and oxygen under thermal conditions.

At the selected process temperature and the approach up to the process temperature, the thermal condition will cause the oxygen to react with the carbon to form carbon monoxide.

Once again due to the thermal conditions the carbon monoxide will react with the steel surface to be carburized and release nascent/atomic carbon plus carbon dioxide. It is the nascent carbon that is diffused into the surface of the steel component shown in the following reaction sequence.

Surface Reactions during the Pack Carburizing Process.

Replenishment of used Activated Charcoal.

The charcoal will be the medium that supplies the carbon for diffusion into the surface of the steel and the activator will assist in the reduction of carbon dioxide to the surface of the steel being carburized.

After the completion of each charge or load, it will be necessary to replenish the used charcoal with an approximate addition of 10 to 12% by volume of new activated charcoal.

A simple loose fitting steel lid should be placed on top of the loaded container and simply sealed with fireclay or mud to contain the process gases developed within the container during its complete cycle at temperature.

When preparing the process container for the charcoal granulate and the steel to be carburised, it will be necessary to ensure that there is approximately 50 mm (2 inches) of charcoal combined with the  activator underneath the steel to be process and over the top of the steel component  being processed.

Internal Potential Contamination by Grain Boundary Oxidation of the New Charge Being Processed.

When pack carburizing it must always be remembered that the presence of oxygen within the process retort is being derived from the decomposition of air that is initially present in the process box. This will give rise to the formation of intergranular oxidation, (or grain boundary oxidation, GBO). The depth of the oxidation will depend on the process cycle time in relation to the case depth required. Obviously, the deeper the case depth, the deeper the GBO.

An example of Inter Granular Oxidation

Influence of Time on the Process of Carburizing

The time factor is a complex formula and based upon the diffusion of carbon into the surface of the steel. The rate of elemental diffusion into the steel surface is not dependent upon the element that is being decomposed. (Such as carbon or nitrogen)

The principal formula is based upon Fick’s first and second laws of diffusion.  As previously stated these two formulas are very complex. Because of the formulation is quite a complex formula, Harris derived a much simpler formula for the time of diffusion for a given case depth which was based on a plain carbon steel (without alloying elements).

Fick’s Simple law of Diffusion (Modified by Harris)

The rate of diffusion will follow the law of diffusion as defined by Harris;

Case depth = √? x ?

t = time

f = factor (derived from the process temperature)

The formula is based on simple plain carbon steel and does not account for alloy carburizing steels, but can be used simply as a guide. It does not take into account the effects of alloy elements such as chromium, nickel and any other alloying element that may have been added.

The depth of formed case must be tested for hardness after quenching. (Note: after quenching for the hardening procedure of the newly formed case).

Depending on the selected load on the hardness test machine will determine if carburizing has taken place or if the indenter has pierced the formed case and is giving an average reading between case and core.  Therefore it is strongly recommended that a cross sectional traverse hardness plot be given to accurately establish the    total depth of newly formed case.

The depth of carbon penetration is (as previously described is a function of time and temperature in order to diffuse the carbon into the steel surface.

The depth of hardness penetration will be dependent on the carbon content of the carburized layer. Provided that only martensite is formed in the case when quenched, the depth of case hardening would be equivalent to a depth of carbon penetration down to 0.4 % carbon.

The core hardness will be dependent on the austenitizing temperature chosen to harden the formed case. If the selected austenitizing temperature goes too high, then the core hardness will be correspondingly high.

If the selected austenitizing temperature is too low, then there is a likelihood of a softer core hardness and the potential for incomplete transformation to occur on the formed case.

The core hardness will also be dependent on the chemistry of the steel in question.

The purpose of the core hardening treatment is to give support to the fresh martensite formed case.

If the hardness of the core is too low and the load that could be applied to the surface of the formed case, then there is a strong likelihood that the formed case will collapse due to lack of core support.

When carburizing by the pack carburizing method then the steel component (if necessary) can be selectively carburized and quenched. Generally, for pack carburizing, the method of stop off will be either copper plating or copper painting. There are other reputable stop-off agents that can perform as good as the copper plate  stop off method.

When pack carburising, the most serious difficulty is establishing the time at which the components to be carburised and the process container have reached the selected carburising temperature.

The general selected process temperature for pack carburising is between 890°C up to 920°C.

The process furnace heating chamber will reach the set point carburising temperature before the contents of the process container reach the selected temperature.

Remember, when you observe the process container in the furnace process chamber, you are only seeing the outside of that process container. You are not observing the interior of the container.

Based on the Harris formula, the following approximate values can be used to approximate the process cycle time at a  process temperature of 1650°F up to 1700°F.

The values given below are  based upon the Harris Formulae and a plain carbon steel, shown as follows:

Case Depth = 0,016”    T at 1550° F

Case Depth = 0,018”    T at 1600° F

Case Depth = 0,021”    T at 1650° F

Case Depth = 0,025”    T at 1700° F

Case Depth = 0,030”    T at 1750° F

Case Depth = 0,036”    T at 1800° F

Case Depth = 0,043”    T at 1850° F

Case Depth = 0,051”    T at 1900° F

 A typical Carburizing cycle with suggested temperature‘s

To be continued with Atmosphere Carburizing

December 26th, 2018 forging company SIFCO suffered a very serious fire at their plant in California, USA. The fire severely damaged several presses and caused extensive damage to the heat treating department. We have never seen a company more open and forthcoming about the extent of the damage and their efforts to get back into production ASAP. From day one SIFCO has been clear about what happened, what they are doing to get back into production, when it would happen and what their back up plans are-we are truly impressed. As far as we can tell at this point in time all the equipment has either been repaired or is in the process of being replaced.

