A North America-based company is set to receive a four-gun electron beam hearth melting furnace from their industry partner of 3 years.
Retech, a division of SECO/WARWICK Group, received this third contract in as many years from the returning partner after the successful planning, installation, commissioning, and subsequent operation and progress of the last two EB hearth melters. Along with that, repeat orders from a known partner reduce uncertainty and risk for the company. Put more simply, practice makes perfect.
Source: SECO/WARWICK
These EB furnaces have a throughput that is suitable for large-ingot casting of reactive/refractory metals when alloying with metals having similar vaporization temperatures, whereas plasma arc melting, although slower, would be the more suitable choice for dissimilar vaporization temperatures.
Earl Good Managing Director at Retech Systems, LLC Source: Retech
“We are thrilled to be an ongoing partner in this customer’s growth,” said Earl Good, managing director of Retech Systems. “We know they have multiple competitive options for their vacuum metallurgy equipment, so we take nothing for granted, and work hard to earn their business every step of the way. Ongoing awards like this suggest we’re doing a lot of things right.”
Retech produces and assembles vacuum melting equipment entirely in North America. Their integrated R&D, manufacturing, and assembly facility in Buffalo allows them to do that. The North American supplier also has exclusive use of electron beam guns from Von Ardenne, industry pioneers of electron beam technology.
This press release is available in its original form here.
Metallus, formerly known as TimkenSteel and a leader in high-quality specialty metals, manufactured components, and supply chain solutions, announced that the company has entered an agreement for up to $99 million in funding from the United States Army.
Half of the funding is currently obligated, with the balance subject to mutual agreement during subsequent phases after the final project details are presented to the Army. This funding will support a project aimed at bolstering the Army’s mission of ramping up artillery shell production in the coming years.
Mike Williams President and CEO Metallus Source: Metallus
Specifically, this project will enable the development of additional capacity to help fulfill increased global demand for artillery shells. The new capability is expected to increase throughput of high-quality bar-based products used in artillery applications and support approximately $60 million of incremental base sales annually, demand dependent. The company is targeting late 2025 for this new capability to be operational with funding to be provided throughout the procurement and installation process.
“Metallus is honored to expand our commitment to the defense sector, reliably providing high-quality specialty metals for critical applications. With this funding, we intend to further optimize our assets to meet the Department of Defense’s heightened demand while reducing our carbon footprint,” affirmed Mike Williams, president and CEO.
The 2022 National Defense Strategy outlines the Department of Defense’s commitment to establishing a modernized and coordinated defense industrial network. This initiative aims to develop a reliable and resilient supply chain of industrial partners over the next several years that will significantly enhance the nation’s defense capabilities for the long-term.
This press release is available in its original form here.
Tom Schulz Sales Manager L&L Special Furnace Source: L&L
An investment castings manufacturer's heat treat department received a large floor-standing box furnace from a North American specialty furnace company. The furnace will be used as support in the client's tool and die production along with tempering of finished castings.
The L&L model XLE3436 box furnace from L&L Special Furnace has an effective work zone of 34” wide by 22” high by 32” deep. It is equipped with a direct-lift vertical door with a floor switch to activate. The cantilevered vertical door eliminates the need for the upright structure to reduce the overall height of the equipment.
Tom Schulz, sales manager at L&L, highlights the key role this will play for the heat treat department, saying that this type of furnace is the company's “workhorse when it comes to thermal processing.”
The inert blanketing gas enables the part to be heat-treated with minimal surface de-carb. A stack light indicates the furnace status via an audible and visual indicator light mounted on top of the control.
Additionally, the furnace is equipped with a pyrometry package that has reference control thermocouple ports along with corner locations to record the high and low points within the unit as indicated by the latest temperature uniformity survey.
The original press release from L&L Special Furnace is available upon request.
Skuld LLC announced that they had purchased the site belonging to the former Champion Foundry in Piqua, Ohio, a gray and iron foundry that had closed in March 2017. The company will continue to be focused on innovation in the metals industry, serving their clients through a number of innovations related to novel materials and manufacturing technologies.
The four buildings with nearly 32,000 square feet of space are being refurbished to be capable of casting a wide range of ferrous metals (gray, ductile iron, steels) and nonferrous metals (aluminum, brass, bronze, copper, nickel alloys). The plant will initially have 3,000 tons of capacity but plans are in place to expand to ten times that capacity in the next few years.
Skuld will be installing machining, foam blowing, a printer farm, and heat treating, adding to their current 5 small heat treat furnaces and adding to their operations, which primarily consist of lost foam casting. The new installations will aid the company as they serve the defense, tooling, and heavy equipment industries. They are also beginning to target production of heat treat fixtures and baskets.
