Saw blade manufacturer Contour Saws near Chicago, Illinois has what was at one time a large in house heat treating department consisting of a number of top loading Lindberg vacuum annealing furnaces. Their process requirements changed over the years with the result...

WATERLOO, IA – December 10, 2018 – Advanced Heat Treat Corp. (AHT) Corporate Quality Systems Manager, Connie Mackey was recently selected to be a voting member of the Nadcap Heat Treating Task Group. Nadcap is a global accreditation program designed to ensure...

We will start off with an updateto a news item we had last week about a company by the name of ColdHeading Company of Cleveland, Ohio, USA auctioning off some surplusequipment, including a number of heat treat furnaces. We made some predictionsabout what would happen to the equipment (you can find the details below). Sohow were our predictions? Almost 100% wrong much to our embarrassment. Thesmall mesh belt line sold for $50,000 USD, the cast link line sold for $65,000USD with the 2 generators included and the largest line remains on the market.Buyer for both lines was a company by the name of Total Forge of Mexico, acompany we know nothing about. “Roughly 2 years ago, Cold Heading Companyclosed their Lee Road, Cleveland facility and since that time the equipment(including their large heat treating department) has been sitting idlecollecting dust. Tomorrow Thursday, December 6 everything goes to auction andthis includes the heat treat department. This consists of an AFC 1500pounds/hour mesh belt line, an AFC 2500 pounds/hour cast link belt line, an AFC4,000 pounds/hour mesh belt line and 2 AFC Endo generators-all mid 1990’svintage and all seeming complete and in reasonable or good condition.

Bodycote, the world’s largest provider of heat treatments and specialist thermal processing services, held an official opening ceremony last week at its brand new facility on the Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP), Rotherham, Yorkshire.  The new advanced heat treatment centre, now fully operational and supporting customer requirements, offers a range of heat treatment services and has been established to support the aerospace and power generation markets in the UK and Europe.   The Rotherham facility was officially opened by Andy Greasley, Executive Vice President of Rolls-Royce’s Turbines Supply Chain Unit, in recognition of the enduring partnership between Bodycote and Rolls-Royce. Mr. Greasley commented: “Heat treatment and processing is a vital part of our supply chain and Rolls-Royce are delighted to be supported by Bodycote on the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Rotherham. Close coupling of this capability to our own Rolls-Royce business is critical for our future success and our relationship with Bodycote is one that we truly value.”

Commercial heat treater Braddock Metallurgical in the US South East is according to that impeccable source “The Monty” rated as one of the largest in North America in terms of annual sales (to find out where they rank https://themonty.com/largest-commercial-heat-treaters-in-north-america-october-2018/) Their name comes up today because the company recently moved their Atlanta, Georgia location into a new and larger facility while at the same time expanding their batch IQ and vacuum departments. These photos give you a feel for the new location.

Roughly 2 years ago, Cold Heading Company closed their Lee Road, Cleveland facility and since that time the equipment (including their large heat treating department) has been sitting idle collecting dust. Tomorrow Thursday, December 6 everything goes to auction and this includes the heat treat department. This consists of an AFC 1500 pounds/hour mesh belt line, an AFC 2500 pounds/hour cast link belt line, an AFC 4,000 pounds/hour mesh belt line and 2 AFC Endo generators-all mid 1990’s vintage and all seeming complete and in reasonable or good condition. Now if we were betting people at “The Monty” this is what we expect will happen; the 1500 and 2500 pound lines will be sold to a scrap dealer, the endo generators will also be scrapped or go for almost nothing and the largest line, the 4,000 pound/hour line we would guess will either be sold or removed from the auction.

And speaking of auctions we also have word about this one coming up January 28th, 2019. A lighting manufacturer by the name of Ledvance is closing a large facility in New Hampshire, USA and all of the equipment is being sold by an auction company by the name of Branford Group, a company which we have some experience with and have a high opinion of. The furnaces include a number of fairly new CM and Harper Hydrogen sintering furnaces all of which were worth over $1 ½ million USD when purchased new in 1999, 2000 and 2001. Very specialized furnaces but for the right buyer probably a super deal. All the details can be found if you click on the link below.  This photo shows a typical Harper furnace although not one of the ones in the auction.

