Weifang Hengtong Radiator is increasing their efficiency and quality of their aluminum plate and bar heat exchangers with a semi-continuous controlled atmosphere brazing (CAB) furnace at their in-house heat treat operations.
Piotr Skarbiński Vice President of Aluminum and CAB Products Segment SECO/WARWICK
The SECO/WARWICK furnace was specifically designed for the production of plate & bar heat exchangers. The semi-continuous CAB system is based on a multi-stage cycle division. The line includes: a drying furnace, an entry washing chamber, a convection preheating and brazing chamber, an intermediate air seal cooling chamber, and a final direct cooling chamber. The semi-continuous mode ensures that even large-sized components are evenly heated during the proper process time.
“The semi-continuous Universal CAB System ensures shorter cycle time, lower investment costs, and higher process efficiency of each batch. These are the main advantages of the CAB system compared to vacuum brazing furnaces,” says Piotr Skarbiński, vice president of the Aluminum and CAB Products Segment at SECO/WARWICK Group.
The furnace is characterized by high flexibility, allowing the brazing of exchangers of various masses and dimensions in subsequent cycles while maintaining process parameters.
Press release is available in its original form here.
Heat Treat Today has gathered the four heat treat industry-specific economic indicators for October 2025. The October industry-specific economic indicators slowed after an intense upward surge was anticipated in September but still reflects anticipated growth for the heat treating industry.
October’s industry-specific economic indicators showed three indices in growth with one index dipping into contraction. The Inquiries stayed in growth, lowering to 50.6 (from 60 in September). Bookings held position in growth at 50.7 (down from 64.4 in September). The Backlog index slipped into contraction at 47.5 (down from 59.3 in September). Finally, the Health of the Manufacturing Economy index remained in growth at 52.8 (compared to 58.4 in September).
The graphs overall suggest that the undercurrent of growth, which began in late summer, is holding steady as we enter the fall season.
The results from this month’s survey (September) are as follows: numbers above 50 indicate growth, numbers below 50 indicate contraction, and the number 50 indicates no change:
Anticipated change in Number of Inquiries from July to August:50.6
Anticipated change in Value of Bookings from July to August: 50.7
Anticipated change in Size of Backlog from July to August: 47.5
Anticipated change in Health of the Manufacturing Economy from July to August: 52.8
Data for October 2025
The four index numbers are reported monthly by Heat Treat Today and made available on the website.
Heat TreatToday’sEconomic Indicatorsmeasure and report on four heat treat industry indices. Each month, approximately 800 individuals who classify themselves as suppliers to the North American heat treat industry receive the survey. Above are the results. Data started being collected in June 2023. If you would like to participate in the monthly survey, please click here to subscribe.
In this Technical Tuesday installment of Combustion Corner, Jim Roberts, president of U.S. Ignition, examines various burner nozzle shapes, sizes, and effects.Use this helpful resource to evaluate whether your own in-house heat treat burners are the right choice for your applications.
This informative piece was first released inHeat Treat Today’sSeptember 2025 Annual People of Heat Treat print edition.
A furnace guy walks into a bar and shouts “Straighten UP!” The other furnace guys turn to furnace guy #1: “It won’t work!” Just like last month. Let’s continue this topic.
What would you say if I asked you, “What does fire look like?” How would you describe fire to me — color, size, smell, temperature? It’s kind of a weird thing to try and do.
Figure 1. Fives Group’s North American Tempest
Last month, we ended by talking about how “air staged” burner design can make the flame exit the nozzle at a whopping 270 mph. There’s a reason that trade names for some of these burners are “Therm-Jet” and “Tempest” and “Hot Shot.” In these instances, velocity and turbulence are the game. The flame appearance is almost always a pinpoint tip, not dissimilar to what we have all seen spitting out of the tail of a fighter jet aircraft.
