Dave Strand, president and CEO of Thermal Product Solutions
A leading industrial furnace manufacturer recently opened a new facility in East Troy, Wisconsin, accommodating oven product lines and providing additional manufacturing space for expanding operations. The company will be investing $1.5 million in equipment and renovation work at the building.
Wisconsin Oven Corporation and parent company Thermal Product Solutions (TPS) celebrated the opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony that included company officials, as well as local, regional, state leaders. It was announced at the ceremony that the new 130,000 sq ft facility will be named after Bruce Champion, a former vice president of operations for Wisconsin Oven, who played a key role in the company’s success.
“Wisconsin Oven Corporation is pleased that the community and local leaders were able to join us today to celebrate the opening of our recently purchased facility,” said Dave Strand, president and CEO of TPS. “This 130,000-square-foot facility will soon see massive renovations and production, which will result in more employment throughout the region.”
The most powerful U.S. rocket engine fired in two decades is also reusable and could become a leading rocket engine for commercial and military launches. It was also launched by an unlikely source, the founder and CEO of a company which is more broadly known for its presence as a major online retailer.
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos launched his space tourism and commercial rocket company Blue Origin in September 2000. Roughly 17 years later, the company fired the BE-4 engine. Fueled by a liquid oxygen and liquid methane mix that generates 550,000 pounds of thrust, the BE-4 could be used in multiple rockets, including Blue Origin’s New Glenn orbital rocket.
A leader in customized alloy steel products and services has brought online its newest thermal-treatment asset and has begun processing orders for the oil and gas industries.
Tom Moline, Executive Vice President of Commercial Operations, TimkenSteel
The $40 million advanced quench-and-temper facility, located at the company’s Gambrinus Steel Plant in Canton, Ohio, increases TimkenSteel’s existing capacity by 50,000 tons or 45 percent and brings the company’s total annual thermal-treatment capacity to 500,000 process tons.
“We’re pleased to bring this newest asset online now that market demand for thermal-treated bars and tubes has increased,” said Tom Moline, executive vice president of commercial operations. “The advanced quench-and-temper facility is the largest of our four thermal-treatment facilities and enables us to meet customer needs faster and at more precise specifications. In addition to servicing automotive applications, this will be especially beneficial for our oil and gas customers’ most demanding applications in down-hole tools and top-of-hole infrastructure.”
TimkenSteel announced its plan to build the advanced quench-and-temper facility in October 2014. The company announced earlier this year that it expected the startup to occur in the fourth quarter, after deferring commissioning of the facility in response to market conditions.
Manufactured by SMS Group with custom modifications made by TimkenSteel’s in-house team of scientists and engineers, the facility can accommodate 4-inch to 13-inch bars and tubes.
The U.S. Army upgrade at its manufacturing center at Watervliet, New York, will include heat treatment facilities to position the Arsenal to better support the emerging readiness needs of U.S. and foreign militaries.
Arsenal Commander Col. Joseph Morrow said the Arsenal has received more than $100 million in new orders over what it had at this same point in time last year.
“This is not the same Arsenal that it was when I took command in July 2016,” said Morrow. “Due to a significant and recent rise in sustainment and modernization readiness needs of our Army and of our allies, we must nearly double our current manufacturing capacity in the next four years.”
Recent Arsenal commanders have raised the issue of aging plant equipment to the Army’s senior leaders and, as a result, various Army weapon program managers have stepped in to augment the Arsenal’s limited-funded CIP activity by paying for equipment upgrades or for new machines. The Arsenal team was well prepared for the day when additional funding would come in by already having an established list of priorities for capability and capacity upgrades, said James Kardas, an Arsenal industrial engineer.
Although funding has arrived, due to the complexity of some of the larger machines and the challenges of preparing foundations to support the new machines, the final machine from this funding may not be on line until 2020. Nevertheless, some of the smaller, less complex machines may arrive in 2018.
The Watervliet Arsenal, an Army-owned-and-operated manufacturing facility located in Watervliet, New York, is the oldest, continuously active arsenal in the United States, having begun operations during the War of 1812.