Sarah Jordan, CEO, Skuld LLC
Production at the new site is scheduled to begin in April 2024. Sarah Jordan, CEO of Skuld LLC, commented, "Skuld is looking forward to getting our induction melting furnaces installed so that we can produce higher temperature iron, steel, and nickel alloy castings." She continued, "many [heat treaters] have custom furnace components and fixtures that require high temperature metals. These parts can have extremely long lead times, sometimes over a year, which is a problem if they are stocked out." By using their new tooling free processes, Jordan says that they can help clients drive lead times down to less than a month, if not a day for emergency spares.
Skuld is a company founded by two metallurgical engineers, Mark DeBruin and Sarah Jordan, with ties to the heat treat industry. DeBruin is the former CTO of Thermal Process Holdings. Jordan formerly worked in heat treating at Timken and Commercial Metals and was a staff engineer for Nadcap heat treat.
The full press release from Skuld LLC is available upon request.
Bringing forward plans by two years, Wallwork Group have signed for a second hot isostatic press. Following hot on the heels of opening their £10 million Wallwork HIP Centre, Wallwork Group is installing this HIP to meet and serve increasing demand from various manufacturers.
David Loughlin Business Manager Wallwork HIP Centre
This second HIP from Quintus Technologies, a high pressure manufacturer with North American locations, has been contracted following Quintus completing the commissioning of the first HIP in the third quarter of 2023.
“We expected strong demand from UK castings, 3D printing, powder fabrication, and near-net-shape manufacturers. Especially, as the UK is currently under-served with hot isostatic pressing capacity,” says Wallwork HIP Centre, business manager, David Loughlin.
Adds Simeon Collins, group director of Wallwork, “Demand from customers for processing components in our first hot isostatic press has been astonishing. It is prudent to bring forward planned investment for the next HIP, knowing it will take most of 2024 to build and install. We hope to have it up and running by early 2025. Deciding to prepare pits for expansion during the first installation has proved right.”
The second HIP will be identical to the first, operating at pressures from 40 to 207 MPa (5,800 to 30,000 psi) and temperatures up to 2282°F (1250°C). It will also have the latest rapid cooling technology, as well as the capability to offer increased cycle pressures at elevated temperatures, complements engineering advances in metal 3D printing and more.
This press release from Wallwork Group can be found in its original form here.
ECOACERO, an ESTRELLA Group company, has placed an order for a new rebar mill with a heat treater with North American locations. It will be located nearby Santo Domingo, in Dominican Republic, for serving the growing local and regional construction industry.
The upcoming ECOACERO facility with a rebar mill from SMS group will introduce a versatile range of rebar to the market, tailored to meet the demands of different construction industry segments, manufactured with state-of-the-art technology from SMS, and adhering to rigorous international quality standards.
The complete project, conceptualized with a sustainability philosophy, consists of two phases, with the forthcoming integration of a steel production, involving a melt shop with a continuous casting machine, from the scrap processing.
The scope of delivery of the SMS includes a reheating furnace for billets, feeding a continuous single-strand rolling mill. Products are finished on a MEERdrive® finishing block, a machine that reduces CO₂ emissions and boots plant efficiency. Water boxes in the production process enable steel with improved mechanical properties through quenching and self-tempering of the bars, minimizing the use of expensive alloying elements in the melt shop.
From left to right: Pedro Estrella, Director of ECOACERO; Giuseppe Maniscalco, CEO of industrial division Grupo Estrella; Filippo Verlezza, SMS group and Nicola Redolfi, SMS group (Source: SMS group)
The second phase involves a modern electric arc furnace (EAF), high electrical efficient and designed with burner and oxygen injector technology to reduce CO₂ emissions and operating costs.
The scrap charging-based electric arc furnace will be equipped with the latest SMS technologies for safe and automatic operation aimed at reducing the carbon footprint. The entire melting-refining-casting process line is monitored by X-Pact® Level 2 system.
The plant commissioning is scheduled for the beginning of 2025, pointing to ECOACERO as the one of the largest and modern steel companies in the Caribbean and Central America.
This SMS group press release can be found in its original form here.
Find Heat Treating Products And Services When You Search On Heat Treat Buyers Guide.Com
Effective November 30, 2023, Joe A. Powell has sold his remaining shares in Akron Steel Treating Company, his family’s commercial heat treating business for over 80 years in Akron, Ohio, USA, to a fourth generation of new “family” ownership.
The team at AST will continue to deliver ISO and Nadcap aerospace heat treating and related metallurgical services to part making customers.
Joe A. Powell, AST’s Chairman of the Board, will remain active in the heat treating and metallurgical services community as president ofIntegrated Heat Treating Solutions, LLC. (IHTS). IHTS is a “heat transfer” consulting company for product development teams to enable more sustainable heat treating equipment and practices to be integrated into their new product designs. IHTS and its team of part making consultants enable their part making clients to deliver more “total added value” from heat treating and forging per BTU expended in making their products for their end users; including the design of the associated heating and quench cooling equipment for "leaner + greener, more sustainable, manufacturing" and for greater recyclability of metal alloys.