And, as an interesting aside, these high-velocity industrial burners can be victims of the same phenomena as a jet engine: flameouts. A tremendous amount of design time and testing has been dedicated to keeping the flame “retained” on the nozzle. If the flame lifts off the nozzle, cup, etc., it risks being blown out by the high-velocity stream of gases being produced in the guts of the burner. At these speeds, you cannot count on the burner backlighting, so a flame failure is imminent.
More Burner Types
The other types of nozzle-mixing burners are flat flame burners. These are sometimes called wall huggers or radiant wall burners. In these designs the idea is to have as little forward momentum to the flame as possible and to run the burners in a fuel-rich or highly luminous state. The design features are such that the whole wall of the furnace will be glowing radiantly and using radiation from the glowing walls to heat the product.
There are also infrared burners, where the burners are like a porous foam or screen grid and flame just glows on these surfaces. Again, the intent is radiant heat as opposed to velocity gases. These are very prevalent continuous production processes where radiant, consistent heat is required.
There are also radiant tube burners, where the flames are fired through an alloy or ceramic tube, and the flame is isolated from the process completely. The idea here is that the tube does not allow the products of combustion to make contact with the parts. Also, in most radiant tube furnaces, some sort of process atmospheres — comprised of a variety of gases to protect the products in the furnace from oxidation or to impart a metallurgic property to those parts — have been introduced to the chamber and the process.
As such, burner design engineers have to figure out how to give a very uniform heat delivery to the tube they are firing into. Many times, a burner will need to mix the air and gas very slowly (compared to direct fired furnace burners) to ensure the flame releases its radiation at a very uniform rate, so as to not distort the radiant tube itself. And the users of these variety of burners range from flame hardening to direct fired to indirect fired atmosphere processes and many more.
Figure 2. Fighter jet aircraft
We will continue this discussion point in subsequent columns because understanding these burners is critical to using them correctly. As for the original idea that flame shapes can affect all sorts of process performance, we will revisit this topic and others, because it’s all important. Different flame shapes can significantly impact combustion performance by influencing factors like flame speed, stability, heat release, and certainly one of the big design goals now, emissions reductions. We’ll tackle these topics in future columns.
Until then, I would suggest that you take a walk into the plant and check out the variety of burners that you may have. Let’s endeavor to find more about them and consider, “What would make this burner the right choice for this application?” Then, discover what you can learn about them and their history. We will tie that all together when we discuss the next installment.
Jim Roberts President US Ignition Contact Jim Roberts at jim@usignition.com
Bluewater Thermal Solutions has announced its first production order of Hard-Corr™ tubing to a Texas-based energy producer. The order contains 12,000 feet of tubing and will be installed during well operations commencing this month.
The product is 2-7/8-inch diameter, 32-foot long, Grade L80 1% chromium steel production tubing treated with Bluewater’s proprietary Hard-Corr surface technology. The process imparts enhanced corrosion, wear, and erosion resistance to both the inner and outer surfaces of the tubing, making it ideal for annular and annulus production wells.
“Our customers have relied on boronized tubing for years to combat corrosion and wear inside wells. Hard-Corr builds on that success offering enhanced protection compared to untreated tubing, plus added benefits and flexibility, at a lower overall cost,” said Craig Zimmerman, technical director for Bluewater Thermal Solutions.
While boronized tubing remains the established premium standard for inner-surface protection, Hard-Corr™ is engineered as a complementary, lower-cost alternative that maintains the mechanical integrity and strength of L80-grade steel. This allows operators to deploy it as a full-string solution from bottom to top while also gaining additional protection for the exterior surfaces.
The company is the largest supplier of boronized products and services to oil and gas producers in the Bakken and Permian shale plays.
Press release is available in its original form here.
Heat Treat Today publishes twelve print magazines annually and included in each is a letter from the publisher, Doug Glenn. This letter is from theAugust 2025 Automotive Heat Treat print edition.