A couple of years back we at “The Monty” toured most of the major captive and commercial heat treaters in Australia and while it was a very interesting experience at the end of the day there is not a great deal of heat treatment in Australia (we will add that the largest commercial operation and probably the largest captive or commercial in all of Australia is Heat Treatment Australia who we have talked about many times in the past). With that out of the way we see that RCR Mining and Heat Treatment on the west coast of Australia has just been sold. RCR is the largest commercial operation in that part of the country and has three Lindberg Batch IQ furnaces along with stress relieving furnaces and Induction Hardening.

“NRW Holdings has signed an agreement with RCR Tomlinson to acquire the assets of RCR Mining and RCR Heat Treatment. NRW will finance the $10m acquisition from the company’s existing cash reserves. RCR Mining and Heat Treatment are part of the original RCR Tomlinson business, which was established 100 years ago. RCR Mining has primary locations at Welshpool and a plant in Victoria. It includes the Mining Technologies business that owns intellectual property across various products and processes.”

Hydraulics manufacturer and captive heat treater “The SKS Hydraulic TECHNOLOGY Co., Ltd”, in Zhejiang Province, China just commissioned this AFC-Holcroft Endothermic generator. One look tells us that this is a 4500 CFH EZR Series unit.

“Effective February 1, 2019 Ipsen Group CEO Thorsten Krüger will move to the Advisory Board of the company, handing over global operational responsibilities to Mr. Geoffrey Somary.  Mr. Somary is appointed to CEO of Ipsen Group worldwide, with the same effective date. The Advisory Board thanked Mr. Krüger for his contributions at Ipsen since 2013, and looks forward to his shift from operational responsibility to an advisory capacity, where he will support the further development of the company. Since 2005, Mr. Somary has held several senior positions within Ipsen, always closely involved with customers and with team members of the company.  He has demonstrated the ability to bring together employees of different cultures in a way that delivers the best possible solutions to Ipsen customers. Ipsen Group Management will be complimented by Mr. Houman Khorram, who will continue to serve as Group CFO, a position he has held since 2013. The Board is confident this leadership team, together with Ipsen’s dedicated employees, will continue advancing Ipsen’s unique success story and further strengthen its position as global market leader.

About Ipsen; Ipsen designs and manufactures industrial vacuum and atmosphere heat-treating systems, supervisory control systems and predictive maintenance platforms for a wide variety of industries, including Aerospace, Automotive, Commercial Heat Treating, Energy and Medical. With production locations in Europe, North America and Asia, along with representation in 34 countries, Ipsen is committed to providing 360° support for customers worldwide. Choosing Ipsen means choosing a partner in success.”

What you see in this photo is an ECM transfer tunnel for ICBP Flex system which we saw at ECM in Grenoble, France this past week (more information about ECM including an interview with the CEO, Mr. Laurent Pelissier later this week).  This system is in the process of being prepared for shipment to a customer in Germany who will be using it for a new brazing application. This will be the first time that ECM has used an ICBP Flex system for brazing. Dale Montgomery of “The Monty” can be seen standing in the tunnel.

As a prelude to our visit to furnace builder ECM in Grenoble, France we visited the largest commercial heat treater in Italy, Gruppo T.T.N., headquartered in Nervianesi, Italy (near Milano). The family owned group consists of 9 locations, all in northern Italy with a total of 500 employees making them one of the larger commercial heat treaters in the world. Next week we have a complete write up about the company but to start off we have these photos. In the first we see part of the T.T.N Team along with part of the ECM team in front of a 6 chamber ECM vacuum carburizing system which has been running very successfully for a number of years. In the second picture we see something truly remarkable in the heat treating world-some of the largest pit gas nitriders in the world. The pit for these furnaces measures a remarkable 25 meters (75’) deep and as you can see while the current furnaces are enormous the company has built for the future in constructing this pit. Next week we will tell you how the company worked closely with Boeing to heat treat components for some of the largest rockets ever produced by NASA.

According to the news item below it is so cold in parts of North America that some auto plants and their heat treating operations are being forced to close; “In the midst of a polar vortex that has brought record-breaking low temperatures to Michigan, Consumers Energy has called for customers to reduce their natural gas usage and DTE Energy is asking customers to reduce electricity usage. Consumers Energy sent an urgent text alert on cellphones shortly after 10:30 p.m. urging utility customers to lower thermostats and reduce energy usage or risk a dangerous gas shortage in the wake of record-breaking cold. The temperature in metro Detroit hovered at minus 11 degrees at 10:30 p.m., smashing the record for Jan. 30 of minus 4 degrees set in 1951.

In addition to individual residential customers, General Motors has been requested by Consumers Energy to suspend operations at several manufacturing sites. GM operations are suspended at the following SE Michigan locations:

Ford Motor Co. is also taking measures in response to the extreme cold. Kelli Felker, a Ford spokeswoman, said in a statement Wednesday, “Due to extreme temperatures and at the request of Consumers Energy, we are curtailing our natural gas usage in some of our plants. We lowered the temperature in Livonia Transmission Plant and Van Dyke Transmission Plant to minimum levels. We stopped heat treatment processes at Sterling Axle Plant and will stop our paint process at Michigan Assembly Plant at midnight. We will continue to work with Consumers Energy in the days ahead. All other plants are operating normally.”

A favorite of ours in the industry Mr. Andreas Wiesemann, Engineering Manager of German furnace manufacturer Rohde will be retiring March 31/2019. Andreas has been in the heat treating industry for 42 years with 20 of these being at Rohde. We have always been impressed by his knowledge and have to say that his vast experience will be missed in the industry. In the photo below Andreas is second from the left.