Pictured in the image above: AST’s new shareholder team, and Joe A. Powell, Chairman of the Board, are pictured from left to right: Matt Moldvay, President; Steve Powell, Vice President of Quality, Christina Powell Somogye, Vice President of Administration; Joe A. Powell, Chairman; and Joe N. Powell, Vice President of Sales. (Source: AST)
A Louisiana-based foundry — a supplier of iron, stainless, and specialty alloy castings for paper/pulp, energy, mining, and petrochemical customers — is getting financial support for infrastructure investments from the state as part of a three-phase effort to expand its 3D printing operation for sand molds.
JB Shoaf President Howell Foundry
Howell Foundry plans to expand its 3D-printing capabilities following a $7.4 million update to its operation in St. Francisville, LA. This expansion is expected to create 26 new jobs and retain 22 current, according to an announcement by the Louisiana Economic Development agency. Work was scheduled to start in December for completion by the end of 2027, LED said.
The state will provide a $400,000 performance-based forgivable loan for infrastructure work, contingent upon Howell Foundry meeting investment and payroll targets. Also, the foundry is expected to participate in the state’s Quality Jobs and Industrial Tax Exemption programs.
The foundry emphasizes its ability to deliver complex parts with quick turnaround, using 3D-scanning to convert parts or patterns into reproducible programs, casting process simulation to plan and set-up production, and 3D-sand printing of molds and cores.
“Howell Foundry combines modern-day 3D innovations with proven craftsmanship in one of the oldest known trades to produce rapid and reliable solutions to its valued customers who are primarily located on the Gulf Coast,” stated company president JB Shoaf said. “We take great pride in being a local business that serves local businesses.”
What is deoxidation and how can it be useful for energy savings? In fact, can the process really save money and improve the quality of iron?
Sometimes our editors find items that are not exactly “heat treat” but do deal with interesting developments in one of our key markets: aerospace, automotive, medical, energy, or general manufacturing. To celebrate getting to the “fringe” of the weekend, Heat Treat Today presents today’s Heat Treat Fringe Friday article that answers these questions. Hint: Deoxidation is helpful, and the article points to how annealing heat treatment may not be necessary in order to meet the ferritic ductile iron elongation specification levels.
An excerpt:
Ductile iron producers typically add copper to the melt to enhance the material’s tensile strength. That becomes unnecessary when base iron is deoxidized prior to magnesium conversion treatment. The deoxidized iron’s strength rises to near 100,000 psi after deoxidation, without copper addition. Deoxidation removes the suspended MgO oxide particles that reduce strength and elongation in ductile iron.
Sometimes our editors find items that are not exactly “heat treat” but do deal with interesting developments in one of our key markets: aerospace, automotive, medical, energy, or general manufacturing.
To celebrate getting to the “fringe” of the weekend, Heat Treat Today presents today’s Heat Treat Fringe Friday: the recent acquisition of U.S. Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel Corporation and some coverage on what may derail the sale.
Nippon Steel Corporation (NSC), Japan’s largest steelmaker and one of the world’s leading steel manufacturers, and United States Steel Corporation (U. S. Steel), a leading steel producer with competitive advantages in low-cost iron ore, mini mill steelmaking, and best-in-class finishing capabilities, announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which NSC will acquire U. S. Steel for a total enterprise value of $14.9 billion. The transaction has been unanimously approved by the Board of Directors of both NSC and U. S. Steel.
NSC’s acquisition of U. S. Steel will enhance its world-leading manufacturing and technology capabilities and enable it to expand the geographic areas in which NSC can better serve all of its stakeholders. The transaction will further diversify NSC’s global footprint by significantly expanding its current production in the United States, adding to its primary geographies of Japan, ASEAN, and India. As a result of NSC’s acquisition of U. S. Steel, its expected total annual crude steel capacity will reach 86 million tonnes – accelerating progress towards NSC’s strategic goal of 100 million tonnes of global crude steel capacity annually.
NSC President Eiji Hashimoto said, “We are excited that this transaction brings together two companies with world-leading technologies and manufacturing capabilities, demonstrating our mission to serve customers worldwide, as well as our commitment to building a more environmentally friendly society through the decarbonization of steel.”
President and Chief Executive Officer of U. S. Steel, David B. Burritt, said, “For our U. S. Steel employees, who I continue to be thankful for, the transaction combines like-minded steel companies with an unwavering focus on safety, shared goals, values, and strategies underpinned by rich histories. For customers, U. S. Steel and NSC create a truly global steel company with combined capabilities and innovation capable of meeting our customers’ evolving needs. [December 18’s] announcement also benefits the United States – ensuring a competitive, domestic steel industry, while strengthening our presence globally. Our shared decarbonization focus is expected to enhance and accelerate our ability to provide customers with innovative steel solutions to meet sustainability goals.”
But this pushback is not at all unexpected from a Japanese perspective. In the perspective of Kyodo News, the regulatory authorities in America and “strict antitrust laws” could continue to prove to be an impediment to the full acquisition.