Richard Joseph Chalet, 73, passed away in Hobe Sound, Florida surrounded by family on December 1, 2018 after a brave battle with pancreatic cancer. He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Marianne, his daughter Christine Georgeadis, son-in-law Stavros and grandson Ethan of Palm Beach Gardens. He is also survived by many more loved ones including his sister Elaine Sheeran and husband James of Plymouth, MA, his nieces Elizabeth Murray (Christopher), Caroline McDermod (Matthew), Catherine Cairns and three great-nieces and two great-nephews, all from the Boston area. He is preceded in death by his sister Patricia Cairns (Richard) of Hanover, MA. Richard leaves behind his beloved dogs, Charlie, Joey and Sammie. Born in Boston, MA on January 30, 1945 to the late Nathan and Dora Chalet (DeRosa), Richard, to all that knew him, was a good-natured and caring husband, father, grandfather, brother and friend.

For 20 years now “The Monty” has been printing news stories about the worldwide heat treating industry. Some of these items are posted and forgotten which is a shame-our opinion is that it is always fun to look back and see how the story continued, such is the case today. Back in September of 2016 we had a very interesting news item about Japanese heat treating giant Dowa setting up a new facility in Mexico (our original story is further down). So did their plans go as predicted? Pretty much as it turns out. Production started in July 2017 and currently the plant has 2 gas soft Nitriding systems, 2 carburizing furnaces, 3 vacuum furnaces and one TD process furnace for surface treatment of molds which is all in line with predictions made back in 2016. As we all know the Mexican heat treating market is a very healthy one and the San Luis area is growing as fast or faster than any other area of the country when it comes to heat treating.

It is with regret that we mention the passing of Richard Chalet Saturday, December 1, 2018. Dick was the founder of Alcon Industries of Cleveland, Ohio, USA one of the largest suppliers of fabricated and cast high temperature furnace components in North America. Many years ago we worked with Dick at Alcon and have very found memories of him. We will provide details of his life and how he can be remembered as soon as we receive them.

Thermal Process Holdings, Inc. (“TPH”) is pleased to announce its acquisition of P & L Heat Treating (“P&L”) based in Youngstown, Ohio. P&L is a high quality provider focused in particular on tool and die work. Bill Pociask founded P&L in 1978 and serves as President. P&L represents the fourth investment (and fifth heat treating facility) in our strategy to build a leading thermal processing company focused on value-added services. Central to this strategy is identifying and bringing together leading businesses that share a focus on safety, quality, service, and advanced technology.

John Hubbard, Chairman of TPH, said: “We are delighted to partner with Bill Pociask and the P&L team. P&L is a well-run heat treating operation providing high quality service. Both Bill Pociask and P&L are excellent additions to the TPH group.”Bill Pociask, founder and President of P&L commented: “I am excited to work with the TPH group of companies. There are many opportunities for us to help each other grow and continue to serve our customers. The future is very bright for P&L.”

November marks the 75th anniversary for Alloy Engineering Company, an industry leader in the design and manufacture of alloy equipment for high-temperature and corrosive industrial applications. The company’s equipment is used for both commercial and in-house heat treating, and for processes such as annealing, hardening, carbo-nitriding, carburizing, nitriding, tempering, brazing and sintering. Alloy has grown from a humble parts fabrication company to a middle market, multi-location supplier with customers around the world.  In 1974, Alloy became the first company in Ohio to establish an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).

“This is an exciting milestone, particularly in a competitive market place,” said Lou Petonovich, Chairman and CEO of Alloy. “We are happy to celebrate with our close-knit team and valued customers.” Petonovich, who joined Alloy in as a plant manager in 1979, has seen his share of ups and downs during his 39 years with the company. From a United Auto Workers strike in the 1980’s to double digit growth in the early 1990’s, Petonovich credits the team’s passion and dedication to the customer as the primary reasons for the company’s success.  

