Texas with the downturn in the oil and gas industries over the past few years has gone through some hard times but things are back and starting to boom with virtually all the captive and commercial heat treaters doing well. As an example there is a new heat treater in town Worldwide Heat Treat which was started by Robert Gutierrez just a few months back. Robert has been in the industry for quite some time and these photos show some parts which his firm has been processing recently. We understand that he will be adding a number of furnaces in the very near future.

Over the course of the past two months we have run across and listed a used, very large 2 Bar GM Enterprises vacuum furnace and two relatively new Ipsen Titan 2 bar vacuum furnaces. Beyond the fact that that each has two bar quenching what else do they have in common? The answer would be that each sold very quickly, as a matter of fact two sold within days. What this tells us that at least in the North American market there is a real shortage of good used vacuum furnaces which shows that the captive and commercial heat treating market remains very strong in 2019.

Solar Atmospheres is pleased to announce the addition of Timothy C. Fish to our sales team, as Regional Sales Manager at Solar Atmospheres of Western PA. As an Integrated Marketing Communications graduate of Duquesne University, Tim has honed his sales and marketing skills during the course of his diverse career in the metals industry. Tim brings a wealth of forging and materials knowledge while most recently serving as a Strategic Account Manager at Ellwood City Forge.

Bob Hill, President of Solar West, says, “We feel extremely fortunate to be adding Tim Fish and his talents to our sales team. Tim’s prior sales experience within the power generation and aerospace arenas brings a wealth of knowledge to Solar Atmospheres of Western PA. Tim’s professionalism will cultivate new and exciting opportunities for our company today and in the future.” Joining Solar as Regional Sales Manager, Tim will utilize his experience and leadership skills to maintain and promote sales for Solar in the Midwest region.  We are confident Tim will provide our customers with exceptional support with their thermal processing challenges.

For additional information, contact Tim at 724-982-0660 x2252 or [email protected], and visit us at www.solaratm.com.

SECO/WARWICK vacuum heat treatment and brazing system equipped with high pressure gas quench will be added by Grupo TTT, one of the leaders in heat and surface treatments, to their Bergara, Spain facility to run a variety of processes. One vacuum system for a variety of processes.

SECO/WARWICK’s signature pressure quenching systems, with their reputation for process flexibility and precision control systems was selected to enable the TTT heat treatment team to run a variety of processes in a single system. This is the fourth system purchased by with an earlier installation in Europe, and two systems currently in operation in Mexico.

“Grupo TTT is a full service technical solutions provider, serving clients in aerospace, automotive, machine tool, capital goods, paper, and the oil & gas markets, each market has specific requirements and quality standards. We continue to partner with SECO/WARWICK because we value their commitment to the highest quality precision control systems that enable us to meet and exceed customer specifications in all of our various markets along with superior service to keep our equipment online and running efficiently,” stated Oihane Larrañaga Ezeiza, Project Manager, Grupo TTT.

“SECO/WARWICK builds efficiencies into every aspect of product designs, from the very beginning of our history we have prioritized precision temperature controls for both heating and cooling as well as conserving furnace atmosphere and energy to produce optimum system performance and total value for our customers.  We want each and every piece of equipment to be regarded as a high performance tool that works reliably every day, flexible enough to change within the daily needs for processes and production providing both profitable operation and satisfied customers.” according to Maciej Korecki, VP, Vacuum Heat Treatment Furnaces at SECO/WARWICK.

John R. Young joined Mountain Rep, a 35 year old manufacturing rep firm (www.mtnrep.net) as the Area Manager covering the northern Midwestern U.S. John has been part of the heat treat industry for 40 years and is known by many. He received his BS in Metallurgical Engineering at Michigan Technological University and his MBA at Michigan State University.  John is an Adjunct Professor of Metallurgy at Macomb Community College, MI. 

