There is a brand-new commercial heat treater in Texas by the name of Armor Heat Treat LLC which opened their doors very recently. Located in Richland Hills, Texas the relatively small operation is starting off with two batch IQ furnaces with working dimensions of 48″ X 36 X 48″ and 48″ X 72″ X 36″, these will be followed by at least one more in the near future. All ancillary equipment such as an endothermic generator, washer, charge car and tempers are already operational and when everything is completed the company will be offering carburizing, anneal, normalizing, stress relieving and age hardening. We wish them the best of luck.
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The photo attached to this interesting press release was taken when Paulo installed their new “HIP” system back in 2019-the original press release can be found further down. The Cleveland facility of Paulo is almost entirely dedicated to servicing the aerospace industry and is one of the larger single location commercial heat treats in the US.
“Paulo’s Cleveland Division was recently awarded approval from GE Aviation for Hot Isostatic Pressing, specifically GT193 Process Code FF. Approval followed an audit of the Cleveland Division.
Adding GE Aviation to Paulo’s list of HIP approvals is another example of supporting our customers by securing approvals needed to process their parts. Paulo is also approved for other GT193 processes including vacuum heat treating (BA), heat treating stainless and superalloy (BG), vacuum brazing (CC), and brazing (CD).
Paulo’s Cleveland facility is uniquely positioned to serve GE aviation suppliers who require both Hot Isostatic Pressing and vacuum heat treatment. By offering both processes under one roof and in conjunction with the largest commercial vacuum heat treatment operation in North America, Paulo reduces outside processing time.
Founded in 1943, Paulo is one of the largest providers of thermal processing and metal finishing solutions in North America. Headquartered in St. Louis, Paulo operates six strategically-located divisions across the U.S. and Mexico. We deliver quality results with datagineering: blending the best in automation, data, and human expertise.”
“MARCH 2019 PRESS RELEASE; Quintas Technologies, Sweden, announces that Paulo Heat Treating, St. Louis, Mo., has acquired a Quintas hot isostatic press for its Cleveland Division. The press, model QIH 122 M URC, is equipped with Quintus’ proprietary uniform rapid cooling (URC), a feature that improves material properties for products of additive manufacturing and investment casting.
“We see the market for HIP expanding, with a large part attributed to additive manufacturing,” says Scott Herzing, Paulo Vice President of Engineering. “We have the leading material knowledge and process expertise to help our customers in this area. The ability to combine HIP and heat treatment will allow us to offer one-stop-shop thermal processing solutions, with faster turnaround times.”
The HIP will be installed in Paulo’s recently expanded Cleveland Division, in Willoughby, Ohio, which provides specialized brazing and precise vacuum heat treatment. The plant’s AS9100 quality management system and Nadcap accreditation make it especially well-suited to serve the needs of the aerospace and power generation industries.
Configured as a Quintus Modularized Solution, a space- and energy-saving profile that simplifies building and civil work and reduces infrastructure investment, the press features a work zone of 26.0 inches (660 mm) in diameter and 68.9 inches (1750 mm) in height. It operates at a maximum temperature of 2,552°F (1,400°C) and maximum pressure of 30,000 psi (2,070 bar).”
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Gasbarre, a leader in industrial furnace equipment, is pleased to welcome Dan Hill as Product Development Manager. With over 20 years of experience in engineering and technical sales, Dan will drive product innovation and develop customer solutions at Gasbarre.
Dan brings a diverse background in capital equipment, spanning material handling, control systems, boilers and furnaces, combustion systems, and industrial washing/deburring equipment. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Science in Engineering Management from the University of Michigan, and he is a licensed Professional Engineer. His expertise in project engineering, quality, and R&D is complemented by his leadership skills.
“Dan’s extensive experience and proven success in building relationships and developing customer solutions make him a valuable addition to our team,” said Ben Gasbarre, EVP of Sales & Marketing. “His passion for the industry and commitment to excellence align perfectly with our goals, and we are excited to have him on board.”
Dan has a strong track record in advocating for continuous improvement and new product development. He has served on various industry committees, including the ABMA Associate Council, the AGMA Metallurgy and Materials Technical Committee, and the National Fire Protection Agency Technical Committees.
