Monday Morning Briefing
We are going to start off in Europe for our Monday Morning Briefing-Eindhoven, Netherlands to be exact. The photo you see below was taken at commercial heat treater Hauck in Eindhoven and entered production just a couple of months ago. It has an all metal hot zone and working dimensions of 1.2 X 1.2 X 2 meters (roughly 4′ X 4′ X 6″). According to Hauck it is the largest all metal vacuum furnace is any of their plants and is the largest in the Benelux countries. Hauck is the second largest commercial heat treater in Europe with 27 locations https://themonty.com/largest-european-commercial-heat-treaters-february-2019/
Volvo Drivetrain, Hagerstown, Maryland, USA installs pusher furnace. Back in 2019 we had this press release about McLaughlin Furnace Group receiving an order from a truck component manufacturer. We can now say that the end customer is Volvo Drivetrain in Maryland; “McLaughlin Furnace Group based in Fort Wayne, Indiana is pleased to announce that they have received an order from a major truck component manufacturer for a two row, gas fired pusher furnace. The president and owner of the company Mr. Jeff McLaughlin had this to say about the order “We are very pleased that such a substantial manufacturer should have so much confidence in our ability to provide a state of the art system on time and on budget. This is a real milestone for our company and reinforces the fact that McLaughlin Furnace Group has grown to be one of the largest and most diversified in the North American furnace manufacturing industry.”
ECM Technologies Promotes Vincent Esteve to ECM USA Business Development Manager; “Vincent Esteve’s primary functions will include overseeing business sales and marketing development in North, Central and South America with a focus on further expanding the ECM brand into innovative markets, such as: 3D additive manufacturing, vacuum induction melting, vapor phase aluminizing, brazing and other vacuum furnace applications now offered from ECM Technologies. This also includes rapid thermal process and annealing furnaces and R&D laboratory equipment. He will develop and execute comprehensive strategic sales and marketing plans for established business markets, including but not limited to: automotive, aerospace, nuclear, and energy. The new ECM Technologies’ Robotics division will also be a key product offering introduced to all territories. Mr. Esteve joined ECM Technologies in January 2013 as an Area Sales Manager in charge of India, Southern Europe and Latin America. In April 2016, he transferred to ECM USA, Inc. in Kenosha, Wisconsin with a focus to expand ECM into the North and Latin America heat treat markets. ECM Technologies is an innovative low pressure vacuum furnace manufacturer with headquarters in Grenoble, France. With subsidiaries and ventures around the world, ECM’s global presence is well known in the automotive, aerospace, nuclear, energy, electronic, induction and 3D additive industries. With such a versatile product line, ECM’s products are ideal for heat treatment processes ranging from rapid thermal processing (RTP) with the JIPELEC™ JetFirst furnace to low pressure vacuum carburizing (LPC) with the ICBP® 1299 DUO (dual chamber vacuum furnace). For more information, visit us online at www.ecm-usa.com or www.ecm-furnaces.com.”
Last week it was announced that “Nitrex” had acquired vacuum furnace manufacturer G-M Enterprises in a very interesting and bold move (this was a January 10th news item for us). What was not included in that press release were any details about the parent company of Nitrex, “Novacap” which makes for interesting reading. Here is a condensed version about Novacap; “Montreal Jan. 9, 2020. Nitrex, which is backed by Novacap has acquired Corona, California based G-M Enterprises, a provider of vacuum furnaces. No financial terms were disclosed. Nitrex is a provider of fully integrated heat treating solutions and technologies. ABOUT NOVACAP; Founded in 1981, Novacap is a leading Canadian private equity firm with $3.6 Billion of assets under management. Its distinct investment approach, based on deep operational expertise and an active partnership with entrepreneurs, has helped accelerate growth and create long term value for its numerous portfolio companies. Over the last 38 years, Novacap has invested in more than 90 companies and completed more than 130 add on acquisitions.”
We mentioned John Carroll a few months back after he left commercial heat treater Metals Technology in Carol Stream, IL, USA. John just resurfaced at Arnold Magnetic Technologies in Illinois where he has the title of General Manager. In his new position John will continue to be involved in heat treatment. Where are they now-Dave Stanton. Dave started his heat treating career as a metallurgist at Iwis Drive Systems, followed by a stint at Rexnord, some time as heat treat rep and most recently he was with IBC Coatings in Lebanon, Indiana. It would appear that he just let the industry to take a position as Production Manager at Silicis Technologies also in Indiana.
Mike Kasprzyk of Inex is retiring. Mike worked for General Motors in the US for many years before starting a company in Upstate New York by the name of Inex who manufacturer radiant tubes of composite of silicon & silicon carbide material for the heat treatment industry. Mike has had an incredible 59 year working career but is now leaving the company in the competent hands of long time employee Mike Rumfola. Silicon carbide radiant tubes have been around for quite some time and suppliers claim they have some real benefits over typical alloy tubes-which we would agree with. However having said that they have never taken over the market and continue to own quite a small portion of the radiant tube market.
In the “interesting rumor” department we have one from the Canadian heat treat market. If you recall commercial heat treater Bluewater Thermal closed down their location in Kitchener, Ontario just a few months ago and all of the equipment was auctioned off (all the details are in our archives). Rumor has it that the two mesh belt lines and two of the batch IQ furnaces were bought by an individual who is planning on keeping them in place and continuing to operate this facility as a commercial heat treat operation. We are inclined to think this rumor is probably true and we will keep you posted. Since we are talking about the Canadian heat treat market we should mention Rajiv Mehta who has spent many years in the industry. Rajiv worked at captive heat treater Standard Aero in Saskatoon, Canada (Standard is now part of Timken Bearings) before moving to Bodycote in Newmarket, Ontario which was followed by a move to Bodycote in Burlington, Ontario. Rajiv just parted ways with the company and we have been lead to believe that he is back at Standard Machine which perhaps completes the circle.
To round things out for today we are reaching into our archives to show you this interesting photo. What you see is the pit carburizing heat treat department of one of the largest commercial heat treaters in Germany, Hanomag in Hannover, Germany. This department represents only a tiny portion of the location as a whole. This photo was taken back in 2013.
