Nitrex’s G-M Enterprises division in Corona, California, USA continues to gain momentum with new vacuum furnace orders from both longstanding and new customers. Most recently, a long-time repeat customer—one of the top-tier suppliers in the aerospace industry—has placed an order for a 6-bar vacuum furnace designed to meet the rigorous requirements of aerospace component manufacturing.
This new order adds to the division’s strong performance in FY2025. G-M Enterprises has already doubled new hot zone replacement sales compared to the same period last year, reflecting both growing market demand and our renewed focus on being present with our customers.
Mark Hemsath, President of Nitrex/UPC-Marathon, commented on the current trend: “The surge in the aerospace sector is a very welcomed occurrence, and our US-based manufacturing in California is second to none in capacity and quality. Our repeat customers make us proud and are our best stories.”
With nearly four decades of experience in vacuum furnace manufacturing, G-M Enterprises has developed proven solutions across a broad range of applications—from additive manufacturing (3D printing and MIM) to the demanding specifications of the aerospace industry. As a furnace division of Nitrex/UPC-Marathon, G-M Enterprises benefits from the company’s leadership in turnkey heattreating systems, process automation software, and sensors for precise process control. As aerospace demand accelerates, G-M Enterprises is ready to deliver with unmatched capacity, technical expertise, and customer support.
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“Solar Atmospheres of Western PA has taken a proactive step toward enhancing operational reliability and workplace comfort by constructing a new temperature-controlled environment around their critical Haas machining centers and Marvel saws. This strategic investment was driven by the upcoming commissioning of a large water quenching furnace, scheduled to be installed near the tensile machining area by year’s end.
Keith King, Testing Manager, explains: “The electronics of the machining centers were struggling in the summer months when it got hot in the shop. The warning lights would hit the yellow zone—and problems were inevitable. Our new environmentally controlled space will be ideal not only for the machines but also for the operator!”
The new climate-controlled room will ensure optimal conditions for both precision equipment and personnel, reducing the risk of heat-related malfunctions and improving overall productivity and safety.
This is just another example of Solar Atmospheres’ commitment to operational excellence and continuous improvement.
For additional information about Solar Atmospheres, contact Mike Johnson at 855-934-3284 x2223, email at [email protected], and visit us at solaratm.com.”
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A recent business trip to Italy and Slovenia by “Gord Montgomery” of “The Monty Heat Treat News” led to a series of articles about both captive and commercial heat treaters with a “healthy dose” of furnace manufacturers thrown into the mix. One of those visits was to furnace builder “CIEFFE” in Colle Umberto, Italy was of the oldest and most established furnace builders in the country.
This long-established furnace builder is one of the oldest and best known in Europe and examples of their work can be found in most European countries with a strong emphasis on Germany partially to do with their “Recent Partnership”with German thermal supplier “AVION”. The firm’s systems can also be found in Asia, North America and as mentioned recently as far afield as Cuba.
Their product offerings include most type of thermal processing systems from Sealed Quench furnaces, to Vacuum continuous with a strong emphasis on special projects as witnessed by the article above about a “First of it’s Kind” furnace design.
Currently “Cieffe” has 55 employees, a number which fluctuates depending upon demand. Our visit took place March 12th and our very kind host was “Mr. Angelo Scipone” Sales Manager. These photos show the assembly area of the plant.
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Congratulations to the SEW-EURODRIVE heat treatment team for the completion of their fully automated in house vacuum furnace system integrated with their patented MOVITRANS® inductive energy power transfer system (pictured parallel with ECM’s transfer system rails). SEWEURODRIVE, prominent global manufacturer, partnered with ECM USA to commission a modular NANO vacuum furnace system completely integrated with advanced automation for their Lyman, South Carolina facility in JUNE 2023. This 6 chamber, 20 bar quench NANO vacuum furnace system provides maximum flexibility and integration utilizing the addition of 16 tempering positions, advanced solvent based washer (both oil and water based contaminants), and robotic workload assembly/disassembly. Dunnage management is also being provided and fully automated within the robotics configuration. Specifically designed to run multiple materials (including carburized grades and tool steels) this system has the modular flexibility to adapt to future increased production demands for various load scenarios and processes.
About SEW-EURODRIVE. Drive technology from SEW-EURODRIVE is a fixture in modern engineering. The proven modular system ensures that all components are fully compatible. This allows you to construct highly complex drive architectures that offer maximum performance under all conditions. Our unique product portfolio combines high-quality mechanics, intricate electronics and application-specific IT components to give our international customer base real competitive advantages. The same is true of all our components, systems and solutions.