Based at Gasbarre’s Livonia, Michigan facility, Dan looks forward to using his skills and experience to support Gasbarre’s growth and innovation efforts.
With locations in Livonia, MI, and St. Marys, PA, Gasbarre Thermal Processing Systems has been designing, manufacturing, and servicing a full line of industrial thermal processing equipment for over 50 years. Gasbarre’s equipment is designed for your process by experienced engineers and metallurgists that understand your requirements. For more information about Gasbarre and its products, please visit www.gasbarre.com Dan can be reached via email at [email protected] or via phone at 734-418-5575.
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“Solar Atmospheres of Michigan Inc. is making steady progress on its expansion project, which remains on track for completion by the end of 2024. Significant construction milestones have already been achieved and are on schedule. Additionally, the purchase of a brand new 14’ long car bottom air furnace will be the first new piece of equipment installed in this 18,000 square foot addition. It will serve as a compliment and an option for those customers who do not require vacuum processing of large parts.”
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Ipsen USA is excited to announce the formal launch of its Service HUB model, marking a significant shift in how the company delivers customer service and support across the United States. In the last two years, Ipsen has brought the HUB service model from concept to reality under the direction of Ipsen Global CEO Geoffrey Somary. Currently being led by Chief Service Officer John Dykstra, Ipsen’s HUBs now provide services across a large portion of the Midwest and Southeastern United States, addressing areas that have a high density of Ipsen customers.
These regional service centers help ensure quicker response times, dedicated support teams, and thorough knowledge of each customer’s facility. By grouping customers in close geographic proximity, Ipsen can offer more efficient service tailored to their specific needs, reducing downtime and optimizing performance for heat-treating operations. The shift to the HUB model reflects Ipsen’s commitment to continuously improving customer experience while enhancing the quality of life for its Field Service Engineers (FSEs). With reduced travel time, FSEs are able to spend more time at home, contributing to better work-life balance while still providing high-quality, responsive service.
Lu Chouraki, Manager of Business Development, is leading the implementation of the HUBs. “Our goal is for the HUBs to tackle the immediate needs of our customers, eliminating long response times for operators experiencing outages,” Chouraki explained. Ipsen’s HUBs are now fully operational in four key regions, with plans to expand even further in the coming years. This transformation is part of Ipsen’s broader vision for service excellence, combining regional expertise with a personal touch that benefits customers and empowers the Ipsen team.
Additionally, to support the rollout of the HUB model, Ipsen has introduced the Ipsen Technical Development Center (TDC), an initiative led by Darci Johnson, Program and Transformation Manager, and Cavan Cardenas, Technical Training Lead. The TDC is focused on training and developing new FSEs, including the launch of the Field Service Engineer Academy, a specialized program that equips both new and current technicians with the skills needed to thrive in the HUB model. With more HUBs planned through 2025 and beyond, Ipsen is poised to redefine customer support in the heattreating industry, providing localized, expert service to meet the evolving demands of its customers. For more information, visit https://ipsenglobal.com/hub.
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Effective May1, 2024 East Lind-Lind Heat Treat Inc., in Madison Heights, Michigan has new ownership. This is how the firm describes themselves;
“East-Lind is an ISO certified, family-owned and operated heat-treating service located in Madison Heights. We have been servicing metro Detroit’s tool & die, gear, precision machining, cutting tool, special machinery, metal stamping & fabrication, mold, and prototype industries with quality heat treating for nearly 40 years.
As one of Michigan’s largest suppliers of tool & die and semi-production batch heat treating services, East-Lind offers a full complement of heat-treating processes for both ferrous and non-ferrous metals to meet the varied requirements of a customer base of over 700 local companies.
Our highly experienced personnel and wide variety of equipment allow us the flexibility to efficiently process the smallest of jobs, to some of the largest sections; as well as provide quick turnaround at a competitive price. We are able to meet the heat treat requirements for a wide array of specifications from varying industries, including automotive, military, oil & gas, aerospace and gear. https://www.eastlind.com/index.html
East Lind has always been a family-owned business with the current General Manager being Mr. Bob Easterbrook Jr., son of the founder of the company. The new owners are a group out of California who plan on making some large investments in the firm. It is Bob’s plan that he will stay on as GM for some time-good the industry needs experienced heat treaters like Bob.”
