A U.S.-based automotive manufacturer is expanding its production capacity for brazing stainless heat exchangers with the order of a single-chamber vacuum furnace. The equipment will be integrated into an existing line’s thermal process operations, which is located at their Mexico facility.
Peter Zawistowski Managing Director SECO/VACUUM TECHNOLOGIES, USA Source: SECO/WARWICK
The heat treater ordered the furnace from SECO/VACUUM specifically for immediate delivery, allowing brazing of automotive components to begin without delay.
“We built this furnace to be ready to be shipped and put into operation very quickly, which is just the solution they were looking for,” said Piotr Zawistowski, managing director of SECO/VACUUM.
The press release is available in its original form here.
A global manufacturer of aircraft parts has ordered a single-chamber vacuum furnace for brazing jet engine parts. The new equipment will replace a 30-year-old unit previously operating in its Poland-based plant.
Jędrzej Malinowski Sales Manager SECO/WARWICK Group Source: LinkedIn
The new Vector® vacuum furnace is being supplied by SECO/WARWICK, which also manufactured the retiring equipment. The upgrade is based on a standard Vector vacuum furnace with a working space of 900 x 900 x 1200 mm, with screen insulation and metal heating elements. The solution has been adapted to industry specific needs and can heat treat jet engine components, such as complex gears or main shafts.
“This unit is distinguished by the ability to carry out efficient and clean high vacuum processes thanks to the use of a molybdenum heating chamber and a very efficient pumping system. This ensures very high purity and the dynamics required for brazing processes. Another big advantage is the very good temperature uniformity in the molybdenum heating chamber and compliance with the strict requirements of industry standards such as AMS2750,” said Jędrzej Malinowski, sales manager, SECO/WARWICK Group.
The press release is available in its original form here.
A group of graduates from MIT and Duke University identified manufacturing as an industry overburdened by rapidly growing energy costs and proposed a technology to provide electric bill savings of up to 30%. They will be piloting this technology with a U.S. heat treater, ThermoFusion, a Californian heat treater and brazer.
EQORE, a startup tackling energy issues for manufacturers, is developing smart energy storage systems. They aim to cut industrial energy bills by a third while offering a payback period of 1–3 years. Connected behind the meter, an EQORE system serves as an optimizing filter for electric equipment without changing its operation in any way. The system consists of a wall-mounted computing unit and a compact floor-mounted battery pack. It can be installed inside or outside of a facility and only needs a connection to the electric panel and internet.
The founding team features backgrounds in energy storage engineering from Tesla and Apple, as well as software and business development, and is supported by an innovation fund at MIT. The technology specifically targets reducing demand charges, which can account for 60–70% of industrial electricity costs. Demand charges penalize high variability in electric usage, a characteristic of heat treating facilities like ThermoFusion. For these facilities, a single peak in power usage can drastically increase the entire bill. Remarkably, in some locations in the U.S., demand rates have doubled since 2022.
After talking to over 200 businesses, utility representatives, and energy experts, the team concluded that the solutions to the demand issue remain limited. Available power optimizations disrupt customer operations, while independent power generation like solar is often out of reach due to its decade-long repayment periods. EQORE’s solution empowers clients to reduce energy costs while maintaining existing production levels.
Their team is actively looking to engage with more pilot customers and is open to collaborations.
The original press release is available upon request.
A heat treat furnace manufacturer with North American locations will provide an American partner with two identical continuous CAB lines for brazing aluminum heat exchangers, specifically battery coolers. The furnaces will be used in Mexico and Spain.
The SECO CAB lines will be used for protective atmosphere brazing aluminum of heat exchangers. Such solutions are used by leading automotive parts manufacturers and are used for mass production of battery coolers among other types of heat exchangers. This purchase was preceded by tests in the R&D laboratory.
Piotr Skarbiński, Vice President of Aluminum and CAB Product Segments, SECO/WARWICK Group (photo source: secowarwick.com)
“The purchased CAB lines,” explained Piotr Skarbiński, VP of Aluminum and CAB Product Segments, SECO/WARWICK Group, “will be the first solutions of this type in the customer’s factories.”
This press release is available in its original form here.
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Vacuum heat treat operations expand for ZDT Glimag, an entity providing services in the field of vacuum heat treatment, laboratory tests, and production of parts for mining machines.
The addition of this Vector® vacuum furnace will be the third vacuum furnace from SECO/WARWICK. The current design has an operating space of 600 x 600 x 900 mm and will be equipped with numerous options to allow a wide range of heat treatment processes for various steel grades. Main processes will include vacuum brazing, FineCarb® vacuum carburizing, and high-pressure hardening. The design of the chamber size will enable efficient heat treatment of large packages of test and research elements.
The efficiency of processes is also influenced by the ability to cool at 15 bar (which, unlike the old furnaces, eliminates the need to wash the parts after the process). In combination with inverter control, the system also helps reduce power consumption peaks, which are so problematic today. Another big advantage is low heat losses and appropriate temperature uniformity in the heating chamber, which is resistant to rapid wear and is easy to use and service.
Beata Kowalewska President of the Management Board – Financial Director of ZDT Glimag Source: LinkedIn
Beata Kowalewska, president of the Management Board – Financial Director of ZDT Glimag, comments: “Since the 1960s, we have been designing prototypes, conducting research and technological tests, and implementing new technologies for mining. We are currently in the process of materializing the project titled ‘Implementation of an innovative product resulting from research and development work: a brake pad with a composite friction layer with increased abrasion resistance,’ implemented under the European Funds for a Modern Economy (FENG) 2021-2027 Program. FENG is a program supporting entrepreneurs in the area of broadly understood innovation. It places great emphasis on R&D activities.”
