Last week we mentioned that a very experienced heat treater that we have known for years, Mr. Steve Metz of commercial heat treater Aalberts Surface Technologies was changing the direction of his very distinguished career in the industry. Here in his own words Steve tells us what prompted this change and what is next step in the industry is going to be.

“Exco” is a global designer, developer and manufacturer of dies, molds, components and assemblies for a variety of industries and more importantly to a heat treat news source such as “The Monty Heat Treat News” a company which firmly believes in investing in the latest and greatest heat treat technologies. 

Over the years “The Monty” has reported on several of the firms heat treat investments including this news item from 2023, today we mention another heat treat investment the company is making at their facility in Chesterfield, Michigan, USA. The current heat treating department operates fluidized bed furnaces (as a number of the other Exco locations did in the past), however the plant is in the process of phasing out the fluidized bed furnaces and replacing them with vacuum heat treatment. This brings up the obvious question; is there anybody left in North America who still operates fluidized bed furnaces? The project is expected to be completed by the 3^rd quarter of 2025. 

This timeline shows the heat treatment investments the company has made over the past 3 years; 

• Extrusion Michigan’s heat treatment project to upgrade the current fluidised bed furnaces with vacuum heat treatment continues. This project is expected to be completed in Q3 2025.

• Castool Heat treatment facility completed in Newmarket. With one of the largest heat treat ovens in North America, this facility has the capacity to heat treat parts of extreme size for Die-casting and Extrusion customers. Castool’s facility can meet the needs of Castool and Exco Engineering Newmarket.
• Extrusion Group Markham heat treatment replacement project completed and running more efficiently than expected. The Board approved Extrusion Michigan’s heat treatment equipment replacement project to implement a vacuum heat treatment facility and replace the fluidised bed furnaces process currently in place. Due to long lead times, this project will likely be completed in fiscal 2025.

• Castool Heat treatment – Situated within our existing Newmarket facility, phase 1 of this project was completed in the third quarter of Fiscal 2022. Phase 2 is expected to be completed in the second quarter of Fiscal 2023. This facility gives us the ability to process regular and oversized components, ensure faster delivery to our customers, increase quality control, mitigate risks of relying on a third-party supplier for an essential process and the energy efficient equipment reduces the Company’s carbon dioxide footprint.
• Extrusion Group Heat Treatment capacity was increased in Texas, added in Mexico. The replacement project in Markham continues and will be completed in early Fiscal 2023.

“About Exco; Exco is a global designer, developer and manufacturer of dies, moulds, components and assemblies, and consumable equipment for the die-cast, extrusion and automotive industries. Through its 21 strategic locations, Exco employs approximately 5,000 people and services a diverse and broad customer base. Each operation constitutes an autonomous profit centre within the Company but draws upon Exco’s pool of expertise and technology.

The Casting and Extrusion segment designs, develops and manufactures die-casting and extrusion tooling and consumable parts for both aluminum die-casting and aluminum extrusion machines. Operations are based in North America, South America, Europe, Thailand and Morocco and serve automotive and industrial markets around the world. Exco is a leader in most of its markets which principally consist of North America for die-cast tooling, Europe, North and South America for extrusion tooling and globally for consumable tooling parts and related equipment. Across its markets, Exco is focused on further entrenching itself by reducing lead times and manufacturing costs through design and process enhancements. Major capital projects have been implemented in recent years to increase capacity, reduce lead times, further improve quality and reduce costs. In the machine consumables market, Exco is leveraging its long tradition as a reliable, high-quality supplier of consumable components for the injection system of die-cast machines and aluminum extrusion presses by evaluating, coordinating and ultimately maximizing customers’ overall equipment performance and longevity.”

Bodycote, the world’s “Largest Commercial Heat Treater” as ranked by “The Monty Heat Treat News” has just appointed Ms. Heidi McNary, as President, Global ADE & Surface Technology, Bodycote.  ADE is the Aerospace/Defense/Energy division of “Bodycote”. It would appear that Heidi brings some very impressive credentials to the table although this does not appear to include direct heat treatment experience. 

Our impression is that this position was formerly held by Mr. Tom Gibbons, if that is the case we are unsure of that Tom’s plans are at this point. 

“The customer’s decision to expand with Nitrex reflects G-M Enterprises’ proven track record in furnace reliability,” said Mark Hemsath, president of Nitrex Turnkey Systems. “Our commitment to quality has anchored this partnership for over three decades.”

“Our long-standing relationship with this aerospace customer underscores Nitrex’s commitment to providing durable equipment backed by robust technical support,” said Jay Jefsen, regional sales manager for Nitrex Vacuum. “We are proud to contribute to their ongoing success and look forward to supporting their production goals with this latest addition.” The furnace is scheduled for commissioning in April 2025.”

In an effort to increase their sales both in Europe and North America, Graphite Materials has just appointed “Mr. Matthias Schlesies” as Director Sales and Internationalization, USA and Europe effective December 1, 2024. (These photos show “Matthias” and also Graphite Materials in Nurenburg, during a visit by Gord Montgomery of “The Monty Heat Treat News a couple of years ago). 

For the week starting December 25^th 2024 the three most read heat treatment stories according to “The Monty Heat Treat News” include these;

McLaughlin Furnace Poised to Ship Another Salt Recovery Unit; Two years ago, “The Monty Heat Treat News” announced that “McLaughlin Furnace Group” of Avilla, Indiana, USA had reached an agreement with German Furnace builder “Rohde” to work together on future projects (https://themonty.com/mclaughlin-furnace-group-and-rohde-gmbh-strengthen-ties/). One of the areas of cooperation would include McLaughlin building and servicing Rohde’s line of “SRU”s” (salt recovery units) in the North American market. Since that time McLaughlin has built several of these systems, the most recent one as shown in these photos is ready to ship and is destined for an auto parts maker in the Southeastern US. SRU’s are designed to recover 99.9% of quenching salts that end up in wash/rinse tanks in applications such as austempering.