From time to time we search through our archived pictures of heat treat facilities around the world and present some of the more memorable ones. Today we look at one of the more memorable ones we have come across tractor builder AGCO/FENDT in Marktoberdorf, Germany. AGCO/FENDT is memorable for the sheer size of the heat treat department (enormous), the number of different thermal treatment processes offered (extremely varied), the cleanliness (immaculate) and the equipment itself (state of the art). We are presenting Part I today, with Part II tomorrow (Thursday).

“APRIL 7, 2020, GERMANY; In House Heat Treating, AGCO/FENDT, Marktoberdorf, Germany (Part I); FENDT Tractors, a division of AGCO is known around the world as a top end manufacturer of tractors. Manufactured in Germany the company makes many of the components in each tractor including drive train items in house. Today we are looking specifically at the Marktoberdorf, Germany facility which is where many of the drive train items are manufactured and subsequently heat treated.

Drive train components, shafts and gears as an example are almost always heat treated in either pusher style furnaces, rotary hearth, batch IQ or LPC systems and FENDT follows this model with a mixture of batch IQ and pusher furnaces combined with press quenching in some cases. Today we are looking at the pusher furnace department which is as automated as possible. Parts are loaded by robot on investment cast fixturing (photo 2), processed through the oil quenching pushers (photos 3 & 4) and subsequently unloaded with the empty fixturing being returned by conveyor to the part loading area (photo 5). Everything in this department is completely automated from process variables such as carbon potential and load tracking to loading and unloading of parts. The entire department by the way offers the cleanest oil quenching pusher furnaces we have ever seen. Each and every day the furnaces are wiped down, the floors cleaned and the floor mats replaced all while the furnaces are in full production. It is quite an experience to see such a clean, automated heat treat department with so few workers. Tomorrow we look at the company’s batch IQ and press quenching department.”

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