Monday Morning Briefing
We are going to start this weeks “Monday Morning Briefing” with people news starting with John Carroll. For almost 6 years John was Plant Manager at commercial heat treater Metals Technology Corp., in Carol Stream Illinois before he recently parted ways with the company. It appears that he has left the heat treating industry and is now General Manager at a company by the name of Arnold Magnetic Technologies in Marengo, Illinois. We move on to Joe Saliba. Joe spent roughly 14 years at furnace builder Can Eng in Niagara Falls, Canada before moving to a furnace builder by the name of ONEX in Erie, PA, USA. We didn’t realize until recently that Joe made another move and earlier this year became Business Development Manager for Mexican furnace builder Nutec Bickley a company which we have a very high opinion of. While he is working for Nutec he is working out of Canada.
How about Sue Harrod? Sue worked for furnace builder Beavermatic for over 20 years until ending up as COO of furnace builder Diablo Furnaces in the Chicago area (we will add that in 2015 Beavermatic was acquired by Premier Furnace in Michigan who continue to market furnaces under the Beavermatic name, as a matter of fact the company is just preparing to supervise an installation in the US Northeast but we digress). Sue recently parted ways with Diablo and is now Senior Buyer at a company by the name of “A Great Place” again the Chicago area. We move on to Tim Wilson who is entering the heat treating industry with a company by the name of Duraloy Technologies, in PA a company which provides alloy components to the industry. “Duraloy Technologies is pleased to announce Tim Wilson has joined our organization. Tim will be responsible for business development and technical support. His background in working with Petrochemical and Steel customers in coatings for their various processes and furnaces is well suited to enable Duraloy to continue to excel in service to these two primary industries.”
From people news we move to a press release about Quaker Chemical and Houghton International (fluids for the meatal working industry) combining. We searched for a photo to go with this and came up with a picture of Scott MacKenzie of Houghton who we always think of as the “face of Houghton”.
“Quaker Chemical Corporation and Houghton International have combined to create Quaker Houghton (NYSE: KWR), the global leader in industrial process fluids to the primary metals and metalworking markets. Along with the new name, the company revealed a new logo and brand representing the combined companies. The company will continue to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange and trade under the “KWR” ticker symbol. The combined $1.6 billion revenue company employs 4,000 associates serving 15,000 customers worldwide.
Quaker was founded in 1918 and Houghton in 1865. “We are rooted in companies commonly acknowledged as authorities in industrial fluids and valued experts in customer processes,” said Michael F.
Barry, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President of the new company.
Mr. Barry, who previously served Quaker Chemical in similar capacities, went on to say, “Our similar cultures and values, combined with the talent and resources we bring to Quaker Houghton, create exciting opportunities to deliver innovative solutions that will help our customers’ operations run even more efficiently and effectively.” The company’s combined breadth of product and service offerings can be found in end-markets such as aerospace, aluminum, automotive, machinery, can manufacturing, industrial parts manufacturing, mining, offshore, steel, and tube and pipe industries. With its expanded products and services portfolio, the company expects that cross-selling opportunities will facilitate continued above-market growth.
Specific products the company offers include metal cutting and forming fluids, corrosion protection fluids, specialty hydraulic fluids, and steel and aluminum rolling oils. In addition, legacy-Houghton customers will benefit from Quaker’s strength in specialty greases, high-pressure die casting, mining specialties, surface treatment and bio-based lubricants, while legacy-Quaker customers will now have access to Houghton’s heat treatment quenchants, offshore hydraulic fluids, metal finishing products, and a broader metal removal fluids portfolio. “Our foundation will be the same customer-intimate operating model that has been key to the success of our customers,” Mr. Barry said. “Moving forward together, we will draw upon our rich history and shared expertise to enhance our product and service offerings and continue to deliver value-added service expertise to our customers.”
Furnace builder SECO/WARWICK recently landed an order in the US for a Nitrocarburizing line although we aren’t sure who the end customer is;“SECO/VACUUM, a SECO/WARWICK Group company, inks an order for a high-volume nitrocarburizing line serving a major car maker via a tier one supplier. The horizontal retort furnace is well known for its precision nitriding capability and productivity. The furnaces will allow the customer to produce, in North America, a significant number of parts used by automotive suppliers, and will be integral to a larger investment in the firm’s component manufacturing operations. In addition to ferritic nitrocarburizing, the furnaces can also provide clean, stress relief processing. Lower operating costs, attractive return-on-investment (ROI), precise control of case depth, and high-volume processing are trademarks of SECO/WARWICK Group furnaces and automated handling systems. “Ferritic nitrocarburizing (FNC) is a form of gas nitriding and SECO/VACUUM offers many standard sizes and options suitable for both small commercial heat treaters as well as large automotive suppliers,” said Piotr Zawistowski, Managing Director of SECO/VACUUM Technologies. FNC is gaining much popularity due to the resulting wear and anti-corrosion properties offered, including coupling with post-process high-temperature oxidation.” Advanced Heat Treat Corporation out in Iowa has been making some large investments recently which we have been announcing. We have this photo of the addition to the Burton street facility in Waterloo, Iowa.
In Quebec, Canada we see an auction coming up which will most likely include some heat treating equipment. Located in Richmond, Quebec the company was formerly known as Groupe Trudo but now goes under the name Ontario Drive & Gear Ltd., or ODG Groupe Trudo. The heat treating equipment will probably include a small electric batch IQ furnace which came out of a Timken Bearing facility in New Hampshire-nothing fancy but probably a buyer will surface. And to round things out we have this photo of our friend Cihan Balaban in Turkey. If you want to know anything about the heat treating industry in Turkey, Cihan is the man to talk to; “Cihan Balaban, founding partner and general manager of Fornax, was the guest of the industrial agenda program Endustri Radyo this week.”
