“The Monty” Looks at the Mexican Heat Treat Market

This week "Gord Montgomery" of "The Monty Heat Treat News"will be having a close look at the state of heat treating in the Mexican market. While Mexico does boast a fledgling aerospace industry centered around Queretaro the true success story for Mexican in-house heat treaters lies in the auto parts industry and that is where are attention will be focused. Over the course of the week we will be attending "Heat Treat Mexico" being held April 14-16 in Monterrey as well as visiting a number of large in house heat treaters.-reports with photos will be provided over the course of the week.

We will leave you with this report from our last visit "

Manufacturer Brings Additional Heat Treatment in House; Danfoss Power Solutions-Queretaro, Mexico (formerly Eaton Corp) is a supplier of hydraulic solutions to the heavy equipment industry. This facility with over 500 employees entered production 8 years ago and part of their manufacturing process includes a very impressive heat treat department consisting of 9 batch IQ furnaces doing carburizing utilizing an endothermic atmosphere. The facility has one particular product line which requires a FNC process-this has always been sent out to a local commercial heat treater.

Danfoss Power Solutions-Queretaro, Mexico (formerly Eaton Corp) is a supplier of hydraulic solutions to the heavy equipment industry. This facility with over 500 employees entered production 8 years ago and part of their manufacturing process includes a very impressive heat treat department consisting of 9 batch IQ furnaces doing carburizing utilizing an endothermic atmosphere. The facility has one particular product line which requires a FNC process-this has always been sent out to a local commercial heat treater.

Gord Montgomery (The Monty Heat Treat News), César Luna González (Heat Treat Manager, Danfoss), Damian Bratcher (Director International Operations, SSi)

For a variety of reasons Danfoss in 2023 decided to bring this process in house, the reasons include faster turn around times, less inventory requirements and greater control over quality. The end result of this decision was that in 2023 the company invested in a used Ipsen vacuum nitriding system with working dimensions of 36” X 48” X 36” with a 2,000 pound capacity. Danfoss approached SSi Mexico about updating the controls, this update was just completed and testing has revealed that the metallurgical results are everything that Danfoss had hoped for.

Last week Gord and Jordan of “The Monty Heat Treat News” had the opportunity to tour this facility and what we found was an immaculate facility and the term immaculate includes the heat treat department. All heat treaters know that it is not an easy proposition keeping a facility utilizing quench oil clean but the heat treat team at Danfoss has managed this difficult task.

While the entire team at Danfoss deserves credit we should point out that the Heat Treat Production Manager, Mr. Cesar Luna Gonzales has obviously done a great job of motivating everybody in the department. Also deserving of a great deal of credit is Ms. Landy Alpizar, Metallurgical Engineer who has been involved with this project from day 1.