Gasbarre Furnace Group/J.L. Becker

15 Quick Heat Treat News Items to Keep You Current

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

  • The purchase of a producer of fixtures and parts in refractory alloys for heat treatment, steel, incineration, power generation, automotive, and aerospace industries was recently announced. The Safe-Cronite business unit of the Safe Group was purchased by its CEO Pierre Wittmann and a group of managers in partnership with investment funds driven by CICLAD.
  • The central laboratory of H.C. Starck, known until recently as H.C. Starck Analytical Services, announced it became an independent company with the name ChemiLytics GmbH & Co. KG. The new company will remain part of the H.C. Starck Group. The company is presented on its new webpage www.chemilytics.com to provide interested customers with an overview of the company, its core competencies, and service range.
  • Paulo, a supplier of heat-treating services for a wide range of industries headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, officially inaugurated its first plant outside the U.S., located at the GP Escobedo industrial park in the municipality of Escobedo, Nuevo Leon. The facility started operations earlier this year providing proprietary heat-treatment processes for the automotive industry in a 50,000 square-feet footprint which is expected to expand up to 110,000 sq.-ft as new equipment keeps coming into the plant in order to serve manufacturers of aerospace components and agriculture equipment, among others.
  • A leading producer of semi-fabricated specialty aluminum products Kaiser Aluminum Corporation recently announced that it has acquired Imperial Machine & Tool Co., a leader in multi-material additive manufacturing and machining technologies for aerospace and defense, automotive, high-tech, and general industrial applications.

Equipment Chatter

  • Ipsen USA recently announced several furnace shipments, including several TITAN® vacuum furnaces from the platform product line, several custom horizontal and vertical vacuum furnaces and multiple atmosphere box furnaces all designed to meet customers’ specifications. Many of these shipments also included PdMetrics® software for predictive maintenance.
  • Gasbarre recently designed, manufactured, and commissioned a large capacity gas-fired temper furnace for a major specialty alloy manufacturing company located in the Northeastern portion of the United States. The furnace is designed to temper workloads that are 32 feet wide by 6 feet long by 4 feet high and weigh up to 40,000 lbs. The furnace utilizes the latest design and control technologies to achieve excellent temperature uniformity (±10°F) across a wide temperature range (800°F to 1400°F)
  • A new Hot Isostatic Press will soon be in operation at Lake City Heat Treating, expanding their Hot Isostatic Press capabilities for the aerospace and medical industries. With a much larger capacity of 2,000 pounds per load, Lake City will be able to expand load sizes and meet customer turnaround requirements. The new press will be housed in their new 6,000 square foot addition.
  • Solar Atmospheres of Western PA recently commissioned a new 20-foot car bottom furnace that has a total load capacity of up to 30,000 pounds. The Class 2 furnace, built by John Becker’s Heat Treat Equipment Inc., located in Canton, Michigan, was installed and fully tested for the first time in Hermitage, PA. This new piece of equipment will serve to compliment Solar’s lower temperature work – especially where surface oxidation is of little concern. It will also be used to economically process many “downstream” processes, including multiple tempering operations, which typically follow vacuum austenitizing treatments.
  • Quintus Technologies supplied a hot-isostatic press to a Chinese manufacturer to complement the additive manufacturing capabilities at Xi’an Bright Laser Technologies Co., Ltd. BLT produces 3DP parts in titanium and aluminum alloys, superalloys, and stainless, die, and high-strength steels, for a range of industrial applications, including automotive engine and structural parts, aircraft engine and structural components, mold/die, energy, electronics, and other customer segments.

Kudos Chatter

  • Materion Corporation recently announced that the Society of Automotive Engineers – Aerospace Material Specification Nonferrous Alloys Committee (SAE-AMS) has approved AMS4369 specification for SupremEX® 225XF metal matrix composite (MMC) and AMS4379 for SupremEX 225XE MMC. This represents the second AMS specification for SupremEX 225XE and applies to the extruded form of the material. With the two recently added specifications, the company now has a total of four AMS specifications for its SupremEX line of products, allowing engineers to reference a national standard for material properties.
  • Worcester Polytechnic Institute recently presented its 2018 Innovator of the Year Award to metallurgical pioneer Diran Apelian. The first WPI faculty member to receive the honor, Apelian is the founding director of WPI’s Metal Processing Institute, an internationally recognized researcher and educator, and a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.
  • ASM International recently recognized several members for achievement at its ASM Awards Banquet, held in Columbus, OH on October 16, 2018. In addition, ASM International Trustee-Elects have been selected to serve on the 2018-2019 ASM Board of Trustees. ASM International’s trustees are charged with acting in the best interests of the society’s membership and help to lead the governance of the society. The ASM officers and trustees were officially installed in office at ASM’s Annual Meeting on October 15, 2018, also in Columbus, OH. Details can be found at ASM International’s website: https://www.asminternational.org/membership/awards/photos
  • Kanfit Ltd., a leading manufacturer of assemblies and subassemblies for the aerospace industry, announced today that it has recently achieved Nadcap re-certification for chemical processing and heat treatment following thorough audits of the Performance Review Institute. Kanfit was awarded recertification of Chemical Processing and is qualified for full Nadcap merit status of 24 months. This means that the frequency between audits has been increased from 18 months to two years. Kanfit has been Nadcap accredited for chemical processing since 2013 and has been accredited by Nadcap for heat treating since 2008.
  • GE Aviation recently produced 30,000th 3D printed fuel nozzle at its Auburn, Alabama, plant.
  • Surface Combustion Inc., Maumee, Ohio, has recently updated its website, which provides details about its standard atmosphere and vacuum furnace designs. Not only is the website mobile friendly, but also thermal processing solutions on the product, industry, and process pages are easier to navigate.

