AFC-Holcraft

15 Quick Heat Treat News Items to Keep You Current

Heat Treat Today offers News Chatter, a feature highlighting representative moves, transactions, and kudos from around the industry.

Personnel and Company Chatter

• Leroy M. Ball has recently been appointed to the Board of Directors at Allegheny Technologies Incorporated (ATI). Ball, 50, is president and CEO of Koppers Holdings Inc.
• Heat Treat Today 2018 40 Under 40 recipient Matt Clinite of Ipsen USA has recently been promoted from Midwest Regional Sales Owner to Customer Service Sales Manager, effective immediately. Clinite joined the company in June 2014 as a Sales Engineer.
• Vesuvius plc recently announced that it has acquired CCPI Inc., a specialty refractories producer focused on tundish (steel continuous casting) applications and aluminum. Based in Ohio, CCPI will become part of Vesuvius’ Advanced Refractories business unit.
• Gasbarre has announced that the company will no longer be using the J.L. Becker name, but instead, are transitioning to its new name, Gasbarre Thermal Processing Systems. Thermal Processing Systems is one of the three new business units that now comprise Gasbarre Products, Inc. The other two units are Powder Compaction Solutions and Manufacturing Technologies.
• Marisa A. Oeltjen has been added to the Bluestreak I Bright AM™  team as customer success support specialist. Ryan Wenzel, working from Bluestreak I Bright AM™’s Northeast Ohio location, serves as a database analyst and key member of the tech support group.
• Howard Kimberley has joined Aeromet International as Chief Executive Officer. Kimberley has extensive experience in the aerospace industry including senior executive positions at GKN and Hampson Industries, and most recently as CEO of international aerospace group Shimtech since its formation in 2011.
• Abbott Furnace Company recently announced it will be hosting its Fifth Annual Continuous Brazing Symposium in Mexico this spring in Puebla, Mexico from May 21 – 23, 2019.

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  Equipment Chatter

• A European manufacturer of investment castings for the medical industry recently purchased a gas-fired pusher furnace from Armil CFS, Inc. The 2-row pusher furnace will be used for the burnout and pre-heating of investment casting molds.
• A midwestern facility of a US-based manufacturer of safety-critical fasteners and assembly solutions has purchased a new MB48-120 mesh belt furnace from AFC-Holcroft, replacing an older AFC-Holcroft installation. The new mesh belt furnace will be used in the production of metal fasteners.
• Several orders have been met by SECO/WARWICK for various equipment and systems: 1) An American manufacturer of flat rolled aluminum sheet recently added a new SECO/WARWICK sow and T-bar preheat furnace system 2) The main producer of forgings in Central Europe for strategic markets recently invested in a single-chamber furnace type PEK. 3) A manufacturer of high quality matrix forgings, construction connectors and manual tools purchased a CaseMaster AFS – a multipurpose Sealed Quench chamber furnace, intended for thermal and thermo-chemical treatment in a controlled endothermic atmosphere.  4) SECO/WARWICK provided an additional atmosphere generator system to a supplier of engineered carbon and graphite solutions for severe service lubrication applications in the aerospace, petrochemical, energy, industrial, and defense sectors. 5) The company updated and simultaneously extended a box furnace’s productive longevity for a leading international participant in the field of precious metals and advanced materials. 
• Lindberg/MPH announced the shipment of a single-zone tube furnace to an engineering company in the nuclear power industry.

Kudos Chatter

• U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly (PA) recently met with Onex Inc and members of NWIRC with the purpose of hearing firsthand from Onex employees about NIST MEP’s impact on Pennsylvania’s manufacturing industry.
• Dana Incorporated‘s motor and inverter joint venture, TM4, recently announced it has reached a major milestone with the production of its 12,000th TM4 SUMO™ electric powertrain for buses and commercial vehicles in China.
• For the ninth time, The Timken Company, a world leader in engineered bearings and power transmission products, has been recognized as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies. Ethisphere Institute is a global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices.

 

Special Mention

On Valentine’s Day, Thermcraft lost its founder, Mr. Morris L. Crafton, at 93. In 1971, Mr. Crafton and his wife Clara founded Thermcraft on the principle of providing the best customer service available in the thermal processing industry.

Born in West Palm Beach, Florida, Mr. Crafton grew up in North Carolina and served in the US Navy during WWII, and then after college, he was called again to serve his country during the Korean War. After his military service, Mr. Crafton  moved his family to Washington, PA, where he ran a popcorn business and, in time, became a partner in a business that manufactured replacement heating elements for industrial and laboratory furnaces.

After returning to North Carolina, he decided to start his own company. With the full support of his wife Clara, they secured a small warehouse in downtown Winston Salem and began making replacement heating elements for industrial and laboratory furnace applications.

Thermcraft was moved to its current facility in 1979, just a few miles south to the edge of Winston Salem. Through new product development and various acquisitions, the Craftons began to grow Thermcraft into the company it is today.

Mr. Crafton lost Clara to cancer in 1995. He eventually turned the reigns of Thermcraft over to his son Tom, but that didn’t stop Mr. Crafton from being involved in the day-to-day business. He continued to drive himself to work well into his 92nd year, making mail runs and performing various other tasks. He enjoyed a daily walk through the factory, talking to his employees and staying on top of what was going on within his company.

Mr. Crafton will be missed by all who knew him. He will be remembered as a strong leader who was kind and generous to those around him. He had a great sense-of-humor and often left those he met with the saying, “glad you got to see me.”

“We are certainly glad we had the opportunity to meet you, Mr. Crafton,” is the sentiment of all at Thermcraft.

Heat Treat Today offers its condolences to the family of Mr. Morris Crafton and the team at Thermcraft.

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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.