MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT NEWS

Induction Heating Manufacturer Doubles Facility Space to Meet Demand

/ FEATURED NEWS, INDUCTION HEATING NEWS, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT NEWS
Tony Mazzullo, president of Ambrell

An induction heating manufacturer has moved its operations to a facility twice the size of the previous location to accommodate increased demands for its products and industry solutions.

Ambrell Corporation, the thermal segment subsidiary of inTEST Corporation, which designs and manufactures thermal management products, recently broke ground on the new 80,000 sq ft facility in Rochester, New York. The $2.1 million project, which started in September 2017, included a complete company relocation from its previous manufacturing facility in Scottsville, New York.

“This is an exciting time for Ambrell and marks a huge milestone for the company, its employees, and customers who will all benefit from the opportunities this expansion presents,” said Tony Mazzullo, president of Ambrell, at the previous ribbon-cutting ceremony. “This new facility adds floor space to our Applications Laboratory to provide our customers with access to all of Ambrell’s products when they visit The Lab at Ambrell. The addition of floor space and equipment will also enable us to manufacture more products to meet the growing demands of our customers. In addition, our highly efficient manufacturing floor will enable us to maximize throughput while continuing to manufacture solutions that are innovative, of very high quality, and reliable.”

James Pelrin, inTEST president and CEO

“The new facility is designed to meet the demands of Ambrell’s growing business, increasing current capabilities for both product design and manufacturing,” commented James Pelrin, inTEST president and CEO. “To accommodate this rapid company growth, we are expanding from approximately 40,000 square feet at the previous facility to 80,000 square feet at the new location.”

inTEST designs and manufactures induction heating products for joining and forming metals for use in a variety of industrial markets, including automotive, aerospace &defense, machinery, wire & fasteners, medical, and semiconductor.

 

 

Photo caption and credit: Ribbon-cutting ceremony with Ambrell and inTEST representatives and local and state officials; Twitter

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Heat Treat Today’s Induction Expert Dr. Valery Rudnev Recognized at TPiM 2018

/ MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT NEWS

Dr. Valery Rudnev, who writes Heat Treat Today‘s column, “Dr Valery Rudnev On . . . “, was recognized during the opening ceremony of the American Society for Materials (ASM International) Thermal Processing in Motion 2018 (TPiM 2018) conference held this month in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and received two prestigious awards for his contributions in the field of induction heating and heat-treating.

Dr. Rudnev, Director of Science and Technology at Inductoheat Inc., an Inductotherm Group Company, was elected as a Fellow to the International Federation for Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering (IFHTSE) “[f]or his preeminence in induction heat treating and modeling of the induction heat treating process” (IFTSE, 2018). As a Fellow of ASM International with more than 30 years of experience, he is considered by many to be one of the leading global figures in the induction heating and is known among induction heating professionals as “Professor Induction.” His credits include a great deal of “know-how”, more than 50 patents and inventions (U.S. and International), and more than 250 engineering/scientific publications.

Dr. Richard D. Sisson Jr., George F. Fuller Professor, Director of Manufacturing and Materials Engineering and the Director of the Center for Heat Treating Excellence at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and Professor Rafael Colás, Professor and Metallurgist Engineer, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, were awarded fellowships with IFHTSE.

Dr. Rudnev was also presented with the ASM International “Best-Paper in Heat Treating” award for co-authoring an article entitled “Revolution – Not Evolution – Necessary to Advance Induction Heat Treating.” The article was published in the September 2017 issue of Advanced Materials & Processes Magazine (HTPro quarterly newsletter) and co-authored with Gary Doyon, Collin Russell, and John Maher. The ASM International Heat Treating Society, Research and Development Committee, established this award to recognize the best papers in the heat treat industry each year.

IFHTSE is a nonprofit group of scientific/technological societies and associations, groups and companies and individuals whose primary interest is heat treatment and surface engineering.

We at Heat Treat Today congratulate Dr. Valery Rudnev on these accomplishments!

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Binder Removal in Vacuum Sintering

/ FEATURED NEWS, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT NEWS, SINTERING POWDER METAL NEWS, VACUUM FURNACES TECHNICAL CONTENT

 

Source: TAV: The Vacuum Furnaces Blog

 

Andrea Alborghetti, Technical Manager of TAV Vacuum Furnaces

Heat Treat Today previously posted Parts 1 and 2 of this series on vacuum sintering. Part 1 focused on the two processing steps of debinding and sintering. Part 2 addressed primarily the vacuum sintering furnace itself. This installment analyzes the process and variables involved with binder removal.

