A major North American steel producer recently announced a $70.3 million investment project at the same facility that underwent a $155.6 million overhaul three years ago, launching an upgrade that will include a new electric arc furnace (EAF) transformer, controls and mechanical upgrades in the EAF, and a new twin ladle furnace and material handling system. The culmination of these investments will increase Gerdau Special Steel North America’s shipping capacity to 720,000 tons, a 180,000-ton increase from the current shipping capacity.
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.”
When designing for manufacturability (DFM) for aerospace applications, should a design team commission a comprehensive feasibility study? In this article from Precipart, which designs and manufactures high precision custom gears and mechanical components for the medical technology, aerospace and industrial sectors, read about application-specific requirements, concerns with production tooling, and tolerance of materials for post-fabrication processes, including heat treatment:
key specifications of a gear or motion control system
potential design issues that may occur throughout the life of a device; for example, how heat treatment, among other post-fabrication processes,
recommendations to address performance issues in various environments and conditions
A leading provider of metal additive manufacturing (AM) solutions announced recently that it delivered an industry-leading Electron Beam Additive Manufacturing (EBAM®) system to the Global Research & Innovative Technology (GRIT) facility of a major Japanese automotive supplier, making it the first Asia-Pacific installation.
Scott Phillips, president and CEO of Sciaky, Inc
Hitachi Metals, Ltd., based in Kumagaya, Japan, purchased the EBAM 110 system from Sciaky, Inc., a subsidiary of Phillips Service Industries, Inc., (PSI). The dual wirefeed configuration included in the system allows for the combination of two different metal alloys into a single melt pool, managed with independent program control, to create custom alloy parts or ingots. Users also have the option to alternate between different wire gauges for finer deposition features (thin wire) and gross deposition features (thick wire) to meet unique part specifications.
Hitachi Metals supports four business segments: specialty steel products, magnetic materials and applications, functional components and equipment, as well as wires, cables and related products.
“Sciaky is proud to extend our industry-leading technology with Hitachi Metals,” said Scott Phillips, president and CEO of Sciaky, Inc. “This is an important milestone for the industrial metal 3D printing market in Japan, and the forward-thinking leaders at Hitachi Metals are blazing a new trail for the Asia-Pacific region.”
Plant tours are all the rage these days, but a heat treating company in the United Kingdom takes the concept to a whole new level — to several levels, in fact.
In a new video, twelve times Trial World Champion, trial motorbike rider extraordinaire Dougie Lampkin takes on the Wallwork Group’s Manchester heat treatment plant in a thrilling two-minute ride, where no obstacle is too high – or too hot!
“We had seen Dougie’s work before, not least Red Bull’s F1 factory, and thought that it would be an exciting and engaging way to show a brief glimpse into the world of metal heat treatment,” explained Wallwork sales manager, Howard Maher.
Wallwork is headquartered in Bury, Greater Manchester, and also has plants in Newcastle, Birmingham, and Cambridge. The company provides metal heat treatment, vacuum brazing, and hard coatings services to aerospace, motorsport, medical device and other precision industries.
“Dougie is a high-profile, professional motorcycle sportsman, so this also fits nicely with our autosports market and by association other industries such as aerospace that share the same requirements,” Howard added.
Dougie’s professional career has spanned over 25 years, lifting his first trophy in 1991, collecting silverware up to 2017 and he is still looking for even more in 2018. Awarded an MBE in 2001, his autobiography, Dougie Lampkin – Trials and Error, was launched on May 17th this year.
“We are really pleased with the video and it was a pleasure opening up the works to Dougie’s special way of riding. And our health and safety guy is able to relax now it is all done!,” Howard concluded. The two minute video can be viewed below or at the Wallwork website.
From the Editor: May is Military Appreciation Month, and Monday, May 28, 2018, is Memorial Day, on which we are called to remember those who died in active military service. The staff at HeatTreatToday is thankful for those who made that great sacrifice and grateful to be able to honor those who have served. We salute our military heroes past and our veterans with this post about the heat treat industry and military staffing. Heat TreatToday will not publish on Monday, May 28, 2018.
Finding good, qualified workers in today’s labor pool is the critical issue facing any industry.
The workers are just not in the marketplace. To help MTI members win the battle for finding qualified people, MTI signed a partnership with the largest military veteran staffing firm in America, Bradley-Morris, Inc (BMI). Bradley-Morris is a leader in helping transfer military veterans back into the corporate and manufacturing workplace.