Each week “The Monty Heat Treat News” looks back on our news stories from the previous week and based upon reader feedback, website anlaytics and social media “views” arrives at 3 heat treatment stories that most interested our readers. For the week starting September 13th here they are from the most read to the third most followed;
Can-Eng Mesh Belt Lines Sold-That Was Fast! Now this is quite a story so please pay attention. Early this year it was announced that Commercial Steel Treating in Madison Heights, Michigan, USA was closing their doors (the original story is below). This 200,000 square foot facility housed everything from batch IQ lines to induction systems to three 4,000 pounds per hour mesh belt furnace lines. Quite a bit of the equipment is still available and going to auction, however the mesh belt lines sold reasonably quickly-here is the interesting part. First two of the lines were going to a Turkish fastener manufacturer setting up a new plant in Michigan with the third line going to Curtis Metal Finishing in the Chicago area. Then the story changed and the furnace lines were going to another fastener manufacturer in the US with the third line still going to Curtis Metal Finishing. Next up Curtis changed their minds and decided not to take the one line putting it back on the used market. It would now appear to be a done deal with two of the lines still going to a US fastener manufacturer with the third line now sold also. We are assuming that this is now the end of the story. (The accompanying photo shows a typical 4,000 pound/hour Can Eng mesh belt line) https://themonty.com/can-eng-mesh-belt-lines-sold-that-was-fast/
“MICHIGAN HEAT TREATER TO CLOSE, FEBRUARY 22, 2024. It is the understanding of “The Monty Heat Treat News” that commercial heat treater Commercial Steel Treating in Madison, Heights, Michigan will be closing in the near future. The company has a long and distinguished history which we will try and summarize. Commercial was founded by Ralph Hoensheid in 1927 making it what we believe is the oldest commercial heat treater in North America. At some point in time Commercial became part of Curtis Metal Finishing which has several locations including in the Chicago, IL area.
In 2023 Curtis was acquired by an Italian Company by the name of Primat Curtis with locations in Brazil, Europe and the US. What precipitated the decision to close the Madison Heights facility we can’t comment on but it is our understanding that this only effects this location. At one point in time Commercial was a very substantial commercial heat treater with batch IQ furnaces, induction hardening and continuous furnaces, we believe only the continuous furnaces are still in operation. We will keep you posted on any updates which become available.”
ECM Installs Low Pressure Carburizing Line; Furnace builder ECM of Grenoble, France is pretty happy to announce that they have completed installation of a Low Pressure Carburizing Line at Thermi Lyon in Marignier, France. Thermi Lyon is a family owned commercial heat treater and one of the largest in France; “We are very pleased to have been able to collaborate with Groupe Thermilyon at their “Trempelec” site for the integration of their new vacuum heat treatment line.
“Groupe Thermilyon” is a French group, service provider and expert in heat treatment and vacuum coating. This new automated line consists of cells for low-pressure carburizing as well as gas quenching cells and oil quenching cells. This investment demonstrates their desire to improve their industrial facilities by guaranteeing their end customers a gain in machining, metallurgical quality and consequently in unit cost. This all-electric vacuum heat treatment line is an additional way for the Groupe Thermilyon – Traitement thermique to guarantee clean production for their customer while reducing their own energy consumption.” https://themonty.com/ecm-installs-low-pressure-carburizing-line/
Gas Spring Manufacturer Installs 4 Vacuum Nitriding Systems; “KALLER®” is a brand name for gas springs and gas hydraulic systems for stamping dies and counterbalance, as well as gas hydraulic suspension systems for heavy-duty off-road vehicles. The company behind “KALLER” is “Strömsholmen” in Tranås, Sweden which in turn is part of the Barnes Group Inc. in the U.S In February of 2023 the firm placed an order with Ipsen, in Kleve, Germany for four VDR(N)-1714-E/AutoMag units (vacuum nitriders). The furnaces are fully automated with a newly designed loader and furnace concept as well as the use of roller conveyors. Just last week the furnaces were inaugurated in a special ceremony and are now in production. It would appear that this was a very successful project. https://themonty.com/gas-spring-manufacturer-installs-4-vacuum-nitriding-systems/
Earlier this year we reported that furnace builder “Aichelin” of Austria had a record breaking 2023 sales year and that the company was very optimistic that 2024 would follow suit https://themonty.com/aichelin-group-sales/. Not to be outdone “SECO/WARWICK” based in Poland also announced earlier this year a sales record in 2023 with the expectation that 2024 would be even better https://www.secowarwick.com/en/news/seco-warwick-usa/.