Andrea Alborghetti, technical manager of TAV Vacuum Furnaces and contributor to the company’s blog, provides an analysis of burning vs capturing binders, addressing advantages as well as problems that may arise and how to execute control in the process, as in this example:

“One thing that is worth clarifying is that the flames usually seen on the outlet of kilns that use combustible gases (hydrogen, for example) as the process gas, were not originally designed to burn the binder disassociation residues to reduce emissions to the legal limits. Rather, it is solely for disposing of the emitted hydrogen safely, thus avoiding hazardous, potentially explosive atmospheric concentrations being created outside of the kiln.”

Read more for further analysis of binder removal, including discerning the type of residue found with your process: “Perfect Vacuum Sintering Step by Step #3”

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Indiana Steel Operations Changing Hands, Includes Galvanizing Line

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An Indiana steelmaker recently acquired the flat roll operations of steel producer of hot roll coils, located in Terre Haute, Indiana, including the company’s continuous pickle line, a cold mill, and a galvanizing line.

Mark D. Millett, Steel Dynamics’ chief executive officer

Steel Dynamics, based in Fort Wayne, entered into a definitive agreement to purchase Companhia Siderurgica Nacional, LLC (“Heartland”) from CSN Steel, S.L.U., a whole owned subsidiary of Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN), which expands Steel Dynamics’ annual flat roll steel shipping capacity to 8.4 million tons. Future plans are to utilize the full capacity of the facility, providing high-quality cold roll, pickle and oil, and galvanized products.  The geographic proximity to Steel Dynamics’ other flat-roll operations and certain fabrication locations provide opportunities related to logistics and production efficiencies throughout the supply chain and customer network.

“In combination with our current operations, Heartland brings a tremendous amount of operating flexibility and optionality,” said Mark D. Millett, Steel Dynamics’ chief executive officer. “We look forward to welcoming the Heartland employees and customers into the Steel Dynamics family and working with them to drive future growth and success.”

Steel Dynamics produces steel products, including hot roll, cold roll, and coated sheet steel, structural steel beams and shapes, rail, engineered special-bar-quality steel, cold finished steel, merchant bar products, specialty steel sections and steel joists and deck.  In addition, the company produces liquid pig iron and processes and sells ferrous and nonferrous scrap.

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Gyro Stabilizer Finished with Heat Treating at Texas Forge

/ FEATURED NEWS, FORGING NEWS, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT NEWS
Seakeeper Gyro Stabilizer

A closed die forging company, headquartered in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, recently launched a new marine product line for a gyro stabilizer designed to improve the boating experience by eliminating boat roll, the rocking motion that causes seasickness, fatigue, and anxiety.

The Ellwood Closed Die Group introduced the line for the gyro stabilizer developed by Maryland-based Seakeeper, which also includes several finish-machined flywheels that are assembled into the gyro stabilizers. From start to finish, Ellwood Texas Forge Navasota (ETFN), located in southeast Texas near its sister company, Ellwood Texas Forge (Houston), utilizes the entire Ellwood Group supply chain to manufacture the flywheels. Raw material melted at Ellwood Quality Steel (EQS) and procured from Ellwood City Forge (ECF) is heated and forged on various pieces of equipment within the ETFN facility to produce the near net shaped forgings. After heat treatment and processing, the forging is then rough machined, non-destructively tested for part quality and finish machined to extremely tight tolerances.

Both Texas-based forge facilities provide in-house heat treatment, along with die sinking, cutting, testing and machining capabilities to serve the aerospace, construction, defense, general industrial, marine, mining, oil & gas, and power generation markets.

Seakeeper is based in California, Maryland, with locations in Europe and Asia.

Photo caption: “How It Works: Inside a vacuum encapsulation, a flywheel spins at speeds of up to 9,700 rpm. When the boat rolls, the gyro tilts fore and aft (processes), producing a powerful gyroscopic torque to port and starboard that counteracts the boat roll.”

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The Pros and Cons of Gas and Ion (Plasma) Nitriding

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Source: AHTcorp.com

 

The compound zone acts as a ceramic skin protecting the metal underneath from corrosion. (Photo credit: Advanced Heat Treat Corp)

Engineers considering the advantages and disadvantages of surface treatments typically have a usable lifespan, surface hardness, and fatigue strength in mind. As a process, both gas and ion (plasma) nitriding avoid the issues involved with coatings and achieve similar metallurgical properties, and the compound zone increases corrosion resistance. But what are other areas in which the two processes can be compared, and what are their differences? It’s good to know, particularly since the latter could significantly make a direct impact on the end product.

Jacob McCann, a process metallurgist with AHT Corp., provides a specific list of pros and cons of gas nitriding and ion (plasma) nitriding in our Technical Tuesday feature for today.

 

Read more: “Gas and Ion (Plasma) Nitriding: What’s the Difference?”