A Swedish producer of metal powders announced recently that it has launched commercial production of the industry’s first high precision binder jetting 3D metal printer, resulting in smaller and more intricate components than any previous technology, and because heat treatment occurs after printing, the process is adaptable for a variety of materials.
Digital Metal®, a Höganäs Group company, developed the DM P2500, which continuously prints in 42 µm layers at 100 cc/hr without the need for any support structures. It has 2500 cm3 print volume available. This makes it possible to manufacture small objects in high quantities (up to 50,000 parts in one print run), comprising shapes, geometries
Ralf Carlström, General Manager, Digital Metal
and internal and external finishes never before achieved. The DM P2500 delivers a resolution of 35 µm and an average surface roughness of Ra 6 µm before additional finishing processes are applied.
Powder removed before sintering is reused for subsequent jobs, resulting in high yield and low scrap rates, meaning downtime is kept to a minimum, and there is no de-generation of the powder that other AM processes experience.
“The Digital Metal business has doubled year on year since its inception,” said Ralf Carlström, General Manager, Digital Metal. “However we’ve barely scratched the surface in terms of the potential this technology offers for designers and engineers. We’ve seen relatively small (but previously unachievable) changes to the internal structure of components result in a 30 percent improvement in overall product efficiency, which would have been impossible to produce using conventional methods. As the design and engineering community begin to explore and understand what our highly repeatable and reliable technology enables, we believe we will see huge demand for this technology.
Don Godfrey, Engineering Fellow – Additive Manufacturing, Honeywell Aerospace
By making the printers commercially available we hope to facilitate and fuel that demand.”
The second DM P2500 outside Digital Metal was installed in June 2017 and licensed to Centre Technique des Industries Mécaniques (CETIM), France’s benchmark institute and technological innovation hub for mechanical engineering. The machine started production just two days later and is already showing consistent results. The first printer is confidentially licensed to a global leader in fashion design and will see its new serial production items available at the end of this year.
Luxury watch start-up Montfort approached Digital Metal to print the dials for its watches inspired by the Swiss Alps. The binder jetting technique was the only solution that allowed Montfort the creative freedom to make watch dials with a design and finish that resembles the mineral, crystalline structure of rocks.
Additionally, in the U.S., Honeywell Aerospace and Digital Metal are exploring a number of joint 3D printing projects that will merge Honeywell’s expertise in aerospace engineering with Digital Metal’s leadership in additive manufacturing.
“The binder jetting technology Digital Metal uses to print small metal parts has the potential for various applications within the Honeywell Aerospace program,” said Don Godfrey, Engineering Fellow – Additive Manufacturing, Honeywell Aerospace. “We believe this will also be critical to applications in other key areas of the broader aerospace industry.”
A Mexico-based automotive supplier recently awarded a contract for the design and manufacture of a 1,500 lb/hr mesh belt furnace system for the austenitizing and molten salt quenching of unique components used in the manufacture of its drivetrain systems.
This contract was awarded to Can-Eng Furnaces International Ltd, which has scheduled the project to be commissioned early 2018 in Mexico’s centralized automotive manufacturing corridor. Incorporating several technological advancements for continuous atmosphere processing of products requiring carbon diffusion and quenching via a molten salt system, known as austempering, the new system includes: automated bin-dumping loading, mesh belt atmosphere hardening furnace, salt quench, post-quench wash and rinse system, mesh belt temper oven, and endothermic gas generator.
Medin a.s., a Czech manufacturer of medical instruments and implants, recently unveiled its new heat treatment workshop in Nové Město na Moravě, which includes a vacuum oil quenching furnace — B55TH with oversized dimensions heating chamber with 900 x 1200 x 900 mm for a max load of 1200 kg — supplied by BMI. In order to treat large loads, this furnace was installed as an alternative to a vertical furnace or a pit-type furnace.
Medin’s workshop also houses a gas quenching furnace and a tempering furnace from other Tenova Group companies.
Thermal processing and induction hardening of metals are included among the metal treatments that will be offered to the aerospace, automotive, medical device, and precision engineering sectors as UK-based coating company Metaltech Ltd joins forces with The Wallwork Group, also of the UK.
Both companies specialize in the thermal processing and coating of metals and each brings additional metal treatments that will complement those of the other. Wallwork has also recently announced plans to invest in the Metaltech site and base some of the transport operations there.
