Vacuum Annealing-Captive Heat Treat Shop

We ran across a rather interesting captive heat treat operation in the US Midwest last week which is worth mentioning. A manufacturer of a strip product for cutting applications required that the product be annealed in a vacuum furnace. Consequently the company invested in a total of 14 vacuum annealing furnaces, all of which were installed in the late 1990’s. Earlier this year the manufacturer went with a different type of raw material which does not require annealing with the end result that this company now has 14 top load vacuum furnaces installed, ready to run but completely surplus to their ongoing requirements. It makes for a rather interesting sight to see this number of vacuum furnaces sitting idle in a cold, dark, shuttered heat treat department. If you have a requirement for vacuum annealers let us know and we will put you in touch. 

Novatherm Seminar

To this press release we have to add that this is the third year in a row that “The Monty” has been a proud sponsor of this event. 

“The third edition of the Novatherm seminar held on October 3-5, 2018 in Poland has once again confirmed the organizers’ conviction that there is a strong and continuous interest amongst many players in the heat treating and related industries for such events. A full house of participants from around the world benefited from the opportunity to hear about innovations that improve manufacturing quality and efficiency from leading academic researchers and industry practitioners. Participants came from Europe, but also from as far as Asia and North America.

Presentation titles ranged from very specific themes such as “Anticorrosive nitriding of selected machine parts” and “The influence of glow discharge plasma on the nitriding process of Ti99.2 titanium”, to hot topics that have value for the industry like “Industry 4.0 in the heat treating industry – risks and benefits” and “Predictive maintenance and digitalization in heat treatment”. Organizers Nitrex Metal (www.nitrex.com) and United Process Controls (www.group-upc.com) thank all speakers, participants, as well as seminar partners and media sponsors for making this year’s seminar a success. Plans are already being made for the next edition of Novatherm in 2021. We look forward to seeing you again in 2021. For more information visit www.novatherm.org”

Bodycote New Berlin, Wisconsin, USA

Wandering around Wisconsin last week we had to stop and visit the Bodycote (commercial heat treating) plant in New Berlin, Wisconsin which for a couple of reasons is a rather unusual Bodycote facility. Size wise it is fairly average but it offers two processes which are not a standard for Bodycote; press quenching and salt bath nitriding. Press quenching is never common in commercial shops mainly because it is such a specialized process involving a substantial investment in tooling which can generally only be used for one particular product. Having said that this location (which has all Gleason press quench units) actually has more Gleason units than Gleason has in their commercial/captive heat treating plant in Rochester, NY. The other process which this plant offers which is unique to Bodycote in North America is their salt bath nitriding department (FNC). This is a booming business for this plant helped by the fact that their only competitor in the area recently got out of the business and sold the equipment off. These photos give you a good idea about what you would see if you visit this location. And the people? Top notch fellows that we met. 

 Left to Right; Alex Christenson, Ed Barcikowski, Bob Stanisch

Left to Right; Ed Barcikowski, Jim Warden, Alex Christenson, Bob Stanisch

KUŹNIA Sułkowicie S.A. Buys SECO/WARWICK Sealed Quench Furnace

“KUŹNIA Sułkowicie S.A., a renowned Polish manufacturer of high quality matrix forgings, construction connectors and manual tools manufactured with their own forgings, recently bought a SECO/WARWICK Sealed Quench Furnace. SECO/WARWICK will deliver a CaseMaster AFS – a multipurpose Sealed Quench chamber furnace, intended for thermal and thermo-chemical treatment in a controlled endothermic atmosphere.  The Casemaster family of furnaces are ideally suited for a wide variety of processes, particularly carbonizing, gas carbonitriding and pure hardening. The fully automated operation of the furnace is its unique advantage; personnel are only required to load and unload the work after treatment, the cycle and product transfer is completely automated.

“We have been cooperating with SECO/WARWICK for more than 10 years. A decade ago, we purchased and implemented a process line for thermal and thermo-chemical treatment with a chamber furnace type CaseMaster AFS 10E. During that time, we had a chance to observe the high quality not only of the equipment itself, but also of the services provided by the company. Good cooperation resulted in a decision on making another investment in SECO/WARWICK equipment, involving the expansion of the line purchased years ago. Our activities are focused on meeting the expectations of customers, and the ability to expand an existing line, using proven solutions, ensures an increase in production capacity with the highest quality products and timely execution of orders,” said Marcin Szafrański, MSc. Ing., Commercial Director at “Kuźnia” Sułkowice S.A.” 

Safe Cronite Sold!

To go with this press release from Jim Demarest, VP for North American Cronite we include this photo of Jim from an ECM event in Wisconsin just a few weeks ago. Jim is on the left. 

“We are proud to announce that on the 18th October 2018, the Safe-Cronite business unit of the Safe Group has been purchased by its CEO Pierre Wittmann and a group of managers in partnership with investment funds driven by CICLAD. Cronite is a world leader in the design and production of fixtures and parts in refractory alloys for heat treatment, steel, incineration, power generation, automotive, and aerospace industries.  Cronite achieved a consolidated turnover of EUR 74 million in 2017 and employs around 800 people. It operates 7 plants in France, England, Germany, China, India, Mexico, and has a R & D and Design Center in the Czech Republic. Its sales offices in the United States, Japan, South Korea and Sweden propel a global coverage of 2,000 customers. Cronite’s commitment to research, development, and design expertise continues to be its differentiator. 

Our R&D facility performs continuous research of alloys and materials suitable for the heat treatment processes of our customers.  Our team of design engineers use 3D modeling software with finite element analysis of mechanical constraints at temperature to insure our custom fixtures provide years of service while maximizing net loading. Cronite is known world-wide under the names Cronite, Klefisch, Mancelle, North American Cronite, and Cronite CZ.  Cronite is equipped with numerous production techniques:  green sand for mass production, chemical sand for items over 2 Tons, lost wax for very accurate parts, carbon fiber composites, machining, welding and fabrication.  We thank you for your trust and support.  We look forward to continuing to serve you for many years to come.    For more information please contact: Jim Demarest VP Sales & Marketing North American Cronite (734) 634-8818 [email protected]“

Recently we posted a photo of a “monster” batch IQ furnace capable of handling 20,000 pound loads and promised more details. This furnace is the world’s largest integral quench batch austempering furnace with an operating window of 84”W x 96”L x 54”T, a gross capacity of 20,000 pounds and a quench tank which holds 400,000 pounds of salt. It was built and installed in 2011by furnace builder “AFC-Holcroft” of Wixom, Michigan and the end customer was commercial heat treater “Applied Process” for use in their AP Westshore facility in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA where it remains in service. Applied Process is a commercial heat treater in the USA with 3 locations, Oshkosh, Livonia, Michigan and Fort Smith, Arkansas (more details of the brand new Fort Smith plant later this week).

We firmly believe that there is no other company in North America and possibly the world that does more salt quenching in particular the ADI process than Applied Process. In total the company has roughly 120 employees which includes 6 metallurgists and a total of 16 large IQ furnaces in the 3 locations. The Oshkosh location alone has the “monster” furnace and 6 other IQ’s each capable of a 6,000 pound load which amounts to a total of 1.1 million pounds of molten salt at any given time. These photos below give you a better idea of the plant and include a photo of our host, Steve Metz, VP of Sales for the company and a fellow who truly loves his job. Also included is the AP logo “the hostile duck” which we have always felt is the best logo in the entire worldwide heat treating industry.