Now comes word that “McLaughlin Furnace Group”https://www.mclaughlinsvc.com/ of Avilla, IN, USA also had a record breaking 2023 and anticipates that 2024 will be substantially better. Founder and President of the company, “Mr. Jeff McLaughlin” had this to say;
“2023 was our best year ever for the group in terms of sales and I can now confidently say that based upon shipments and order backlog 2024 will be even better-at this point we anticipate that our sales for the calendar year 2024 will be pushing $30 million USD. What makes me most pleased is that this sales growth is spread over all of our product lines. “Tru Mix” endothermic generator sales are strong, our partnership with “Rohde Furnaces” of Germany has been very productive for both sides, we shipped several mesh belt furnace lines and we have received a number of orders for temper furnaces. In addition, at the FNA show in October of this year in Colombus, Ohio we will be introducing a new product which we feel will attract a great deal of attention”.
“The Monty Heat Treat News” had the chance to visit McLaughlin last week and we came away with these photos of the assembly floor which shows 2 mesh belt furnace lines almost ready to ship, a “Rohde” Salt Recovery Unit under construction, a batch IQ being assembled and a partly built “Tru Mix” endo generator. The individual in the foreground of the one photo is “Mr. Ryan McLaughlin”.
Jeff McLaughlin had this to add; “The entire McLaughlin team has done an incredible job this year-we have asked a lot of the team in terms of effort and overtime and without exception everybody has willingly pitched in. I can’t thank the team enough”.
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Thursday, September 26th, 2024 Vac Aero International is celebrating 65 years in business with an open house at their location in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. The company was founded by Mr. Ross Pritchard in 1959 as Canadian Vac-Hyd Processing Ltd., a subsidiary of Detroit, Michigan-based Vac-Hyd Processing Corporation. Since that time the company has grown and expanded and its services now include commercial heat treating, coatings and new vacuum furnaces from 5 locations in Ontario and Quebec, Canada. “The Monty Heat Treat News” will be in attendance at the open house and provide a report on the event.
As a background to this story, Mr. Jordan Montgomery of “The Monty” visited the firm’s location in St. Laurent, Quebec, Canada just last week. The Quebec Division is situated in the heart of Quebec’s aerospace community with the Ville St. Laurent plant providing Thermal Processing services and the Boucherville plant providing Coating services. The St. Laurent location is long established and boasts over 20 employees offering commercial vacuum heat treating and associated processes. In this photo we see Jordan Montgomery in the back row 4th from the right.
There has been a marked difference in this company since new ownership and management was announced early in 2023. As an outsider “The Monty” can say that we have seen a revitalized company, with extremely ambitions plans for the entire company right from commercial heat treating to coatings to an expanded product offering from their furnace manufacturing division. We expect we will be able to announce some of these changes in the near future.
Very recently “The Monty Heat Treat News” added a rather unusual item to their “Used Equipment Listings” a vacuum sintering furnace with an operating temperature of 2530C (4586F). Manufactured by Centorr Industries of NH the furnace is still installed at a manufacturing facility and has been used for sintering of small ceramic components. It is really hard to say what interest will appear for the furnace-on the one side of the coin it is in good shape and ready to go, on the other hand this caters to a very small part of the heat-treating market. Time will tell but the details can be found at https://themonty.com/project/item-vf449-centorr-high-temperature-vacuum-furnace/
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In 2023 Curtis was acquired by an Italian Company by the name of Primat Curtis with locations in Brazil, Europe and the US. What precipitated the decision to close the Madison Heights facility we can’t comment on but it is our understanding that this only effects this location. At one point in time Commercial was a very substantial commercial heat treater with batch IQ furnaces, induction hardening and continuous furnaces, we believe only the continuous furnaces are still in operation. We will keep you posted on any updates which become available.” 