He continues, “The new SECO/WARWICK furnace fits perfectly into the policy of broadly understood modernity implemented in this project. It will streamline and expand the scope of heat treatment processes and improve their economics, taking into account energy savings and the graphite chamber efficiency. It will also ensure the process cleanliness and velocity. With the FineCarb® vacuum carburizing option, the technology also increases our flexibility and research capabilities. Additionally, this technology will allow us to perform more difficult processes requiring extremely low contamination levels, thanks to the ability to obtain the appropriate vacuum needed for these processes.”
Maciej Korecki VP of the Vacuum Furnace Segment SECO/WARWICK Source: SECO/WARWICK
Maciej Korecki, VP of the Vacuum Furnace Segment in the SECO/WARWICK Group, comments on ZDT Glimag saying, “It is a center very well oriented in the metal heat treatment industry, constantly testing new, innovative solutions that in turn make the mining industry more efficient. The new Vector will introduce revolutionary changes in the hardening plant, introducing innovation and a very wide range of precise processes.”
The Vector® line vacuum furnaces can be used in most standard vacuum carburizing, hardening, tempering, annealing, supersaturation, and brazing processes. At the same time, the solution can be adapted to the recipient’s individual requirements, and therefore to a specific industry, an attribute necessary for research centers that test innovative solutions for external customers.
The solution‘s characteristic features are convection heating, i.e., a system improving the heat transfer efficiency when heating at lower temperatures, and directional cooling, which allows complex, flimsy, and long elements to be cooled in various ways, minimizing their deformations. An additional advantage is the vacuum carburizing option, which allows users to carry out precise processes to increase the steel surface hardness (carburizing) during the entire thermal process.
The original press release from SECO/WARWICK Group is available here.
A Scandinavian manufacturer of heat exchangers has purchased two CAB lines, which will be delivered to factories in Mexico and Poland. They will be used for brazing heat exchangers for trucks and buses as well as power generators. The deliveries will be synchronized to arrive to the factories in the same timeframe.
The order is being carried out bySECO/WARWICKGroup’s Chinese branch. This partner has been operating globally since 2016, offering large-size heat exchangers for buses and trucks. The CAB lines on order meet the protective Nocolok® atmosphere aluminum brazing technology requirements.
Said Piotr Skarbiński, vice president of the Aluminum and CAB Products Segment at SECO/WARWICK, “This is a unique project for us, as we have sold two furnaces with the same delivery date to one customer at two different locations. It will be a logistical challenge overseen by SECO/WARWICK China.”
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Skana Aluminum Company in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, has recently been supplied with an Exogas™ exothermic atmosphere generator.
The atmosphere generator from SECO/WARWICK USA, an American SECO/WARWICK Group subsidiary, provides an indirect-chilled exothermic atmosphere for annealing, brazing, normalizing, drawing, and tempering.
Says Marcus Lord, managing director of SECO/WARWICK USA, “At 30,000 CFH, it is one of the largest atmosphere generator units we’ve made to date. It should be plenty large enough to meet the exothermic atmosphere needs of the multiple processes within the Skana plant.”
Skana has also placed an order with the furnace supplier for a smaller atmospheric gas drier for use elsewhere in the plant.
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A vertical vacuum furnace is heading to a company that provides repair and maintenance services for jet engines. The system has been designed to carry out clean brazing processes in high vacuum, ensuring protection of the treated part surfaces. The solution will be used to process jet engine components.
The system will improve production processes and significantly increase the commercial heat treater’s efficiency. "The vertical vacuum furnace is the answer to the challenges of annealing and brazing larger aviation components . . . the cooling system provides precision cooling rate control for the parts in process," explains Maciej Korecki, vice president of the Vacuum Segment at SECO/WARWICK Group, a heat treat technologies company with North American locations.
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Recently, Solar Atmospheres Eastern PA commissioned a new 25,000 square foot brazing facility aimed at high-volume, high-quality braze production. The facility features six vacuum furnaces dedicated to brazing, including an all-metal hot-zone furnace designed for brazing stainless steel to copper with silver and gold-based braze filler metal (BFM).
The heat treater specializes in the brazing of high-value components utilizing filler metals based on nickel, silver, gold, and copper. The new state-of-the-art production facility has 4,000 square feet of climate-controlled workspace, where technicians assemble and inspect parts, ranging from tiny capillary-tube manifolds to large land-based gas turbine blades. The operation incorporates increased capacity for helium leak testing and pre-braze tack welding of braze assemblies.
“With Nadcap accreditation and AS9100 registration, our new facility operates as one expects from the Solar brand,” states Chip Lahneman, general manager of Brazing at Solar. “The investment in our new facility demonstrates Solar’s commitment to meeting our customers brazing needs, now, and in the future.”
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Piotr Skarbiński Vice President of Aluminum and CAB Products Segment SECOWARWICK Source: LinkedIn
EV/CAB lines for electric battery coolers' protective atmosphere brazing will be provided to manufacturers from Poland and the Czech Republic.
SECO/WARWICK Group's EV/CAB continuous lines are products dedicated to the automotive sector. EV/CAB solutions work for heat exchangers’ leading manufacturers and are used for mass production of large-size car battery coolers.
"Globally, the demand for electric cars and thus for battery coolers is increasing," commented Piotr Skarbiński, vice president of the Aluminum and CAB Products Segment, SECO/WARWICK Group. "It should be emphasized that the EV/CAB line is not a standard product, generally available on the market. Many years of experience have allowed us to create solutions optimally adapted to the production in this industry."
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