Italian Furnace Builder IVR wants to brag about a Sealed Quench (batch IQ) Line they just installed. This is a completely automated line and the end customer is a French manufacturer of auto parts who installed the equipment in their plant in Italy. We start off in the USA with commercial heat treater Paulo Products; Paulo is excited to announce the addition of Jack Horrigan as Quality Assurance Manager at the Cleveland Division. Jack replaces Noel Brady who is moving to a Corporate Metallurgy role. Noel will still be based at the Cleveland plant, but provide metallurgical support across Paulo, specifically for nickel based super alloys and Titanium. Jack joins Paulo with over 20 years in Quality roles primarily in the Titanium and special metals world. Jack will lead the Quality team at the Cleveland facility where thousands of critical Aerospace components are processed daily. After 8 years as Quality Assurance Manager Noel Brady is transitioning to a Metallurgy role where he will, along with the rest of the Corporate Metallurgical Engineering team, support all Paulo plants. His role will include process improvement, failure analysis, internal training, and customer support.

Coming up a company by the name of Cold Heading Company will be auctioning off all of the equipment in a facility they have in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. This location closed a couple of years back and all of the equipment has sat in place, installed and collecting dust since that time. Being a fastener manufacturer the equipment is exactly what you would expect, continuous furnace lines with loading, high heat furnaces, oil quenching, washers and tempers. To be more precise each of the three lines was built by AFC back in the 1990’s, with two being mesh belts and one a cast link. Continuous furnace lines are funny things, when the fastener guys are busy they sell quickly, when times are slow you can’t give them away. We would guess that the largest line will find a home, the two smaller ones will probably go to the scrap guys.

“Over the summer, Bodycote opened a new facility on the Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) in Rotherham to support the aerospace and power generation markets in the UK and Europe. The move followed a contract win with Rolls-Royce’s Civil Aerospace business that is expected to be worth over £160m in incremental revenues over the 15-year period. Sales will ramp up over the next five years. Rolls-Royce also has a manufacturing facility on the AMP. For the four month period October 31 2018, Bodycote reported group revenue of £243.5m, 5% higher than the comparative period last year. Civil aerospace revenues grew strongly at 14% compared to the same period last year, with North America and Western Europe both registering good growth. The Macclesfield-headquartered firm said that this reflects increasing output for the LEAP program (work for Safran Aircraft Engines) and “an easing in the OEM supply chain bottlenecks for Titanium castings.”

Earlier this week we had a photo from the recent Heat Treat Seminar in Querétaro, México. As a follow up to that we have two more photos. In the first one we see from the left Esteban Aguilar Garcia of comercial Heat treater Crio, Steve Thompson of SSI looking very happy about something although we are not sure what and Carlos Torres of Mattsa Crio. In the second photo the only person we are sure of is Carlos Torres Senior of Mattsa Crio.

“November 28, 2018 – Thermal Process Holdings, Inc. (“TPH”) is pleased to announce its acquisition of Hudapack Metal Treating, Inc. (“Hudapack”), which owns and operates heat treat facilities in Elkhorn and Franklin Wisconsin.  Hudapack, co-founded by Gary Huss, Charles Davis, and Earl Pack, represents the third investment in our strategy to build a leading thermal processing company focused on value-added services.  Central to this strategy is identifying and bringing together leading businesses that share a focus on world-class safety, quality, service, and advanced technology.  John Hubbard, Chairman of TPH, said: “We are excited to announce the third acquisition in our strategy to build a best-in-class company that offers a range of advanced services. I have known and respected Gary Huss for over 30 years and am appreciative that he has entrusted us with the two businesses he has successfully built.  I am also pleased that Greg Huss has agreed to become the General Manager of both Elkhorn and Franklin and look forward to working with him as we seek to grow Hudapack.” Gary Huss, co-founder and President of Hudapack, remarked: “We began operations in 1985 and have been more successful than I ever imagined.  When making the difficult decision to sell the business and retire, an important consideration was finding a buyer who would ensure the continued success of the business and provide opportunities for the Hudapack employees.  I am confident that John Hubbard and the TPH team will carry out those objectives. I am also delighted that Greg will become GM of both locations. He has spent his career in the business and this transition provides an exciting leadership opportunity for him.”