1. Today we are speaking with one of the best-known individuals in the global heat treatment industry, Mr. Mark Hemsath. Mark has spent his entire working life in the industry and with his extensive travel experience he brings a perspective that few others can offer thanks for the time Mark. I just stated that you are one of the best known individuals in the heat treatment industry but just in case there is anybody out there that doesn’t recognize the name perhaps you could give us a bit of background on your experience starting with how you are following in your Dad’s footprints.

Thanks Gord. I’m not sure I am one of the “best known” but appreciate the accolades. Nitrex is celebrating its 40th year in business – that’s 1984.  So, in 1982/83 I was translating Plasma Nitriding technical papers from German to English for my father’s company and the well-known Mr Jim Conybear.  I was telling my dad after I came to Nitrex that we had all the technology with retort furnaces in 1993 when he and I bought Lee Wilson Engineering to be a leader in gas nitriding technology. We actually had a retort-based hot wall Ion Nitrider design, as well, with vacuum purge!  Instead, Michel Korwin, the founder of Nitrex, focused his efforts on the art of gas nitriding and created a great company.  I am proud to be leader at this company and I recognize what he created here.  It takes visionaries and dedicated individuals like Mr. Korwin to create greatness. Today I am helping to keep that greatness going.

2. Nitrex is best known for nitriding, but the company is much more than that with 3 different divisions I believe. Please give us a summary of the company.

Today we are three distinct businesses. At our Heat Treating Services company we practice the art of heat treating on a commercial or toll basis. Our UPC-Marathon business makes controllers, probes and sensors and peripheral equipment for heat treaters. We also introduced our heat treat plant supervisory software, QMULUS, which allows heat treaters to see and manage their operations via the cloud, from anywhere. This software is much more than a supervisory system and combined with Carburizing and Nitriding simulation software and controllers, we make the heat treater’s life easier.

Finally, we make industrial furnaces. Nitrex is known for being a world leader in batch gas nitriding and Ferritic nitrocarburizing systems. However, we also make vacuum furnaces via our G-M Enterprises unit in California, where we are also the leader in aerospace coating systems for turbine engine components.

3. And where do you fit in, in the organization? I certainly understand that you are leading the equipment division -do you get involved with the commercial heat-treating division or controls side on a day to day basis?

I started at Nitrex in early 2021 in the commercial heat treating division which is run by Jason Orosz.  After a year I was asked to help out with the vacuum furnace division. From there I was tasked with global equipment sales and today I am President of the hardware lines, with a strong focus on sales.

4. I have heard rumors that you have a very interesting and ambitious project going on at your Franklin, IN heat treat facility-anything you can share? It is in complete confidence of course, just us and a few thousand other heat treaters.

As you know you shared some data via a press release. I can confirm that we are building the largest ever pit gas nitrider for Nitrex. This unit is designed for massive gears and very large loads (40 tons). What is interesting here is that we really had to re-think our pit nitrider and build it on a crazy fast schedule. The team in Poland and Montreal came up with some great design changes after I challenged them to solve some problems we saw with earlier large-size variants. I went back to my bell annealing days of 100 ton charges and we engineered some solutions in deploying very large alloy retorts. I think our team did a great job.  This new, amazing furnace is being installed as we speak, on schedule.

5. In a conversation the other day you suggested that a new focus for the company is your line of vacuum furnaces. Nitrex acquired GM Enterprises of California-a builder of new vacuum furnaces several years ago but it appears to me that GM has been quite content to stick with their traditional customer base. You are leading me to believe that Nitrex will be far more aggressive in marketing the GM brand -would this be a fair statement?

Yes to all.  As with everything in this business it’s about product. We cannot rest on our prior business models and expect growth. The market changes every year and these last years, post-COVID, are no different. The driver of this has been additive manufacturing, in my opinion. Today, the aero and space markets are changing rapidly. We used to focus on very large aerospace vacuum furnaces.  Today there is a trend to deploy smaller and rather sophisticated vacuum furnaces.  Of course, everyone wants a small price tag too. What we are seeing today, especially in aerospace and defense, is that additive manufacturing is very important, is past its emergence phase and is into a growth phase.  Combine this with manufacturing plants wanting some decentralized heat treating and you have a new, nice trend.  G-M Nitrex has systems for debind and sinter of MIM parts and, now, smaller volume 3D parts.

In aerospace there has been a big move toward HIP furnaces for quality of the casting or part build. We can support this business both with small vacuum furnaces and Vapor Phase Aluminizing systems. Our best selling product has been aerospace coating furnaces which are retort-based vacuum furnaces for vapor phase aluminide coatings or VPA. In the end, the market never stays the same, we must lead and adapt to changes as the industry demands.

6. In the same conversation the other day you indicated that you are very excited about a relatively new product “QMULUS” which Nitrex describes as Artificial Intelligence for Surface Treatment-what is it and why the heck does everybody at Nitrex get so excited talking about it?

As a company, we are all about support for the heat treaters.  If we can give them a product that is unique and that helps them run their business, it’s a win-win.  Plant-wide data acquisition systems have always existed, but do people know how much each load cost to run?  Can we report on carbon use?  Can we integrate modeling and AI-based analysis into assuring parts come out consistently and the furnaces are healthy?  These are just a few of the things we think about.

7. The whole team at Nitrex must be very busy these days-what other projects do you have planned for the future?

We are always very busy.  The market is forever changing.  We are in the middle of final trials on our high-volume brake rotor FNC furnace deployment.  The system is operating as we promised and the furnace looks great!  Again, the team has shown its dedication to quality and reliability.  This has been a dream of mine for 10 years, so to get this furnace into the market is a major accomplishment.  With new particle emission standards on brake rotors, this furnace line, combined with un-matched corrosion resistance of the rotor, will be a standard in the future for brake rotor manufacturers.  We control the layer to very tight tolerances and offer perfect colors.  In addition to this furnace, we are introducing a batch variant, also with automatic loading and robot operations.  Very cool stuff!

In the vacuum world, we are seeing Aerospace return as our largest business and we are pushing on simple things like being a great replacement hot zone builder.

8. Can you do me a favor and dig out your crystal ball-I want to know your predictions about the heat treat industry in general for 2025.

More consolidation.  This is a complicated and tough business.  I am not sure we will see visionaries like Michel Korwin or my dad too much.  Young adults today do not flock to hard capital goods manufacturing.  Finding true “furnace engineers” is tough.  You have seen the commercial heat treat industry consolidate quite a bit of late.  I think you will see some of this in the furnace companies.  Who takes over for the next generation?  I don’t know.  I think you and I cannot retire, that’s for sure.  2025 looks decent in North America.  Europe is another matter.  There are certainly struggles in Europe.  Overall, I think 2025 will be good.

9. And lastly what does the future hold for Mark Hemsath? I know it is impossible to know where the road takes us, but will you and I be running into each other at heat treat shows in Europe and North America 10 years from now?

10 years!  I bet I will still be around.  It’s a passion for me.  I am not sure I can travel the globe like you.  However, I will be right here advising customers on what is the best furnace, whether it is for brake rotors or aircraft turbine engine blades or rocket components.  And, we will all be using Starlink to stay in touch with our businesses and customers, from wherever we may be cruising the oceans or your Canadian islands.

Did you like this article? Click here to subscribe to The Monty.

View our recent magazines and podcasts by clicking the following link. https://themonty.com/magazine/