Regular readers of “The Monty Heat Treat News” will know that we have always enjoyed printing rumors as long as they are “good news” rumors-such is the case today. Furnace builder Ipsen is based in Kleve, Germany and maintains a large facility in Rockford, Illinois, USA which concentrates on providing new vacuum furnaces as opposed to the Kleve plant which specializes in atmosphere furnaces. Rumor has it that the Rockford facility is having a record breaking year and that sales of new vacuum furnaces for January through May of 2021 totaled more than $40 million USD. If this is true and we have no reason to doubt that it isn’t, this is tremendous news not only for Ipsen but the heat treatment industry in general. Due to COVID the past year and a quarter has not been a good time for many in our industry, however if one of the largest furnace builders in the world is seeing this sort of demand it signals that perhaps we have turned a corner and that the good times are here or at least getting real close.

To close out this story we are including these 2 photos. The first was taken a couple of years ago by “The Monty” team and shows a vacuum furnace under construction in Rockford. The second was taken in 2019 and shows a pusher furnace line under construction at the Kleve facility.

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