Krohne UK Chooses to Bring Heat Treatment In-House
In Wellingborough, UK we find the home of Krohne Ltd., a world-leading manufacturer and supplier of industrial process instrumentation solutions. In May of 2020 the company announced that they had installed the largest horizontal vacuum furnace in the UK-the original press release can be found below. Prior to this the company had always outsourced their heat treating requirements to local contract heat treaters, during a recent visit by “The Monty Heat Treat News” we posed the question-why was the decision made to bring heat treatment in house? The answer came as no surprise to us in that there were several reasons why they chose to go down this path.
- Krohne has always prided themselves on their ability to design and produce their offerings completely in house, to bring heat treatment in house was an obvious extension of what the company has always done.
- Turn around time is always an issue, quite possibly the most important one to manufacturers. In this case the company now has complete control over delivery times.
- Cost was an issue also, the company feels that from an economic standpoint the decision to bring heat treatment in house has been a complete success.
- Last but certainly not least is the issue of quality, Heat treatment in house means that the company now has complete control over their products all the way through the manufacturing process.
Our visit showed us a company which having made the decision to bring heat treatment in house has now declared it to be an unqualified success. The team that made this possible can be seen in the photo below along with Gord Montgomery “The Monty Heat Treat News” and Aaron Long “Vacuum & Atmosphere Services”. Gord Montgomery (Monty Heat Treat News), Rahul Kanwar, Darren Hawes, Tom Harrison, Wayne Higham and Aaron Long (Vacuum & Atmosphere Services). In this short U-Tube video produced by Krohne you can see the furnace being loaded at the 51 second mark. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/krohne-united-kingdom_krohneuk-measurethefacts-flow-activity-6839512802814672896-aWIq
“May 28, 2020; Krohne UK Installs Largest Horizontal Vacuum Furnace in the UK; Captive heat treater and supplier of industrial process instrumentation Krohne has just installed the largest horizontal vacuum furnace in the UK. The furnace which was supplied by Ipsen, has working dimensions of 1200mm x 1200mm x 2400mm with an all moly hot zone and 6 bar quaenching. It was installed by Vacuum & Atmosphere Services who have just completed the installation with commissioning planned for next week.
Mike Long of VAS has these comments; We are proud to announce the delivery, install & build up of the UK’s largest horizontal vacuum furnace! VAS furnace engineers have completed the build up within 6 days & now ready for commissioning. We would like to thank all of our engineers for their hard work completing the build up & install during these challenging times. For all furnace requirements, both vacuum & atmosphere, please feel free to enquire by email at [email protected] or via telephone on +44 (0) 121 544 4385. Alternatively check out our website for all services & products provided including refurbished vacuum furnace, furnace spares & furnace servicing. https://www.vacat.co.uk/
Darren Hawes, Production Engineering Manager at Krohne has this to say; Excellent work from VAS to get the furnace installed during the Pandemic after being asked to take over full control due to travel restrictions by Ipsen. Getting the largest lorry into the factory was something to behold. Looking forward to seeing VAS fully commission the furnace and to continue working with them for years to come. Mike has ensured a very smooth process between Krohne and Ipsen from the offset.”
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