Metaltech was founded in 1981 by Ron Scott. Dr. Graeme Forster joined the company in the early 1990s and became managing director; together they have developed the company to a staff of 22, serving clients in the UK and internationally.
“Joining Wallwork, a firm founded on the same principles of a business that believes people are its greatest asset, is a positive step as Ron steps out to pursue his other interests,” said Dr. Forster commented.
Luke Collins, a graduate engineer with 12-plus years of experience within the Wallwork Group, will become site director at Metaltech. “This is a good fit for us and strengthens our range of metal heat treatments, hard coatings processes, and customer service promise,” said Collins. “Adding a facility in the North East means we can provide an even faster service to customers there and extend our transport service into Scotland, giving greater flexibility within our Manchester, Birmingham and Cambridge sites for further growth.”
We already have plans to invest in the Metaltech site and also base some of our transport operation there. Luke will permanently relocate to be near the Metaltech works.
As well as extending the induction hardening of metals and thermal processing operations, the expansion adds new processes including Xylan Flouropolymer Coatings, Molybdenum Disulphide dry film lubricants, and Phosphate Coating and enlarges the capacity of the company’s plasma nitriding and Plasox services.
A Canadian automotive parts manufacturer recently contracted a chain conveyor oven to preheat aluminum billets prior to forging into automotive suspension components under high pressure. This forging process produces high-strength parts that are ideal for applications where performance and safety are critical, but a lighter-weight metal is needed for speed or energy efficiency.
The natural gas-fired indexing conveyor oven, constructed and shipped by Wisconsin Oven Corporation, has a maximum operating temperature of 1,100°F (593° C) and work chamber dimensions of 6’6” W x 23’6” L x 1’0” H. The oven is designed with the capability to heat 1,995 pounds of aluminum per hour and a production rate of 360 parts per hour. The equipment achieved temperature uniformity of +/-10°F (5.6° C) at 1,050° F (565° C) for the last 90 index positions. The patented Expandable Surface™ design includes 2 inches of high-temperature block insulation backed with 4 inches of semi-rigid batt type insulation.
A producer of monolithic refractory products, an employee-owned company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, has expanded its manufacturing presence in the southeast through the recent acquisition of an Alabama refractory products supplier.
Jon Tabor, Chairman and CEO, Allied Mineral Products. Photo credit: Janet Adams/BizJournals
Allied Mineral Products, Inc., with twelve manufacturing facilities in eight countries, three precast shapes facilities, and two research and technology centers, has purchased family-owned and -operated Riverside Refractories, Inc, adding taphole clay to its line of industry-leading refractory products and extending a reach into the steel industry, including international operations. The sale includes Riverside’s Pell City, Alabama, manufacturing operation, monolithic and pre-cast refractory shapes products, refractory coatings and mortars and high-alumina and anhydrous taphole clay products.
“Riverside is a natural to join the Allied family,” said Jon R. Tabor, chairman and CEO of Allied. “They have outstanding products, expertise in the manufacture of taphole clays, a skilled workforce, and an employee-driven culture that is a perfect fit with Allied’s. After our recent acquisition of Pryor Giggey Co., which included a facility in Anniston, Alabama, Allied is poised for a significant manufacturing presence in the Southeast.”
John Morris, President of Riverside
“As the marketplace continues to be more competitive, [Riverside] realized we needed to align with a strong company to ensure we could continue to serve our customers and provide security for our employees,” said John Morris, president of Riverside. “With this sale, we know our customers and employees will benefit and that was very important to us. We are excited that Allied’s global manufacturing network and worldwide sales presence will provide a platform to market the Riverside product lines internationally. We could not be in better hands.”
“The Morris family has been a force in the refractory industry for over 60 years,” added Tabor. “We have great respect for what they have achieved at Riverside. There is great value in the brand and in the name, and we look forward to carrying on their tradition of great products and customer service.”
Riverside’s production facility in Pell City, Alabama, joins Allied’s existing U.S. manufacturing operations in Columbus, Ohio; Brownsville, Texas; Chehalis, Washington; and Anniston, Alabama.