A few reasons companies may want to take advantage of this very valuable new service, according to MTI:
Every year over 200,000 military veterans transfer out of the military into the public workspace.
72% are under the age of 30.
Geography is not an obstacle. Relocation assistance costs are covered by the government for many transitioning military persons.
Bradley Morris is the leading military staffing firm for placing veterans into civilian jobs upon separation.
MTI members receive a special, pre-negotiated, below market placement fee.
MTI is the Metal Treating Institute, a non-profit trade association that represents the largest network of commercial heat treaters in the world with members in 40 states and 8 countries. MTI’s network services every major industry and performs every heat treating process required. Heat TreatToday is a proud member of MTI.
For more information on MTI’s partnership with Bradley-Morris, Inc, particularly for links to case studies on the successful hiring of military personnel and other resources related to the process of hiring military veterans, visit here: MTI: Military Staffing
Attendees of a three-day heat treatment skills course received an extensive overview of furnace equipment, processes, maintenance, including hands-on training and casual open-discussion for all levels of experience in the heat-treating industry.
The first Ipsen U class of the year was held in April for participants from several states, including California, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Ohio, as well as from other countries, including Israel and Mexico.
The instruction included an extensive range of topics from an introduction to vacuum and atmosphere furnaces to heat treating, furnace controls, subsystems, maintenance; examination of the different furnace components firsthand while learning how they affect other parts of the furnace and/or specific processes; and participation in a leak detection demonstration.
Ipsen has announced that its series of Ipsen U classes will continue June 5-7, August 7-9, and October 2-4.
Franz Rotter, member of the Management Board of voestalpine AG and head of the High Performance Metals Division
A recent groundbreaking ceremony in Kapfenberg, Austria, marked the inauguration of a new benchmark in plant design that will set international standards in digitization of production processes, including heat treatment, high-tech surface treatment, and additive manufacturing, for a global steelmaker.
The three-year construction phase for the new voestalpine special steel plant will, from 2021 onwards, will produce around 205,000 tons of special high-performance steels, especially for the international aviation and automotive industries as well as for the oil & gas sector.
The new high-tech special steel plant, once operative, is intended to replace the existing voestalpine Böhler Edelstahl GmbH & Co KG plant in Kapfenberg and designed to produce premium quality pre-materials for aircraft components, tools for the automotive industry, equipment for oil & gas extraction, and for the 3D printing of highly complex metal parts.
A vacuum heat treater which specializes in processing components for aerospace and medical applications recently announced an addition to its facility in Warsaw, Indiana, for the purpose of housing newly acquired equipment.
Lake City Heat Treating has expanded with the construction of a 6,000-square foot addition to accommodate growth in production and an increase in its heat treating capabilities. The new building allows Lake City Heat Treating the space to bring in new machines and equipment, including a new hot isostatic press in late fall 2018.
Lake City Heat Treating provides heat treating of stainless steels, cobalt and nickel alloys and vacuum heat treatable steels for aerospace, medical and other quality-critical industries, as well as cryogenic, hot isostatic pressing, and tempering services.
Karl Purkarthofer, senior vice president and global head of Metallurgical Services, Primetal Technologies
A predictive maintenance (PdM) service and technology company based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, recently signed an exclusive cooperation agreement with a global engineering, plant-building, and lifecycle services partner for the metals industry covering the application of predictive maintenance solutions in steel-related industries worldwide.
Primetals Technologies, based in London, United Kingdom, and the Pennsylvania-based Industrial Technology Research (ITR) have been working together successfully in the field of condition monitoring for more than 10 years and jointly serve currently more than 50 customers. In the mid-1970’s, ITR, one of the founders of the vibration monitoring and analysis industry, started as a research and development initiative in one of the world’s largest steel producers and quickly became a leading provider of these technologies and services. ITR serves steel-related industries worldwide, including flat and long rolling, iron and steel making as well as casting, with predictive maintenance offerings that include all major predictive maintenance technologies, such as infrared thermography, airborne ultrasound, and fluids analysis.
“With the technology, know-how, and capabilities of ITR, especially in the area of prediction, we will be able to even better serve our customers through leading condition monitoring and predictive maintenance solutions,” stated Karl Purkarthofer, senior vice president and global head of Metallurgical Services.
Photo caption: Primetals Technologies and ITR team up on predictive maintenance solutions: Jonathan Davis, CEO at ITR (center left) and Karl Purkarthofer, Head of Metallurgical Services at Primetals Technologies (center right), shake hands on the occasion of the signing ceremony.