About ECM Technologies. ECM Technologies is an innovative low pressurevacuumfurnacemanufacturerwith headquarters in Grenoble, France. With subsidiaries and ventures around the world, including ECM USA located in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin USA. ECM’s global presence is well known in the automotive, aerospace, nuclear, energy, electronic, induction and 3D additive industries. With such versatile product lines and service capabilities, ECM is the ideal furnace system supplier for heat treatment processes ranging from rapid thermalprocessing(RTP) to low pressure vacuum carburizing (LPC). Our service capabilities include advanced automation, robotics, after sales, spare parts, on-site training and more.
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While some would consider “Flame Hardening” an older more basic heat treat technology it certainly does have it’s place and in some situations it is the best form of heat treating available-this link is as good as any in explaining the “Advantages of Flame Hardening and Where it Should be Used”.
It enjoys enough of a following that “Thermo-Bond Flame Hardening Ltd.”, a commercial heat treater in Canada offering only flame hardening quickly found a buyer when the owners decided to retire. In an acquisition which is occurring as we speak, “Atlantic Heat Treating”of Ajax, Ontario, Canada is acquiring the entire business of “Thermo-Bond Flame Hardening”.
This acquisition marks the third by Atlantic Heat Treating in less than a year.
Earlier we mentioned that flame hardening can be considered an older more basic form of heat treating, however back in 2017 “Gord Montgomery” of “The Monty Heat Treat News” was introduced to the “new and improved” form of flame hardening-an education which was provided by “Mr. Andrew Orr” of flame hardening firm “PENNA FLAME” of Zelienople, PA, USA. This article originally published in 2017 explains how the technology has progressed over the years;
“AUGUST 12 2017 Flame Hardening Ain’t What it Used To Be; October 26th of this year we posted these comments and are we ever glad we did as it opened our eyes a whole new world of Flame Hardening; “Flame Hardening-The End of the Line? Flame Hardening is a form of heat treating which involves heat being applied to a part by using oxy-acetylene or another gas. It is heated to the upper critical temperature before the steel is quenched with water. It is a surface hardening process used on medium carbon mild or alloy steels such as 1045, 4140 and 4340 such as crane wheels, cable sheaves and rollers. This is an older technology and very basic with little control over the end result. We mention it today because over the past few years we have seen a number of companies, both captive and commercial heat treaters, discontinue the process, with the most recent one that we have run across being Thermex Metal Treating. There is nothing inherently wrong with the process but it is gradually being relegated to the fringes of the heat-treating world along with technologies such as shaker hearth furnaces and Fluidized beds. October 24.”
As a result of these comments we were approached by a very friendly and knowledgeable fellow by the name of Andrew Orr of PENNA FLAME in Zelienople, PA who offered to show us how the technology has changed over the years. It turns out that Andrew’s grandfather Garrett Orr founded a commercial heat treat facility back in 1968 that guess what? Specializes in Flame Hardening, not only specializes by the way as they are probably the largest single flame hardening facility in North America with roughly 30 employees. As a result of this meeting we at “The Monty” visited PENNA FLAME this past week and it turned out to be a fascinating experience. What the company has done is to take an older technology, flame hardening and then combine it with robotic loading/unloading, computer controls and the latest in temperature monitoring and control with the end result that they have ended up with a process completely repeatable with very tight quality control all at a very competitive price (it is worth mentioning that the company themselves build and design the equipment on their own). They have been so successful over the years that earlier this year they added a substantial addition to their building with a number of new flame hardening systems. PENNA FLAME does business all over North America with parts coming from as far away as California and are able to heat treat parts up to 80,000 pounds and 80” in diameter. If you ever find yourself in the Pittsburgh area the Orr’s are a very friendly family and they would be more than happy to show you what they have to offer. These photos give you an idea about what they are capable of.”
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When “The Monty”publishes our list of the “50 (+2) Largest North American Commercial Heat Treaters” the week of April 28th readers will see a new entry in the number 9 position, a company by the name of Ajax Metal Processing. While we have long been familiar with “Ajax” we didn’t realize until recently how large the company is-as you can see we have ranked it as the 9th largest commercial heat treater in North America, making it very sizeable indeed;
#9 “Ajax Metal Processing” makes our list of the 50 (+2) Largest North American Heat Treaters for the first time ever, mainly because they do not fit the typical model of a commercial heat treater. Based in Detroit, Michigan it is supposedly the largest North American provider of raw material wire, heat treating (annealing), plating, locking and sealing services. They process over 300 million pounds of material per year and have numerous Can Eng mesh belt furnaces. By any standard this is a very large commercial heat treater even if they differ from many of the others on our list.
