Ever wonder how transmission components in the world of NASCAR and Formula1 racing are heat treated? We learned the answer just a few months ago during a visit by “The Monty Heat Treat News” to Xtrac, a supplier of absolute top end automotive transmission components.

​“SEPTEMBER 13, 2021; Xtrac is the World’s leading supplier of high performance transmissions for top level professional Motorsport and High Performance Automotive applications. Headquartered in the UK in Thatcham, Berkshire and with additional operations in the USA in Mooresville, North Carolina and Indianapolis, Indiana, Xtrac designs, manufactures and assembles all of their transmissions in-house using the very latest design and analysis tools, and state of the art machining, assembly and test equipment. Xtrac – Transmission Technology Specialists”

The firm is so successful at what it does that not only has it been a leading supplier on the F1 circuit, it recently announced that it is the sole gearbox and driveline supplier for NASCAR’s 2022 next gen cup car-a very impressive feat. With this background we looked forward to visiting the company and seeing their heat treat department, the visit took place just over a week ago and provided a glimpse into the future and that future is vacuum carburizing.

The medium sized heat treat department consists of the industry standard for heat treating gears, batch IQ furnaces and the future in the form of Ipsen vacuum carburizing systems. While the low pressure carburizing systems are not brand new it was apparent to us that any future additions would most likely go with this technology. Combined with this technology was a very elaborate state of the art cleaning system. All in all quite an impressive facility. We have two photos to share with you today, in the first we see from the left Aaron Long, VAS, John Bass-Archerm, Xtrac and Gord Montgomery. In the second we see from the left Greg Walker, VAS, John Bass-Archerm and Gord Montgomery

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