Nitrex Hires New Rep, Kittyhawk installs another HIP Unit and More Heat Treat News

We are going to start our Monday Morning Briefing with several “people” items from around the globe. First up we see that Overton Chicago Gear in Addison, Illinois, USA is looking for a Heat Treat Manager to run their captive/commercial heat treat department. Overton has a very interesting heat treat department, one that is clearly dedicated to large gears. As an example they have 3 pit carburizing furnaces capable of handling parts up to 90″ in diameter as well as one of the largest press quench systems in the USA, a system which will handle parts up to 84″ in diameter. The only one larger in the US that we can think of is located at Timken Bearings in Canton, Ohio. These two photos show part of their heat treat department.

From India we regret to mention the recent passing of Shri O.P.Sekhri of commercial heat treat Lopan Metal Treatment Pvt Ltd. Shri was involved in the heat treat industry since 1972 and his death was due to COVID-19 complications. Lopan runs a total of 18 sealed quench furnaces at 3 locations in Northern India. From Nitrex we have this announcement about a new rep; “NITREX is pleased to welcome our newest manufacturer representative, Mr. Ali Akgunes, for Romania and Turkey. Akgunes will handle the complete portfolio of G-M Enterprises (G-M) vacuum furnaces and UPC-Marathon (UPC, formerly United Process Controls) process and flow controls and automation solutions in Turkey. In Romania, he will also represent Nitrex for the sale of nitriding and nitrocarburizing systems in addition to G-M and UPC products. Ali Akgunes brings over 20 years of experience in the metal manufacturing industry working closely with aerospace, defense, and machine tool companies. A solutions provider to hundreds of fabricated metal part manufacturers, Akgunes has earned a strong reputation among his customers for helping them maximize heat-treating operations with comprehensive manufacturing solutions and after-sales support services. Having worked extensively with both manufacturing and maintenance teams has also given him a realistic understanding of the needs and services of the industry.”

Hector Ibarra who was Vice President of Operations at the ALD Thermal Treatment facility in Port Huron, Michigan recently parted ways with the company. This location is probably the largest commercial vacuum carburizing facility in North America. Commercial heat treater, HI TecMetal Group Inc., based in Cleveland, Ohio, USA recently added an experienced fellow to their sales team;  HI TecMetal Group is pleased to announce that Ron Lozon has joined our sales team and will be serving your area. Ron brings 41 years of experience in the thermal processing field to you.” From the UK we have this item from Vacuum & Atmosphere Services (VAS); “We are delighted to announce the return of Lee Hollis, adding to our already vastly experienced furnace engineering team. Lee, joined VAS in 2001 & completed his apprenticeship in 2005. VAS are extremely proud to that Lee went on to work on both atmosphere & vacuum furnaces until 2018.Now returning after 16 months elsewhere, Lee contributes a wealth of knowledge & experience to the unrivalled furnace engineering team at VAS”.

Hot Isostatic Pressing has been in the news quite a bit this year and here is one more item about it, this from a company by the name of Kittyhawk Inc., out on the US West Coast; “Kittyhawk Inc Completes Installation of HIP Unit No. 2 at their new Oregon facility. In response to growing customer demand in the Pacific Northwest, they have installed another HIP Unit at the Canby, Oregon facility, this one with a working zone of 46” X 100”.  Kittyhawk is a small family run business that has served the HIP needs of it’s customers since 1981. We are confident in our foundation and excited about the growth.”

Precision Castparts Corp. (PCC) is an American industrial goods and metal fabrication company that manufactures investment castings, forged components, and airfoil castings for use in aerospace, industrial gas turbine, and defense industries. Since the beginning of this year the company has laid off 10,000 employees-30% of its workforce. We mention them today because this represents an enormous blow to a number of commercial and captive heat treaters mainly located on the US west coast. And to round things out we go to the UK for this item. Kepston Ltd., is a family run heat treatment company established in 1916 and based in the UK. Historically their business has been Continuous Bright Annealing and Brazing of Mild Steel, Stainless Steel and non-ferrous. Going back to 2015 the company decided to expand into new markets such as aerospace, defence and energy which resulted in them buying a TAV Furnace with a hot zone 1.2m x 1.2m x 1.2m. Just recently they achieved NADCAP accreditation for heat treating. Congratulations is all we can say.