Monday Morning Briefing
To start off the week we are pretty excited to have an interview with Mr. Jeff McLaughlin, founder, owner and CEO of Mclaughlin Furnace Group based in Avilla, Indiana, USA. When we searched around for a cool picture to go with this story we came across this recent photo showing Jeff doing a furnace installation in Viet Nam. As you can see in spite of the fact that Jeff is the owner and founder of the company he is a very “hands on” guy.
Commercial heat treater FPM Heat Treating based in Elk Grove, Illinois, USA has announced that they will be closing their facility at 11200 W. Heather Avenue in Milwaukee by mid May of 2020. While this plant will be closed the equipment is being moved to other FPM locations and all of the employees are being offered jobs at the Cherry Valley or Elk Grove locations. FPM is one of the largest commercial heat treaters in North America as rated by “The Monty” http://themonty.com/largest-commercial-heat-treats/ In Clackamas, Oregon, USA (near Portland) commercial heat treater Met-Tek is celebrating a milestone few companies reach-their 50th year in business. In this picture we see on the left Jason Shriner and on the right Jerry Shriner, owner and President. More on the company later this week.
Last week we had a news item and several photos about a brand new aluminum processing line at Heat Treat 2000 in the UK-here is the abbreviated press release; “We are about to announce the opening of a new £3 million heat treatment facility for aluminium processing. It is sited adjacent to our existing facility and complements our current aluminium capability and the 300 tons per week of fasteners and presswork we currently heat treat. The investment consists of a suite of automatic computer controlled rapid quench furnaces capable of taking up to a 3 ton charge which can be quenched in temperature controlled cold water, hot water or polymer. The latter is followed by and agitated rinse and hot power wash to ensure product cleanliness. This is supported by new precipitation ovens with automatic door opening. Furnaces are a combination of gas and electrically heated opening up new opportunities as well as meeting increased demand for our services. Our investment doubles capacity giving us one of the largest processing capabilities in the UK. Bar code tracking and scanning have also been introduced providing live data which can be accessed remotely.” To go with this story we also have these photos of the line as it was being installed.
You really can’t consider this a heat treat news item but there is a connection in that both Borg Warner and Delphi maintain large captive heat treat departments, in particular Borg Warner. The Borg facility in Ithaca, New York, USA is by any standard very substantial and quite up to date in terms of heat treating technology. Built in the 1970’s it would best be described as a campus in that it sprawls over hundreds of acres. If we ever put together a list of the most impressive and most picturesque heat treats in the world the Borg Warner location in Ithaca will be on that list. “Shares of Delphi Technologies PLC soared 61% Tuesday, after BorgWarner Inc. said it’s acquiring the company in all-stock deal with an enterprise value of about $3.3 billion. BorgWarner BWA, -0.40%, which makes parts for combustion, hybrid and electric vehicles, said Delphi shareholders will receive 0.4534 shares of its stock for each Delphi DLPH, +0.00% share owned, equal to $17.39 a share in cash. That represents a 77% premium over Delphi stock’s closing price Monday. Upon closing, BorgWarner shareholders will own about 84% of the combined company, with Delphi shareholders owning the remaining 16%.”
It’s only 4 weeks until ASM Heat Treat Mexico takes place in Queretaro, Mexico, the exact dates are March 3-5th. We have attended this event in the past and found it to be quite worthwhile, so much so that we at “The Monty” will be attending again this year and taking the opportunity it visit a number of captive and commercial heat treaters in the area. An example from our last trip includes this picture taken in the heat treating department of auto parts maker Sisamex. More details about this show can be found by clicking on the Heat Treat Mexico banner ad on this page.
We regret to mention the passing of Jack Palmer in the Portland, Oregon, USA area. Jack spent most of his working life involved in the commercial heat treating industry in the Portland, Oregon, area with companies such as Spencer Heat Treat. Jack passed away January 11th and a memorial service was held for him this past Saturday. His legacy lives on in the form of his son Todd who is involved in the heat treating department of Blount Inc., in Portland a manufacturer of chain saw components and captive heat treater. Commercial heat treater Metex Heat Treating in Mississauga, Canada continues to grow, this time they will be adding another large batch IQ furnace. Last week we had a picture of a really cool bottom loading vacuum furnace installation in Portland, Oregon which prompted us to ask the question; what % of new vacuum furnaces manufactured are bottom loading (vertical) as opposed to horizontal loading? Our guess by the way was 5-10%. We had a “vacuum guy” with over 40 years experience suggest it was probably around 8% which sounds about right.
Heat treating around the world. To round things out for Monday February 3/2020 we have this picture from Lima, Peru which we took in April 2018. What you are looking at is an Ion (Plasma) nitriding system located at a company by the name of Tratar in Lima. It was built by a company by the name of Ion Heat which is making a name for itself around the world as an up and coming furnace builder.
