Questions? We get Questions. For instance, on a regular basis the team at “The Monty Heat Treat News” gets asked what is the size of the captive and commercial heat treat market in North America and Europe? Who is the largest in-house heat treaters in North America? Who are the largest commercial heat treaters in North America or the world? And what is the largest single location commercial heat treater in the world?

We have answered most of these questions over the years but one that recently came up again was “what is the largest single location commercial heat treater in the world”? Well, we published the answer late in 2023 but it is worth mentioning again-read on. 

SHU (Schwaebische Haertechnik Ulm GmbH & Co KG) is located in the southern German city of Ulm. For background information we will refer to SHU’s website for this summary; “As Germany’s largest contract hardening plant, SHU offers an extensive portfolio that includes all relevant technologies at a location with around 600 employees. We have the experience to use state of the art machine technology to create ideal solutions that will prove themselves in practice. We are pleased with the extremely diverse composition of our customer base, which allows us to efficiently use cross-divisional experience and synergies. Whether for the automotive sector, construction machinery, rolling and ball bearings, mechanical engineering, fasteners or any other industry: We develop the best solution for every sector.” SHU Swabian Hardening Technology Ulm | Website (shu-ulm.de)

SHU was founded in 1979 as a one man heat treat by a very remarkable individual by the name of Hugo Burgmaier who to this day remains the President of the company-Mr.  Burgmaier continues to be involved in the company on a daily basis (on a personal note Gord and Jordan Montgomery of “The Monty Heat Treat News” very much appreciated the time he spent with us during our visit). Since the founding in 1979 the company has continued to grow in the original location and now has 4 buildings with a total covered area of 65,000 square meters (roughly 700,000 square feet) and over 600 employees. The processes the company offers are many and varied and represent most heat treatment technologies that are commercially available; carburizing, nitriding, vacuum hardening, austempering, vacuum carburizing, induction hardening-we doubt there is a technology the company does not offer.

In total SHU has over 100 furnaces, operates 7 days a week, 365 days of the year, processes on average 400 tons of work per DAY and runs 35 company owned tractor trailers to various locations around Europe-generally within a 600 KM radius. While the company is involved in many different industries it’s main focus has traditionally been and remains the automotive and truck industries.

Since 1969 and through 3 generations of Montgomery’s “The Monty Heat Treat News” has researched and explored the captive and commercial heat treatment industry around the world. During that time we have had the opportunity to see commercial heat treaters on 6 continents and it is our belief that SHU is the largest single location commercial heat treater in the world. Certainly there is nothing in North America, South America, Africa, Australia or Europe that is larger. Our experience in Asia (and in particular China) tells us that while there are some very substantial commercial heat treaters there, none that we have seen or heard about surpass the size of SHU.

So if anybody in the heat treat industry ever asks you who is the largest single location commercial heat treater in the world is you can confidently raise your hand and say SHU in Ulm, Germany.

Our thanks go out to the entire team at SHU for their incredible hospitality recently-sincerely “The Monty Heat Treat News”.

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