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Monday of this week “The Monty” mentioned a fastener manufacturer who recently added more mesh belt heat treating capacity-this exclusive news item was included as part of our “Heat Treatment “Monday Morning Briefing”.
As it turns out a publication by the name of “Fastener & Fixing Magazine”also picked up on this story with these further comments-we at “The Monty” are rather pleased at the fact that we were the first to bring this story to the industry;
“CITT Srl, an Italian company specializing in the heat treatment of metals and part of Colombo Special Fasteners (CSF) since 2019, has begun the installation of a new rack type line at its production plant in Usmate Velate, Italy.
The new rack type line consists of a furnace for case hardening and carbonitriding, a controlled atmosphere furnace for carburising and carbonitriding, as well as high temperature and low temperature tempering. Also installed within the line will be a combined spray and immersion washing machine and a thermal burnishing tank. The line is expected to be completed in the first half of 2025.
This investment follows the official opening of the Usmate Velate plant in 2024, which currently houses a belt line for quenching and tempering and carbonitriding with an integrated defoaming system that allows productivity of up to 750 kg/h, and a double chamber plant for quenching and tempering in a controlled atmosphere. Both companies have been going through an ambitious investment plan to expand the range of services offered, increasing flexibility and timeliness.
The company’s investment plan also includes a new office building recently completed at CSF’s Cisano Bergamasco plant. In the production department new investments were also made with machines for the mechanical machining and optical inspection of headed parts. In addition, a logistics automation project within the goods and tooling warehouse was also completed, as well as a 4.0 interconnection project of all machinery to better manage and monitor production functions.”
As we count down to our 2025 list of the “50 Largest North American Commercial Heat Treaters” Gord Montgomery of “The Monty Heat Treat News”took the opportunity to visit a company which has been on our list for the past few years and who will be on our list again this year-“Thermetco Inc.”ofChâteauguay, Quebec, Canada.
Founded in 1982 “Thermetco” is a privately held company with 3 locations in Quebec; the main plant in Châteauguay (near Montreal), a smaller heat treat facility in Granby, Quebec and a third NDT location in Montreal.
In terms of processes offered there are few that the company doesn’t offer in that they have vacuum hardening (3 furnaces at the main location with one have a diffusion pump), 4 batch IQ units offering carburizing and neutral hardening, salt processing, stress relieving, and annealing to name a few all operating 24/7.
The company is Nadcap certified and in the summer of 2025, they will be an approved supplier to aerospace company “Safran Landing Gear Systems”.
What caught our eye during the visit was a brand-new robot designed for racking parts for an automotive customer. The system will come on line in the coming weeks and the reason for it is the usual-an inability to find and keep operators willing to rack loads.
The 150 employees spread out over the 3 plants service a wide variety of industries including automotive (15% of total sales), aerospace and “general industry which includes a wider variety of gears. This diversity is probably why the company is reporting that business in 2025 is quite good for them.
Our visit took place Tuesday, April 15th and our hosts included Mr. Jean-Sebastien, Lemire(President and part owner) and Mr. Pierre-Luc Bouvrette ing., Technical Sales-we thank them for their time and hospitality.
From Left; Gord Montgomery, “The Monty Heat Treat News”, Pierre-Luc Bouvrette ing., Technical Sales, “Thermetco”, Jean-Sebastein Lemire, President, “Thermetco”
When furnace builder “Aichelin”, one of the largest furnace builders in the world extended an invitation to “The Monty Heat Treat News”to visit their location in Celje, Slovenia Gord Montgomery jumped at the chance and we are glad we did.
Parent company Aichelin Holding is located in Mödling, Austria and historically this is where the bulk of their manufacturing was done. However not that long ago all of the Mödling manufacturing was moved to “AiIchelin Assembly Center Europe” located in Celje, leaving engineering and a number of other functions at the Austrian facility.
The new facility proved to be a new, modern and very substantial plant with a large enough assembly area to allow for the construction of numerous furnaces at the same time-to give you an idea an almost completed cast link belt line was dwarfed by the size of the building.
A great deal of thought obviously went into the design of this plant, for instance selected furnaces can be 100% tested at temperature and with atmosphere before shipping. In addition they have a very ingenious system for assembling furnaces which involves pits with adjustable scaffolding which allows for easy access when building and assembling quench tanks and conveyores as an example.
The 50 full time employees are complimented with a number of local contractors as required. This is what we saw on the floor during our visit:
“Cast Link Belt Line”. Almost ready for shipping this 2,200 kg per hour line (almost 5,000 pounds per hour) is destined for a Swedish manufacturer of fasteners-it is gas fired and designed for neutral hardening.