The relationship between industry and higher-level educational institutions in North America is an interesting and evolving relationship. Unlike in Europe and Asia, the relationship is quite a bit less formal and far more scarce here. It is almost a foregone conclusion that leading industrial companies will have tight relationships with academic research institutions across Europe. The same is true in Asia, especially China, where many of the research institutes are government funded and are expected to assist with industry research projects. Of course, in both Europe and Asia, many companies are heavily subsidized by the government to conduct research. All in all, the relationships are more plentiful and tighter.
While there are thriving industry-academic relationships in North America, they are far less common, and they take a more practical, business-first approach. There are, however, a good number of strong relationships between educational institutions and the North American thermal processing industry. I’d like to mention three here in some depth and a few others briefly.
Illinois Institute of Technology Thermal Processing Technology Center (TPTC)
Without doing any thorough research, TPTC was perhaps one of the oldest industry-academic partnerships around. I was introduced to this partnership when Dr. Phil Nash, a professor at IIT, was the director of TPTC. That was back in the 1990s. I also know that our very own Dan Herring, the Heat Treat Doctor®, was supportive of the organization. TPTC reportedly shut down 10 years ago, but a webpage, which was not easy to find, indicates that it is now under the direction of Dr. Leon Shaw. After a quick review, there is a good bit about the academicians (professors and students) online, but I could not find any reference to industry partnerships or members. Nevertheless, TPTC was one of the go-to sources for industry for those who were interested in conducting ground-level research.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) Center for Heat Treat Excellence (CHTE)
The WPI CHTE remains quite active. Their website does not indicate the exact date that it was established, but I’m guessing the late 1990s or early 2000s. I remember its inception and the efforts of Diran Apelian, their first executive director. I recall that membership dues were steep, but there was a good bit of industry buy-in, including Surface Combustion, Houghton International (now Quaker Houghton), and ASM International.
Current industry partners include Bodycote, Aalberts, Thermatool, Dante, Arcelor Mittal, Pilot Precision Products, GKN Sintered Metals, Pratt & Whitney, DevCom, and Sikorsky. There are also many active industry-focused research projects. CHTE is led by Dr. Thomas Christiansen with the able assistance of Maureen Plunkett. More information about CHTE can be found at https://wp.wpi.edu/chte/.
Purdue University Purdue Heat Treat Consortium (PHTC)
Purdue is a relative newcomer but quite active. Under the leadership of Dr. Mark Grunninger and Dr. Mike Titus with assistance by Maddison DeLaney Walsh, PHTC has gained an impressive number of thermal processing end-user and supplier members, including Amsted Rail, California Pellet Mill (CPM), Caterpillar, Cummins, ECM USA Inc., Howmet Aerospace, Inductoheat, Inc., John Deere, Nucor, and Rolls-Royce. I believe that Quaker Houghton has also recently joined. The number of projects being conducted by this industry-focused consortium is also impressive. More details on PHTC are at https://engineering.purdue.edu/MSE/PHTC.
Others
Of course, there are many other universities around the country that cooperate with the industry to help advance real-world research. Many Heat Treat Today40 Under 40 honorees are graduates of these educational institutions. Here is a short — and I’m sure incomplete — list of other universities that have a proven relationships with the thermal processing industry:
Carnegie Mellon University
Colorado School of Mines
Michigan Technological University
New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University
Pennsylvania State University
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
San Diego State University
South Dakota School of Mines
The Ohio State University
University of Akron
Conclusion
Although the relationship between industry and education is less formal here in North America compared to Europe and Asia, the relationship does exist and can be tapped for the benefit of any company interested in using the great minds of up-and-coming engineers to help solve tomorrow’s challenges. If you’d like to contact any of the organizations listed above, please email me.
Doug Glenn Publisher Heat TreatToday For more information: Contact Doug at doug@heattreattoday.com
Vacu Braze, a provider of precision heat treating has announced an 18,000 square foot expansion to its headquarters in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The new expansion will increase the total footprint of the facility to over 58,000 square feet, enhancing operational efficiency, increasing production capacity, and supporting next-generation heat treating technologies.
