Founded in the 1970’s commercial heat treater “Vacuum S.P.A.” in Verdello, Italy has survived recessions, foreign wars and the ups and downs that effect all businesses and at the end of the day has continued to grow and prosper.

In 2023 the company was acquired by Germany based “Haertha Hardening Industries” and under their ownership the company has continued to grow.

Yesterday Gord Montgomery of “The Monty Heat Treat News” had the chance to visit the company and this is what we learned;

This location is one of four that “Haertha” has in Italy and total sales for the four locations is roughly 18 million Euros making them one of the largest commercial heat treaters in the country (more about the relative size of Italian commercial heat treaters later). Editors Note; As a side note to this story “Haertha” with 13 locations around Europe, 500 employees and annual sales of roughly 70 million Euros is probably the third largest commercial heat treater in Europe.

Our host for this visit “Mr. Fabiano Peli”, Managing Director and 40 year veteran of commercial heat treating in Italy was an incredible host who showed us his 6 TAV vacuum furnaces (4 hardening and 2 tempering) and 5 plasma nitriding furnaces, one of which was added just a few short months ago-most of the furnaces and Plasma Nitriding furnaces can be seen in these pictures.

The firm has 35 employees, NADCAP certification and almost equally services the aerospace, defense, automotive and “general industry” fields. It brings joy to our hearts that this location works 3 shifts a day, 6 days a week with the 7^th day reserved for “overflow” as required. Few commercial heat treaters around the world can boast of this these days, hence our headline.

We should also mention “Giuseppe Bonvegna”, Production Manager who is quite obviously very proud of the company.

Also included in these photos you can see “Mr. Jan Massholder” and “Mr. Marco Baretti” of “TAV” who organized this tour.

This location is a fine example of commercial heat treating and we will follow this up tomorrow with a very good example of a gear manufacturer who spared no expense when it came to bringing their heat treating needs in house.