“Two Chamber Sealed Quench Furnace Line”. (For our North American readers we will point out that this would be called a “Batch IQ” line). This electrical heated furnace system destined for an auto parts supplier in Germany, also shown is a standard batch temper furnace.
“Endothermic Generators”. During our visit we saw two almost completed endothermic generators, one interesting enough is a single retort 4,500 CFH AFC-Holcroft unit. We say interesting because AFC-Holcroft is the US division of Aichelin.
Our visit took place March 19, 2025 and we thank our hosts Mr. Christian Grosspointner (CEO – AICHELIN Group), Mr. Philipp Krenn (Managing Director – AICHELIN Mödling and AICHELIN Service GmbH), Mr. Marko Klinc (CEO – AICHELIN Assembly Center Europe), Lukasz Krzyzanowsk (Interim Head of Production – AICHELIN Assembly Center Europe) and Mr. Marco Karnthaler (Head of Global Marketing).
Ex “Bluewater Thermal Solutions” CEO Takes Over Reins at R.M. Young Company;“R.M. Young Company, a leader in meteorological instrumentation, announced the retirement of President Tom Young, marking the end of an era for the family-founded and operated company. Tom, who has been an integral part of the company since 1991, officially stepped down as President on April 1, 2025. He is succeeded by Eric Mannix, President and CFO.” Eric was CEO of commercial heat treater Bluewater Thermal Solutions before joining R.M. Young company in October of 2024.
New USA Mesh Belt Furnace Install? Our understanding is that fastener manufacturer “Holo Krome” (a division of “Fastenal”) is adding mesh belt heat treating capacity to their Wallingford, Connecticut, USA facility. This location has always had vacuum and quench and temper capabilities, this addition will replace a smaller mesh belt furnace line.
Medical Supplier Backtracks on In House Heat Treatment. John Hammil Company in Maumee, Ohio appears to be a very well-respected supplier to the medical industry. The firm originally planned on adding heat treating to their many capabilities which lead to investment in a vacuum furnace. After the furnace was largely installed the decision was made that this was not a road the company wanted to go down. As a result the furnace was sold to a USA west coast heat treater.
Italian Furnace Builders Completes Impressive Install. Recently “Gord Montgomery” of “The Monty Heat Treat News”visited Italian furnace builder “Meapforni”in Fontanafredda, Italy. Amongst the many things we learned during our visit was that the company recently installed a mesh belt furnace line capable of 750 Kg per hour (roughly 2,000 pounds per hour) at “Colombo Special Fasteners” in Cisano Bergamasco, Italy. “Colombo” is a family owned supplier of various types of fasteners-these photos show the installed line.
Pit Furnace Installation; Going way back to 2020 we had this press release about a pit furnace install in Italy at IMG Industria Meccanica Girardello s.p.a. As it turns out during a recent visit to Italy “The Monty Heat Treat News” had the opportunity to see these furnaces-a photo is below; “Furnace Builder Rohde Schutzgasoefen GmbH Ships Two Furnaces to Italy ”As the lockdown in Italy due to the Coronavirus has ended, IMG Industria Meccanica Girardello s.p.a. located near Treviso, has restarted all operations and will soon receive two identical electrically heated pit furnaces type SG 150/200 for carbonitriding processes from German furnace builder Rohde.”
Ontario Commercial Heat Treater Poised for Another Acquisition? Rumor has it that a commercial heat treater based in Ontario, Canada who has made two acquisitions recently is poised to make another one next week. We will keep you posted.
“The Monty Heat Treat News” Views Recent Vacuum Nitriding Installation; Also during a recent visit to Italy “The Monty” enjoyed a visit to gear manufacturer “SIAP Gears”, a trip visit which we mentioned recently. What we didn’t mention at the time was that we also saw a fairly new “Aichelin” vacuum nitriding installation-it can be seen in this photo.
Idemitsu Lubricants America Appoints Senior Accounts Manager-Heat Treat. Quench oil supplier “Idemitsu” has just appointed “Mr. John Dzurilla” as Senior Accounts Manager for Heat Treat. Prior to this John was General Manager of the Bodycote (commercial heat treating) facility in Colombus, Ohio, USA.
A recent business trip to Italy and Slovenia by “Gord Montgomery” of “The Monty Heat Treat News” led to a series of articles about both captive and commercial heat treaters with a “healthy dose” of furnace manufacturers thrown into the mix. One of those visits was to furnace builder “CIEFFE” in Colle Umberto, Italy was of the oldest and most established furnace builders in the country.