“This expansion marks a significant milestone in Vacu Braze’s ongoing commitment to growth and service. Through this development, we will increase our capacity to meet customer demands,” said Kirk Palermo, vice president of Vacu Braze.
They provide heat treatment services for the aerospace, defense, medical, and industrial markets.
Press release is available in its original form here.
Hydrogen is essential for many heat treating processes, but what happens when your supply runs out?
In today’s episode of Heat TreatRadio,Devon Landry of Nel Hydrogen joins Heat TreatRadioHost Doug Glenn to discuss the potential risks of delivered gas and how on-site generation can secure reliable, high-purity hydrogen. This episode highlights the advantages of on-site generation and what questions to ask before making the switch.
Below, you can watch the video, listen to the podcast by clicking on the audio play button, or read an edited transcript.
The following transcript has been edited for your reading enjoyment.
Hydrogen Usage in Thermal Processing (4:05)
Doug Glenn: All right, let’s talk hydrogen. I think the first thing I’d like to do is talk about the basics, how hydrogen is used and what it’s used for in thermal processing.
Can you give us a 30,000-foot view on hydrogen and why are we using it in thermal processes?
Devon Landry: Hydrogen is widely used in heat treat and processing. It’s a powerful reducing agent for surface cleaning and sintering success.
Hydrogen scavenges oxygen, counteracting minor furnace leaks. Photo Credit: Nel Hydrogen
It has the highest heat conductivity of any gas, so we can enter and exit parts quicker. It has lower density relative to air and nitrogen, which makes it really straightforward to manage. It burns off easily, readily, cleanly. The only true byproduct of that would be water.
Doug Glenn: We are talking about the security of hydrogen supply.
How important is it for people who need hydrogen to have it, and what happens if they don’t have it — what are the risks here?
Devon Landry: My predecessor, Dave Wolff, used to say it’s like yeast for a pizzeria. It’s a very small part of the cost, but if you don’t have yeast, you don’t have pizza. If you don’t have pizza, you don’t have business. So if you don’t have hydrogen, you can’t really run your processes.
The same with running out of hydrogen. If you’re halfway through a batch and you run out of hydrogen, that whole batch is done. If that batch isn’t finished and you don’t have any hydrogen left, you don’t have business. You have to send employees home and stop your production. You can run into a lot of problems.
Doug Glenn: If you’re processing high-value parts, it’s not just a matter of simply running out of parts and not being able to finish the load. That load could be worth a quarter of a million dollars.
Devon Landry: That’s correct, the parts are completely done; you won’t be able to use those parts — it’s a completely wasted batch. So, you would lose money, not just from excess production, but that batch as well.
On-Site Hydrogen Generation vs. Supplied (06:25)
Doug Glenn: There’s different ways of getting your hydrogen, it can be supplied or Nel, the company you’re with, supplies the equipment to manufacture hydrogen on-site. What type of risks are companies exposing themselves to if they are not generating their own hydrogen?
Devon Landry: Delivered hydrogen is really the only other way to get your hydrogen, and that’s through industrial gas suppliers. I see a shortfall in the future, especially with liquid hydrogen production. There are many hydrogen plants that are getting canceled or delayed.
Supply chain and hydrogen requirements for Artemis rocket
You see, it costs a lot of money to make these plants, and if the financial advisors deem that the plant is not going to make money, they’re not going to do it.
For the Artemis rocket, that takes a full day’s production of liquid hydrogen in the U.S. to fill up. And there are many projects out there that are requiring liquid hydrogen, which is why I see a shortfall coming.
If you can’t get the hydrogen from your industrial gas supplier, where are you going to get it?
That’s where Nel Hydrogen comes in. With generating on-site, you take control of your hydrogen supply.