Photo credit: Advanced Heat Treat Corp

 

 

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PA Heat Treater Expands Production Capability with UBQ, UBT Furnaces

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A precision parts heat treating company based in western Pennsylvania recently invested in a universal batch quench (UBQ) integral quench furnace and two 1400°F gas fired UBT temper furnaces for their headquarters facility.

Peters’ Heat Treating, Inc., located in Meadville, Pennsylvania, announced that the new furnace equipment, purchased from industrial furnace manufacturer AFC-Holcroft, will be integrated into an existing complete UBQ furnace line purchased previously from the Michigan-based Aichelin Group company. This equipment acquisition increases the gross load capacity of the existing line by an additional 3,500 pounds and will expand the company’s ability to service the aerospace, automotive, medical and energy sectors. Peters’ Heat Treating has also invested in a new 1400°F gas fired UBT temper furnace for one of their three locations in the tristate region, in McKean, Pennsylvania.

Historically known for their specialization in vacuum heat treating, the company has made significant investments in furnace technology to expand their production capability and gain entry into new markets. This latest UBQ furnace will interface with existing tempering furnaces, spray-dunk washer, automated transfer car and an EZ™ Series endothermic gas generator and other companion equipment. With the AFC-Holcroft equipment expansion, Peters’ has dramatically increased their capacity for oil hardening and carburizing. Processing capabilities include vacuum processing, neutral hardening, carburizing, gas nitriding, cryogenics, annealing, stress relieving, black oxide coating, induction processing, sandblasting, integrated straightening, and metallurgical testing.

 

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World’s First Carbon-free Aluminum Smelting Process Developed in Joint Venture

/ ALUMINUM PROCESSING NEWS, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT NEWS

An Australian-British metals and mining corporation based in London in conjunction with a Pittsburgh-based aluminum producer recently announced an innovative process to make aluminum that produces oxygen and eliminates all direct greenhouse gas emissions from the traditional smelting process.

The new venture between Rio Tinto and Alcoa Corporation, known as Elysis, to develop the process and license the technology so that it can be used to retrofit existing smelters or build new facilities. Elysis will be headquartered in Montreal with a research facility in Quebec’s Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region.

Rio Tinto chief executive J-S Jacques

When fully developed and implemented, it will eliminate direct greenhouse gas emissions from the smelting process and strengthen the closely integrated Canada-United States aluminum and manufacturing industry. The patent-protected technology, developed by Alcoa, is currently producing metal at the Alcoa Technical Center, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where the process has been operating at different scales since 2009.

“This is a revolutionary smelting process that can deliver a significant reduction in carbon emissions. It builds on the key role aluminum has to play in driving human progress, by making products infinitely recyclable, stronger, lighter and more fuel efficient,” said Rio Tinto chief executive J-S Jacques.

Vincent Christ, who brings more than 30 years’ experience at Rio Tinto Aluminium, has been named Chief Executive Officer of Elysis.

 

Photo credit and caption: Rio Tinto; employee at the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean works

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Heat Treatment Included in JV to Inaugurate Swiss Precision & Assembly Plant in India

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Source: Udaipurkiran

 

Our “Best of the Web” feature today brings you a story about an initiative in India to inaugurate a “Swiss Precision & Assembly” unit in Jaipur, Rajasthan, in a joint venture with a Switzerland-based company.

Swiss scientist Dr. Rajendra Joshi and his wife Mrs. Ursula Joshi (RUJ Group) and SRM Technologies AG will join forces under the name RUJ & SRM Mechanics (or RS India) to provide solutions for precision metal parts processed with metal anodizing, painting, and heat treatment to the a wide range of manufacturing sectors such as medical, automotive, and aerospace, as well as polymechanical, machine automation, and laboratory technology.

 

Read more: “India’s RUJ Group Inaugurates Swiss Precision & Assembly Plant in JV with Switzerland-based SRM Technologies AG”

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Metals Manufacturer Marks Growth with Second Micro Mill in Oklahoma

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A steel and metals manufacturer based in Irving, Texas, which processes materials and services through a network of facilities that includes electric arc furnace (EAF) mini-mills and micro mills, recently dedicated a new micro mill in Durant, Oklahoma.

Barbara Smith, chairman, president, and CEO of CMC.

This is Commercial Metal Company’s second micro mill in Durant, supporting CMC’s processing and supply of steel and metals to a wide range of industries, including energy, construction, refractory, and transportation. The new technologically advanced facility will use a continuous manufacturing process which melts, casts, and rolls steel from a single uninterrupted strand, resulting in higher yields and lower energy consumption.

“We look forward to providing our customers with high-quality product combined with CMC’s outstanding service,” said Barbara Smith, chairman, president, and CEO of CMC.

 

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