The heat treat industry is one of people transitioning and companies executing business, achieving goals, and receiving acknowledgments. Heat Treat Today begins a feature highlighting representative moves, transactions, and kudos from around the industry.

Personnel Changes and Moves

• The Solar Atmospheres Greenville, South Carolina, facility recently announced that Gabriel Giraldo accepted the position of Sales Engineer and will be

  

  responsible for supporting relationships with existing customers and developing new business within the region. Prior to accepting this position, Giraldo worked in the heat treat industry as a mechanical engineer serving a broad spectrum of metalworking industry sectors, including aerospace and defense.

• Bloom Engineering recently welcomed Mr. Kip Bailey as a full-time Field Service Technician. Mr. Bailey brings experience in both combustion and specific process knowledge via his work as a furnace builder.
• Sue Harrod has been appointed chief operating officer (COO) of Diablo Furnaces LLC, a Machesney Park, Illinois-based, company that manufactures, refurbishes, upgrades, services, and supplies parts for atmospheric heat-treating equipment. Harrod has worked in the thermal-processing industry for 25 years in supporting and leading roles at BeaverMatic, Ipsen, and Diablo Furnaces.

Equipment Transactions

• German heat-treating systems manufacturer IVA Schmetz received a new order for five vacuum hardening furnaces from Taiwan to be delivered to a leading steel supplier with

  

  various locations throughout the country. IVA Schmetz is supported by the local partner Pan Folks, who is also responsible for commissioning the furnaces. The order is part of a larger investment project which also includes seven vacuum annealing furnaces delivered by IVA Schemtz's sister company BMI in France.

• Hirschvogel Automotive Group from Denklingen in Bavaria and Sacotec Components Oy in Finland, a company specializing in

  

  precision steel casting, each ordered cast link belt furnaces from Slovenian industrial furnace manufacturer Bosio, part of the Aichelin Group. A cast link belt furnace more than 22 meters in length with a performance of two tons of forged parts per hour went to Hirschvogel. Sacotec's order was for a shaft furnace for carburization of small parts.

• An electrically heated, gas nitriding, pit furnace with an ammonia dissociator system for heat treating parts has been shipped to a technology manufacturer by Lindberg/MPH.  The pit furnace has a maximum temperature rating of 1250°F and work chamber dimensions of 28" diameter x 36" depth.

• Shougang Jingtang United Iron & Steel, China, contracted Fives to design and supply a new galvanizing line furnace and inductors dedicated to the production of ultra high-strength steels at its Caofeidian facility. This is the sixth Fives furnace at this location.
• Pirson Refractories installed the hearth refractory lining of Blast Furnace 2 at Arcelor Mittal Bremen.

Accreditations, Certifications, Patents, and More

• Solar Atmospheres of Western PA expanded its mechanical testing capabilities to include tensile testing. In the summer of 2017, Solar tookdelivery of a new Tinius Olsen 300SL Universal testing machine, as well as a new Haas Model TL-1 CNC lathe in order to custom machine test specimens. Currently, many aerospace specifications demand at least one tensile test to be performed on each heat lot of material and/or for every furnace load of components being heat treated. Previously outsourcing tensile testing, Solar is now able to avoid delay due to shipping and transporting test specimens to these labora

  

  tories.

• Heat Treatment Australia (HTA Group) and its corporate and strategy director Karen Stanton were recently featured in a news article, "Risks Paying Off in a New Age of Manufacturing", published in Australia's Courier-Mail, drawing attention to the firm's investment "in research and development and machinery to position itself to become part of the multinational Joint Strike Fighter program" as part of a nationwide growth in manufacturing.

• High-performance tubing supplier Fine Tubes announced it received Nadcap accreditation for fluid distribution systems.

  

  The Plymouth, UK-based, company already holds accreditations for heat treating, non-destructive testing, fusion welding, and chemical processing, and the five achievements qualify Fine Tubes for the industry-recognized AS5620 industry standard required by Boeing for its suppliers of titanium hydraulic tubing.

• Ipsen was awarded U.S. Patent No. 9,719,149 B2 for the development of a new load transport mechanism that can move a load within a multi-station heat-treating system. Named inventors on the patent, Chief Engineer Craig Moller, Director of Engineering and Supply Chain Kevin Woerner, and Dr. W. Hendrik Grobler began developing this design five years ago.
• Dana Incorporated was named Supplier of the Year by Blue Bird Corporation, a leading independent designer and manufacturer of school buses. Dana earned this top honor by introducing new products that align with Blue Bird's commitment to delivering innovative, market-leading technologies. Dana supplies Blue Bird with a complete range of drivetrain solutions including Spicer^® medium- and heavy-duty single-drive axles, SPL^® Series driveshafts, and Spicer end yokes.
• Wisconsin Oven Corporation announced the company is pursuing new patents for equipment most commonly used in the aerospace industry, as well as a patent for “intelligent” oven technology, where the oven is able to monitor certain processes.

Heat Treat Today is pleased to join in the announcements of growth and achievement throughout the industry by highlighting them here on our News Chatter page. Please send any information you feel may be of interest to manufacturers with in-house heat treat departments especially in the aerospace, automotive, medical, and energy sectors to the editor at editor@heattreattoday.com.