Doug Glenn: You mentioned that you foresee a lack of supply and that some of these hydrogen plants aren’t being approved.
Why aren’t these plants being approved to be built?
Devon Landry: They cost a lot of money to build and industrial gas companies have a long-term strategic focus, with capital discipline kind of upfront. If you’re going to build a plant and shareholders are not going to see any returns on it, then they’re not going to do it.
So we’ve seen a lot of cancellations. They haven’t really have a good commitment to shareholder value, and they emphasize on strong fundamentals there.
Doug Glenn: At one point in time, there was a lot of talk about hydrogen fuel cells. And everybody wanted to do hydrogen. I haven’t heard much about that recently. Do you think that might have something to do with the cooling off of the hydrogen market?
Devon Landry: Yes, I think so. There was a hydrogen world out there, and people really wanted to build new plants, have fueling stations. There’s so much you can do with hydrogen. But policies around hydrogen are affected by different administrations. With the current administration, they’re taking some of those incentives away. So there’s not as much money being provided as an incentive.
Doug Glenn: This is all the more reason to be very careful about your hydrogen supply. Not only your current hydrogen supply, but in the future. With politics and different administrations, sometimes hydrogen fuel cells is on, then it’s off. As a result, supplies may be a bit dicey. Therefore, it’s probably well worth people paying close attention to where they’re getting their hydrogen now and what the future looks like.
Your input is really important here.
Proton Exchange Membrane (10:23)
Hydrogen cleans part surfaces to enhance processing results. Photo Credit: Nel Hydrogen
Doug Glenn: Tell me about PEM; what does that stand for?
Devon Landry: PEM stands for proton exchange membrane. It’s a differential pressure system, where hydrogen is allowed to pass through the membrane but oxygen cannot.
We’re taking ultra pure water with a resistivity of greater than one mega ohm. That’s going through into the cell stack and the electrolysis takes place there. The hydrogen is allowed to pass through that membrane; the oxygen is not. So, the hydrogen goes towards the process.
Doug Glenn: Oxygen and/or water is the only byproduct.
Devon Landry: Yes, and it returns to the main reservoir, and that oxygen gets vented, either out of vent stack or into the room.
Doug Glenn: The primary markets that Nel Hydrogen serves are mostly industrial, and Nel can also do much larger units. Can you tell me about that?
Devon Landry: With alkaline and PEM both, we can do megawatt style units. I handle primarily the industrial units, and we can go all the way up to 100, 200, 300 megawatt systems — a very vast range.
Doug Glenn: Most businesses in our industry would not need that much, but it’s good for our people to know that you guys have expertise, not just in the sizes that are good for them, but larger sizes as well.
Nel Series hydrogen generators Source: Nel Hydrogen
PEM Process vs. Alkaline (12:05)
Doug Glenn: We have discussed the PEM process. Can you explain the difference between how the hydrogen is extracted from the PEM process vs. alkaline?
Devon Landry: The alkaline system uses KOH, which is highly corrosive and dangerous to handle. You have to fill it up, so there’s a safety aspect with that. In addition, the purity that you’re getting out of the alkaline process is not quite as high as PEM. I think it’s 90%, but it can be 97 to 98%.
With the PEM process, the only output you’re getting is hydrogen and some water, and we mitigate that water with a dryer inside the system. We get five nines purity plus: 99.999% purity plus.
You really need that purity in a lot of the heat treating processes to give you the coloration of the pieces that you’re putting through. With the industrial gas suppliers, you often have to pay a premium to have higher purity. Many times, when you send those cylinders or a tube trailer back to get it refilled, they do not test it to find out exactly what the purity is unless you specifically request that. So your purity might differ every now and then, which means you’re not going to get the exact effect on your process that you would like.
The way the industrial suppliers are making that hydrogen is through steam methane reforming. It’s very energy-intensive, and carbon is a major by-product of that process.