Along with the Mercer Group of Companies, including Midwest Vacuum Pumps, Mountain Rep sells Plasma and Gas Nitriding Systems, Plasma Coating Systems from Rubig, Fluid Cooling Systems and 3-D Temperature Uniformity Surveys. The newest addition to Mountain Rep’s linecard is ILS (International Logistics Solutions).  ILS provides all the services needed to transport product or equipment between the Midwestern U.S. and Mexico.  John can be reached at [email protected]

Now this is a really interesting news item, as a matter of fact we would rate it as a 9 out of 10 on the interest scale for heat treat related press releases. And why? If you read the press release and see the technologies that Bodycote will be investing in you will quickly realize that this represents an investment of many millions of dollars and that these are leading edge but expensive technologies. The reference to vacuum carburizing is certainly intriguing. While Bodycote has several VC installations in North America currently we are not aware of any additions the company did in 2018 and to take it one step further we do not know of any new VC investments in the commercial heat treating industry in all of 2018. Obviously the company feels strongly that there is a market for this process in the near future. We look forward to more details.

Bodycote Invests In New North American Heat Treatment Facility

“Bodycote, the world’s largest provider of heat treatment and specialist thermal processing services, is pleased to announce plans to open a new heat treating facility in Elgin, Illinois. The new facility will include advanced heat treating technologies such as low pressure carburizing and carbonitriding, vacuum nitriding and ferritic nitrocarburizing, Bodycote’s proprietary Corr-I-Dur® process, and traditional carburizing of large parts. The facility, scheduled to be operational by late 2019, will support the automotive, agricultural, mining, construction and various other manufacturing supply chains in the Upper Midwest region. Dan McCurdy, President Automotive & General Industrial, North America & Asia division, adds: “This investment demonstrates Bodycote’s commitment to serving the Midwest with the services our customers ask for and require.”

About Bodycote. With more than 180 accredited facilities in 23 countries, Bodycote is the world’s largest provider of heat treating and specialist thermal processing services. Through classical heat treatment and specialist technologies including Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP), Bodycote improves the properties of metals and alloys, extending the life of vital components for a wide range of industries, including aerospace, defence, automotive, power generation, oil & gas, construction, medical and transportation. Customers in all of these industries have entrusted their products to Bodycote’s care for more than 30 years. For more information, visit www.bodycote.com. For more information, please contact: Bill Sandstrom, Vice-President, AGI North America. Email: [email protected]”

Basic Simple Principle of Carburizing.Carburizing is not a new process.  Its presence has been known since mankind began to work iron, which was approximately 4500 years ago. Copper mining and the working of copper can trace its origins back some 8,000 years. Carburizing is perhaps the oldest of all the major surface treatment processes. It is a process has been around for many centuries, and will continue to be around for many more centuries. A process led the way to steel making, simply by forging iron in a fire. The fire, (made from wood and charcoal) provided the source of carbon (Carbon Monoxide) and the carbon diffused into the surface of the iron.

The forging was continued, the hammering continued. The iron was re-heated and more carbon diffused into the iron, until it eventually became steel. Then it could be heat-treated to whatever hardness was required, for fighting sword, a headman’s axe or whatever weapon of war was required. Therefore, it can be said that the process of carburizing was the process that led to the development of steel.

The medieval Blacksmith

One would ask the simple question ‘why carburize?’  Why is it necessary to carburize? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the process? Before one can carburize many engineering issues are necessary to be discussed and determined. Once these issues have been identified and settled upon, then the selection of the method of carburizing process can begin. There are essentially 5 methods of carburizing;

Summary of Carburizing Process methods. Is one process method better than another is? Which is the best to use?

That will depend on the products use, its performance requirements and of course the environment that it will operate in. There are many reasons to carburize, versatility of the process technology of carburising in terms of accomplished mechanical properties.

In essence however, one is creating 2 different steels out of one steel analysis, simply by diffusing carbon into the steel surface of the selected steel analysis. This then, will create a steel with different mechanical and metallurgical properties as shown below;

Summary of Mechanical Properties of Carburizing. There are many choices and considerations that one must make before finally   selecting the appropriate process of carburizing: 

A process has now been established to create a component with a combination of high surface hardness and good core   hardness that will now function and taking advantage of surface a hard surface that displays a compressive residual stress at the surface and with a hard surface. It is known that wood is a hydrocarbon material and when burned will produce a carbon rich gas.

