In Europe Plasma (ION) Nitriding is a well known, relatively common form of heat treating, however for a variety of reasons it has never enjoyed the same popularity in North America-for this reason “The Monty” looked forward to seeing a commercial plasma nitriding facility in North America.

 

“Eltro Services” is a division of Germany based “Eltropuls”, both an equipment supplier and commercial heat treater (to find out more about the company we would also suggest this Interview with Ms. Kirsten Baston, CEO of the firm). Located in Oxford, Michigan, USA this plant has been offering plasma nitriding services for almost 30 years from a variety of “Eltopuls” designed and built furnace systems. 

 

The GM of this location, Mr. Robert Gardner gave us a thorough tour which included the furnaces and testing lab-during the tour he pointed out that they can offer a number of gas compositions which includes methane, argon, hydrogen and nitrogen.

 

Quite obviously this is a small facility, however over the years it has serviced a number of different customers in industries such as automotive and medical and has proven to be a long term player in the North American commercial plasma nitriding industry.