Our machines are as carbon free as your electricity supply line: if you’re feeding it with solar and wind energy sources, utilizing renewable energy, then you are at a zero carbon footprint.
Doug Glenn: You would have true green hydrogen. If your electricity supplier was green, then you would be really producing green hydrogen, which would be very good.
Delivered Gas vs. Hydrogen Generation (14:55)
Doug Glenn: What questions should companies be asking if they are considering moving away from bulk or delivered gas to on-site hydrogen generation?
Devon Landry: To have a hydrogen generator on-site, you need to know your flow and your pressure. There are going to be operational and capital costs.
The capital costs are a little larger with the hydrogen generator. So you’ll need to know how much gas you’re using and what pressure you’re using at. We have calculators to determine which unit would be best for you based on those questions.
If the capital costs are a little too high, which they are for some companies, then we do have leasing options that will help with that capital cost. We can break it down monthly, even for a 10-year period of what you would be spending for your delivered gas versus a hydrogen generator on-site.
Doug Glenn: So, you can do that analysis for businesses if they can provide their current expenditures for delivered hydrogen and usage, and then you can do a comparison to advise them on what it would cost if they were to transition to on-site generation?
Devon Landry: Yes, exactly. Industrial gas suppliers can come with a lot of bills, so you have to pay attention. There could be a trailer rental fees, cylinder rental fees, delivery fees — a lot of bills combining into one. They also generally require signing a contract with them that could be seven plus years, and you have to provide quite a long notice to be relieved of those contract obligations as well.
Doug Glenn: The capital cost could potentially be different, meaning probably more for an on-site generator for hydrogen. When you think of bulk gases, the operating costs are quite low for delivered gas.
How about operational costs for hydrogen?
Devon Landry: The cost of hydrogen generation is going to be the cost of your electricity. The price per kilowatt is going to tell you how much cost per standard cubic foot that you’re going to be paying for it.
Doug Glenn: Electricity is really the only major cost operationally. How about maintenance costs?
Devon Landry: The maintenance cost depends on which machine you select. We build maintenance costs right into the calculator that tells you how much the costs will be per year. There’s a quarterly maintenance cost, which is just basically a calibration, and then a yearly maintenance kit that you can put in yourself.
Doug Glenn:Do you need to have any special personnel to run it or is it self-maintaining?
Devon Landry: It pretty much takes care of itself. If there’s a problem with it, a pop up will let you know the problem, and you can go to the manual to learn exactly what the problem is. If you have a regular maintenance crew on site, many power plants have these, then you usually have somebody that can do it.
It’s generally filter changes and updates like that.
Community Perception on Hydrogen Generation (18:25)
Doug Glenn: Pertaining to public perception, how has the community responded to hydrogen generation?
Devon Landry: Most people like it better. We like to refer to it as the good neighbor benefit. Would you rather look outside and see a gigantic tank full of combustible gas or a quarter inch, stainless steel line?
Fire marshals love it because we store less than seven standard cubic feet on our biggest machine, internally.
And then when we hit the stop button, or if the generator shuts down, the hydrogen is all vented out into the atmosphere. There’s no stored hydrogen — only a minimal amount inside the machine.
Doug Glenn: No rocket ships in your backyard.
Devon Landry: Looking out the window, I’d rather see the sky and some bushes rather than a big tank.
Is Hydrogen Generation Right for Your Company? (19:30)
Doug Glenn: Are there instances where generating hydrogen on-site doesn’t make sense for a company or when bulk delivery is a better deal?
Devon Landry: This is why we have those calculators. I don’t need a company buying a generator if it’s not going to save them money or if it’s not going to be easier for you. It’s really only practical when you’re under 10,000 standard cubic feet per hour.
Doug Glenn: Is that amount for a very large industrial manufacturing plant?
Devon Landry: Yes, that’s quite a bit.
Doug Glenn: Is there any amount that’s too small in which it wouldn’t make sense to have a generator?