Early man created his fire to heat the iron, and without realising what was happening was that carbon from the wood fire was beginning to enter into the surface of the iron. His continual working of the iron required heat which meant that more carbon was diffusing into the surface of the iron in an uncontrolled manner.

Early man was carburising without realizing it. Early man  had unconsciously begun the carburizing procedure. Process Methods; Pack Carburizing. In today’s process technology, we know the method that early man was using, is now known as pack carburising.

Pack carburizing began to emerge as a process technology during the latter part of the 19th Century and early 20th century. It was perhaps the first attempt to bring into the procedure, a level of surface carbon potential control made adding certain product control  chemicals into the carburizing granulate.

Pack carburising is a method of creating the conditions with the steel being treated so that carbon defuse into the surface of the steel. Once the carbon has defused into the surface of the steel, the whole process is allowed to cool down to room temperature and the steel remove from the container in which it was originally placed for the carburising procedure.

The following illustration shows the cross-section of a simple steel box type constructed process furnace, which provided the heat source for the carburising procedure. Within the interior of the furnace is placed a steel container which carries both the carburising medium and the steel which is to be carburised. The steel container is sealed with a lid which is further sealed using either fireclay or mud.

The very simple carbon rich source that is used for the Pack carburising procedure is that of simple charcoal.

A simple carburizing box made from Heat Resisting Stainless Steel. Typical Pack Carburizing Mediums. Wood charcoal (will produce a carbon rich atmosphere, but with no knowledge of the carbon output)

In this presentation, we are focusing our attention on the pack carburising method. The pack carburising method relies on the use of a carbon rich material. One can also make use ordinary charcoal,(such as barbecue charcoal). However the carbon output from the charcoal is never consistent. Companies did at one time manufacture their own brands of carburising granulate which consisted of charcoal, and an activator known as Barium Carbonate.

The process method produces the release of carbon monoxide (CO) which is derived from a solid carbon source. This activity is initiated at the surface of the steel to be carburized. The resulting decomposition is nascent carbon and carbon dioxide. The action is to release the carbon monoxide which is caused by thermal activity (temperature/heat) on the carbon rich source material.

The activity is assisted by an Energizer such as (previously stated) Barium Carbonate (BaCO3) or potassium carbonate (K2CO3), or sodium carbonate (NAaCO3). The energisers (whichever one is utilised) are present to aid the initial production of CO2 from the carbon rich source material resulting in the formation of carbon monoxide (CO) which is the active gas at the surface of the steel being carburized.

Test coupons carburized, the dark outer ring is the carbon which as been diffused into the surface of the steel.

A summary of the Thermal Surface treatments.

To be continued 

We see that Jim Montemagno became President of alloy supplier Alcon Industries of Cleveland, Ohio, USA a few months back. Jim has been with Alcon for as long as we can remember and certainly knows his stuff. If you recall we mentioned not that long ago how the founder of the company and President, Mr. Dick Chalet very unfortunately passed away at a relatively young age. Alcon is one of the largest suppliers of cast and fabricated high temperature alloy components in North America. Speaking of Alcon we also see that Mr. Stacey Harley who was with Alcon for a number of years just joined one of their competitors, Wirco of Avilla, Indiana. Proving yet again the people do not leave this industry we will mention that before Alcon, Stacey was with North American Cronite another alloy supplier whose ad can be found on this page. While we are talking about alloy Nickel Pricing is staying at relatively low levels these days as you can see in the chart below. As far as we can tell (and we certainly have no crystal ball) it would appear that high temperature alloy component pricing should remain fairly stable for the foreseeable future.

