Top 50 Heat Treater Makes Multi Million Dollar Investments in New Equipment
Family owned and operated commercial heat treater “ThermTech” in Waukesha, Wisconsin, USA has consistnently made “The Monty Heat Treat News” list as one of the largest commercial heat treaters in North America https://themonty.com/project/the-monty-heat-treat-news-50-largest-north-american-commercial-heat-treats-2022/
According to this press release the company has recently embarked on a stunning investment in new, state of the art heat treatment equipment. We have no doubt but that the founder of the company Mr. Charles, “Chuck” Wiberg (who passed away in 2020) would be very proud of how his family has continued to grow the business-Chuck is third from the right in this picture.
ThermTech: Expands capabilities with multiple investments in advanced heat treating equipment
Waukesha, WI, August 29, 2022… Exploring the latest processes and capabilities in the heat treating industry, ThermTech is constantly moving forward to meet customer challenges.. The company is proud to announce their newest additions that allow them to better serve a large, diversified customer base in the medical, aerospace, mining and oil, nuclear, and agricultural industries. Jason Kupkovits, Vice President – Sales & Strategic Direction, ThermTech, says, “We are confident that our new investments will further set us apart from the competition just as our quality assurance, turnaround time, on-site engineering and customer service standards have for the past 40 years.”
ThermTech’s Latest Investments in Heat Treating Equipment
Partnering with Gasbarre Thermal Processing Systems, ThermTech has significantly increased their normalizing, annealing, stress relieving, tempering, and neutral hardening capacity through the acquisition of three new furnaces. These furnaces are now fully operational and represent over $1M in investments.
- The first, is a dual zone, direct-fired box austenitizing furnace, with dual load zones of 60″Wx60″Lx60″H and an AMS2750 Class 5 certified operating range of 1400°F to 2200°F. This furnace has a load capacity of 15,000 lbs and, when combined with their flexible large batch quenching capabilities, has greatly increased ThermTech’s service for customers.
- As a compliment to this furnace, the company has also acquired a large batch tempering furnace that has an AMS2750 Class 2 compliant certified working zone of 140″L x 60″D x 60″H with a certified operating range of 300°F-1350°F.
- Finally, ThermTech has increased the throughput of their large batch integral quench furnace line with an additional tempering furnace. This furnace is 54″W x 72″L x 72″H and is also AMS2750 Class 2 compliant from 300°F-1350°F.
Executive Vice President of Sales, Ben Gasbarre commented that “Gasbarre is proud to partner with a reputable, growing company such as ThermTech for their large capacity furnace needs.”
Additional Investments in Vacuum Department, New Aluminum Line, & ‘Green Technology’
ThermTech has also added two additional Vacuum furnaces from Ipsen, USA. The furnaces have dimensions of 36” wide x 36” Tall x 48” long with capabilities of quenching up to 6 bars of pressure utilizing nitrogen or argon gas as the quench medium. These large vacuum furnaces are AMS class 3 (+/-15F) certified capable of AMS2750, along with exceeding conformance to many industry standards including NADCA 207 and AMS2769. Other common thermal operations that ThermTech’s vacuum department specializes in include annealing, hardening, stress relieving, tempering, aging, and homogenizing.
Beginning in January 2022, ThermTech boasts a fully operational aluminum line. With capabilities of up to 3000 lbs in a single quench, the solution anneal furnace purchased from Williams Industrial Service features a 60″x 60″ x 48″ working area. This line is capable of a sub-15 second transfer to air blast quench, a water quench range of 55F up to boiling, a sub-7 second transfer to water quench which exceeds AMS 2770/AMS2771 specifications, as well as load thermocouple monitoring during the solution treatment, quenching, and aging. ThermTech can provide the following processes including solution treatments, aging, stress relieving, annealing, water quenching and air quenching.
Brandon Medinger, Director of Operations – Aluminum & Austempering, ThermTech, stated that “Working with Williams Industrial Service has been seamless; from providing prompt customer service, to on-site visits, and importantly their attention to detail.” Brandon Medinger, also noted that Williams is “a technically capable organization that can handle a project like ours that had very difficult requirements.”
Another recent purchase includes a new austempering/marquenching furnace from Michigan based AFC-Holcroft. This state-of-the-art furnace can handle a single part racked in the vertical orientation up to 56″ long. The working dimension of the furnace is 36″ W x 72″ L x 56″ H, can process a gross load weight of 7,000 lbs and is capable of operating with salt temperatures ranging from 350F – 750F.
Dan Hill, Sales Engineer at AFC-Holcroft notes that “The UBQA system is an environmentally friendly ‘green technology’ which can be used to impart resistance to distorting, cracking or warping of heat-treated components”. Applicable processes include marquenching, austempering, and carburizing with additional washing and tempering capacity accompanying the new marquenching/austempering furnace. Although installation is expected in early 2023, AFC Holcroft has already made multiple site visits to ThermTech providing excellent customer service and offering out-of-the-box suggestions to best suit ThermTech’s needs.
ThermTech leads the region in heat treating sales and metallurgical innovation. The company’s long-term strategy is to increase growth in the Midwest and on a national scale. This includes adding more workers and integrating the use of a robotics handling systems, which is expected to be installed in late 2022.
ThermTech currently employs around 137 people, many of whom have been there for 10+ years. They strive to promote a positive work/home life for their employees which includes providing tuition assistance for those furthering their education. With pay averaging around $20.00/hour, their employees also receive full benefits including: an onsite medical clinic, chiropractor, massage therapist and health coach, who can all be seen during the workday.