Devon Landry: No, our smaller generators put out about 10 standard cubic feet per hour, about 4.9 liters per minute, and it’s on-demand. If you need the smallest amount possible, they’ll put that out for you. If you don’t need any further for the interim, it will basically sit there in idle. These generators are fully on-demand and give you exactly what you need.
Doug Glenn: Which companies currently are out there that it really makes sense for them to look at on-site hydrogen generation?
Devon Landry: Really, anybody that needs hydrogen. If you’re not excited about your delivered hydrogen, if you’re having issues with it, if the cost is too high, we have a lot of different industries that we run with. Many are heat treating and metal processing business. There’s also chromatography, gas chromatography, MOCVD, many different industries. If you have delivered hydrogen, generating hydrogen on-site would be worth looking into.
Final Thoughts (22:45)
Doug Glenn: Where is the corporate headquarters or the world headquarters for Nel Hydrogen?
Devon Landry: Nel Hydrogen is headquartered in Oslo, Norway.
Doug Glenn: How long has company existed?
Devon Landry: It started in 1927.
Doug Glenn: Where’s the main headquarters in the U.S. or North America?
Devon Landry: We’re in, Wallingford, Connecticut, and all of our PEM machines are built there.
Doug Glenn: Very good. I’d like to thank all the everyone for listening.
Hopefully you found this episode enjoyable and informative. Thanks again, Devon. Appreciate you being here.
About the Guest
Devon Landry Senior Field Engineer and Technical Lead Nel Hydrogen
Devon Landry has been an integral part of Nel for 16 years, establishing himself as a leading expert in industrial on-site hydrogen generators. With over 15 years as a Senior Field Engineer and Technical Lead in Technical Service and Customer Support, he has played a key role in delivering top-tier service and expertise to Nel’s global customer base. His extensive experience includes traveling more than 3 million miles worldwide, working across diverse industries and customer sites.
Beyond his technical proficiency, Devon brings strong leadership and business acumen. As an entrepreneur, he successfully founded and managed a craft brewery and taproom in Connecticut for six years, leading a team of seven employees. This experience further enhanced his ability to blend technical expertise with strategic management and operations.
With around 250 new employees in the U.S., Poland, Germany, France, and China, the AICHELIN Group is expanding to over 1,350 employees. The deal represents the largest acquisition in the company’s history.
The acquisition expands the Group’s technology portfolio with leading expertise in nitriding furnaces. The integration of the NITREX sites will take place step by step in coordination with local leadership teams.
Christian Grosspointer CEO AICHELIN Group Source: AICHELIN Group, Tobias Fröhner
“This acquisition is an important step in the execution of our strategy. We want to grow meaningfully, with a strong foundation, local proximity, and technological excellence. Together with NITREX, we are combining know-how and regional strengths for the benefit of our customers, employees, and all stakeholders,” said Christian Grosspointner, CEO of the AICHELIN Group.
The AICHELIN Group has set a clear roadmap for sustainable growth and technological advancement. The focus is on diversification into new industries and applications, driven both by in-house development initiatives and targeted acquisitions.
Press release is available in its original form here. Earlier developments of this story were reported on by Heat Treat Todayhere.
Heat Treat Today is pleased to begin a new column series, Below Zero with Jack Cahn, co-founder of Deep Cryogenics International, a deep cryogenics treatment (DCT) company. In this series, Jack will explore the science, applications, limitations, and challenges of cryogenic treatment, including technology adoption, equipment, test methods, service providers, and end users.
This informative piece was first released inHeat Treat Today’sSeptember 2025 Annual People of Heat Treat print edition.
What is DCT?
So, what is DCT and how does it differ from shallow cryogenics (-60°F to -176°F)? DCT uses a 36-hour process at -230°F to -320°F, which refines atomic-level grain structure, precipitates carbides in alloys, triggers the TRIP/TWP effect, and increases dislocation density in metals. This results in 20-40% greater wear life, 10-20% higher yield strength, and 10-20% less corrosion.