Last week we visited a very impressive heat treating facility Erie Steel Treating in Toledo, Ohio, USA-let us tell you a little bit about the company. Erie was founded by Phil Flynn a metallurgist for Buick back in 1961 (it is worth mentioning that right beside Erie Steel is GM Propulsion Systems which maintains a very large captive heat treating department-this is the legacy of Buick). We met with a very experienced fellow, Mr. Michael Mouilleseaux, General Manager who gave us a tour of the facility and gave us a very good idea about the company. Michael summed up the organization by describing it as doing “precision carburizing of high volume parts which are distortion critical” with a heavy emphasis on the transportation industry. It does this through 2 pusher furnaces, several large batch IQ furnaces but the company also has a large vacuum department and the ability to handle annealing, normalizing and stress relieving to name a few. This is all done with roughly 60 employees in a 70,000 square foot building. We all know that the heat treat industry has a heavy emphasis on family businesses well Erie is no different. The current owner and President is Mr. Pat Flynn the son of the founder. If there was one thing which really impressed us it was the cleanliness of the plant. Carburizing with oil quenching is inherently a dirty process, well this shop is as clean as any oil quenching facility we have ever seen. In the first photo below taken in the lab we have from the left; Brian Flynn (Process Engineer), Morgan Little (Quality Engineer), Jamil Bolden (Lab Supervisor) and Michael Mouilleseaux GM. The second photo shows one of the two pusher furnaces.

A little while back we told you how Can-Eng furnaces had received an order for a mesh belt line from a customer in Europe which is fairly unusual. It would appear that the line is now up and running as we can read in this press release; “CAN-ENG Furnaces International Ltd has recently commissioned in the Piedmont Region of Italy, a state-of-the-art continuous mesh belt heat treat system for the production of high quality automotive fasteners. This Italian project was one of four installation locations for this globally recognized producer of specialty automotive fasteners that span from Europe, South America, Mexico and USA.”

A pet peeve of ours is press releases from industry suppliers which say little or nothing about who the actual end user of their product is, what it is for or even where they are located. The Can Eng press release above doesn’t tell us who the end customer is (and we understand why) but it does say that the furnace line was just commissioned, what it is for and where it is located. An example of a very self serving press release which tells you nothing has to do with the photo below. It was issued by a Chinese furnace manufacturer by the name of JGEF who tells us this is a nitriding installation they have done and literally nothing else. We have had several people ask us if we knew anything about this installation-the answer is we have no idea about the end user, country, continent or even whether this is a new or old installation. I guess the company got some fee mileage out of the press release but still we are not impressed.

The Wall Colmonoy Brazing School always attracts some interest; “Wall Colmonoy Announces Spring Session of Modern Furnace Brazing School in USA, May 7-9, 2019. Preserving the tradition originated by the late Robert Peaslee, a brazing pioneer who invented the first nickel-based brazing filler metal, Wall Colmonoy offers a spring session of Modern Furnace Brazing School on May 7-9, 2019 at Wall Colmonoy’s Aerobraze Brazing Engineering Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. Engineers, technicians, quality managers, production managers, and others will participate in “hands-on” practical applications while learning about brazing technology from the industry’s leading brazing engineers. For over 60 years, Wall Colmonoy engineers have been gaining practical experience on actual problems in brazing plants around the world.”

And that is it for our Monday Morning Briefing for January 28, 2019. Later this week we will be changing gears slightly and covering part of the heat treat industry in France and Italy.

“ECM USA is excited to announce that we have performed our 100th development engineering load in our new NANO in the new SYNERGY CENTER in Pleasant Prairie Wisconsin.  This furnace has been designed with single piece and small continuous batch operations in mind. The 20 bar gas quench system has been used to quench parts to the same core hardness as oil quenched parts in some alloys. This is a breakthrough technology for quenching and loads for distortion control.

The Synergy Center is set up with a fully functional CMM for distortion studies before and after heat treatment to validate production loads. This system has been used to validate very tight distortion specifications for E-drive and hybrid transmission programs. We welcome you to bring your project to the Synergy Center for testing your parts.   WWW.ecm-usa.com”

We had the chance yesterday to visit a real cool commercial heat treat by the name of Erie Steel Treating in Toledo, Ohio, USA and spend some time with the General Manager Mr. Michael Mouilleseaux who is one of the most experience heat treat guys we can think of. We have this photo of Michael and Gord Montgomery in front of a control panel for one of the company’s two pusher furnaces. More details on this very interesting operation on Monday.