Unlike heat treatment or coatings, DCT is non-toxic, chemical-free, and generates no environmental waste. It is low-cost, works on both ferrous and non-ferrous materials, supports mixed alloys during treatment, and allows economy-of-scale batch processing. However, despite academic backing, cost-effectiveness, and acceptance by the heat treat community, DCT has remained in the undeveloped backwater of material improvement processes.
DCT doesn’t work on all metals all the time. Despite early studies and claims of 200% benefit, DCT improvement depends on the alloy chemistry, the method of manufacture, prior heat treatment, and the item’s failure mode. While lab results show significant improvements, field results often fall short, requiring further research to match materials to specific benefits. Some materials don’t improve from DCT, while others show benefit only in a single metallurgical characteristic. Extensive applied research is needed to link each material alloy to specific end-use and actual benefits.
Limited Industrial Equipment and Scale-Up
Most DCT chambers are small, modified deep freezers with high LN2 consumption due to latent heat loss. Very few can handle large industrial volumes at the required low temperatures. Until recently, DCT has bottlenecked at early Technology Readiness Levels, which has slowed adoption, especially in sectors like energy, aerospace, and automotive.
Figure 2. The DCT process
No Certification, Acceptance, or Test Standards
While heat treatments are ISO, Nadcap and ASTM certified, DCT lacks similar standards, hindering widespread industry acceptance. Although sectors like motorsports and knife-making are advocates, they don’t require testing, limiting DCT’s scalability.
Lack of Collaboration Among DCT Service Providers
Figure 3. DCI President Linda Williams loading a 3,500-pound pump cyclone for DCT
The DCT industry is fragmented. We are generally independent service providers who offer localized DCT; some of us also build DCT chambers. Fewer than 50 companies globally offer DCT as a stand-alone service, and another 750-1,000 companies (mostly existing heat treaters) provide cryogenic treatment as an ancillary service. There are dozens of heat treat organizations, industry trade groups, and trade journals that share technical advice, innovation news, or a community forum — deep cryogenics has nothing like that. Just our individual company websites, occasional articles, and reliance on DCT “chatter.”
After discussing the industry’s challenges with Applied Cryogenics Inc. President Dr. Jeff Levine and DCI President Linda Williams, I reached out to 100 DCT providers, scientists, and industry professionals. About 25% responded — scientists curious about DCT, engineers interested in certification standards, heat treaters seeking greater opportunity, and service providers keen to work together — who supported the formation of a trade organization to:
Promote DCT technology awareness and adoption
Create a working group to develop DCT standards and certifications
Showcase companies, services, and products
Increase professionalism and quality in cryogenic treatment
Foster collaboration and knowledge-sharing
Both Megan Galeher and Anne DiPaola have offered to promote an emerging cryogenic treatment group under the CSA mantle, lending its scientific and professional credibility. Doug Glenn, publisher of Heat Treat Today, has offered similar support. Heat treaters have thrived globally by navigating the scale-up process and adhering to certification standards required by commercial and industrial users. They have also focused collaboratively on quality, innovation, and knowledge-sharing within their industry.
Figure 4. DCT of O&G slurry pump bushings
I believe a cryogenic treatment organization could launch under the combined CSA/heat treat umbrella. What do you think? Email your thoughts to me at jack@deepcryogenics.com, and I’ll share them in my next column. Thanks for welcoming DCT into the community!
About The Author:
Jack Cahn Chief Technologist Deep Cryogenics International
Jack Cahn is the chief technologist and co-founder of Deep Cryogenics International (DCT) — a U.S. cryogenic treatment facility and equipment manufacturer. With over 25 years conducting scientific testing and publishing technical articles, Jack and DCI President Linda Williams provide DCT awareness, adoption, equipment, and treatment services worldwide.
For more information: Contact Jack Cahn at jack@deepcryogenics.com.