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.

15 Quick Heat Treat News Items to Keep You Current Read More »

15 Quick Heat Treat News Items to Keep You Current

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

  • Advanced Heat Treat Corp (AHT), which provides heat treat services and metallurgical solutions, announced today the addition of three new sales and marketing employees: Vasko PopovskiJason Taylor, and Lindsey Newcomb. Popovski will focus on heat treat needs in the Great Lakes area. Taylor will cover sales in the southeast region of the country. Newcomb, Marketing Manager in the corporate office located in Iowa
  • Dr. Guido Kleinschmidt, who is a member of the Managing Board of SMS group GmbH, is the new President of METEC, the International Metallurgical Trade Fair and Congresses from 25 to 29 June 2019. He was elected unanimously at the recent meeting of the steering committee of the four trade fairs GIFA, METEC, THERMPROCESS, NEWCAST. The election was necessary because the former METEC President Marcel Fasswald had left SMS group to join Thyssengroup Industrial Solutions AG as Chief Operating Officer.
  • Giantonio Toldo, Operations Manager for Element Materials Technology (Element) Padova laboratory in Limena, Italy, has been appointed as the Vice President of the Italian Association for Metallurgy’s (AIM) Technical Committee for the Control and Characterization of Materials.
  • OMG Inc. recently announced four promotions in supply-chain management and operations: Wayne Ringenbach was promoted to director of Manufacturing, which includes heat treating; Brad Bedard was promoted to director of Supply Chain Management;  Chris Mowatt was promoted to director of Manufacturing Engineering; and Geri McCarthy was promoted to director of Operations.
  • Samuel, Son & Co., Mississauga, Ontario, has acquired Sierra Aluminum, Riverside, California. Sierra is a supplier of aluminum extrusions and related products to a number of end markets, including construction and transportation. Sachin Shivaram has been named president of Sierra Aluminum Group, following Ed Harris’s decision to retire from the company.

Equipment Chatter

  • A heat treating equipment supplier based in Plymouth, Michigan, recently shipped a pair of 36” x 48” x 36” electrically heated temper furnaces to a major drive supplier in the Southeast. Gasbarre Furnace Group/J. L. Becker designed the furnaces, which operate from 300°F to 850°F with a temperature uniformity of ±5°F, to preheat workloads prior to hardening and temper workloads after hardening.
  • An India-based conglomerate recently contracted Can-Eng Furnaces International Limited to design, manufacture, install, and commission an aluminum automotive casting heat treatment system for its new greenfield North American expansion in South Carolina. The new system will service three distinct aluminum product groups with unique treatment cycles.
  • A global manufacturer of thermal-processing equipment recently shipped a custom Gruenberg bench oven to the movable machinery industry. The bench oven is rated for Class B operation per the NFPA 86 specifications. Thermal Product Solutions (TPS) designed this bench oven to be used in the customer’s testing and product development department to process various mechanical apparatuses affixed to a Ling Dynamic Electronic Shaker. The maximum temperature rating of this Class B oven is 1022°F (550°C) and the work chamber dimensions are 36” W x 36” D x 36” H. In addition, TPS delivered a Gruenberg cabinet oven to the research and development industry. This Class B oven will process up to 5 gallons of water per batch from 1500 lbs of metal powder. The maximum temperature rating of this Class B cabinet oven is 250° F and the work chamber dimensions are 48” W x 48” D x 48” H. Both Gruenberg ovens are constructed from a structural steel frame that supports the fully welded 304 stainless steel chamber liner and the exterior sheet metal.
  • Grieve has built a 1,250°F, horizontal airflow cabinet oven used for heat treating at the customer’s facility. With workspace dimensions of 38" by 38" by 38", it has 12"-thick insulated walls comprising 2" of 2,300°F ceramic blanket and 10" of 10 lb./cu. ft. density Rockwool.
  • A vacuum space simulation system was recently shipped to a company that manufactures equipment for space. Tenney Environmental designed this system to test ionic thruster chips for space vehicle systems. The simulator will allow the customer to test their products in-house, while replicating outer space conditions. The dual cryopump vacuum system is sized specifically to maintain the high vacuum while the thrusters are firing inside the vessel.
  • An industrial manufacturer recently purchased a custom car bottom furnace from LEWCO, based in Sandusky, Ohio. The electrically heated oven, which is rated for a maximum temperature of 1,300°F., is used for annealing steel parts, featuring a workspace of 72”W x 140”D x 90”H, and manufactured and designed to NFPA 86 “Class B” standards.

Kudos Chatter

  • Liebherr-Aerospace Toulouse SAS, center of excellence for aerospace air management systems within the Liebherr Group, has obtained accreditation from NADCAP (National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program) for its Materials Testing Laboratory.
  • A leading provider of vacuum impregnation technology, Godfrey & Wing, passed its transition audit for ISO 9001:2015/IATF 16949 certification from Smithers Quality Assessments (SQA), an accredited third-party registrar. The IATF 16949:2016 certification is the recently published revision to ISO/TS 16949: 2009, one of the most widely used international standards in the automotive industry. The standard acts as a supplement to ISO 9001: 2015 for automotive quality management systems.
  • Bonnell Aluminum, a subsidiary of Tredegar Corporation also recently announced that its aluminum extrusion manufacturing facility in Newnan, Georgia, has achieved certification under IATF 16949:2016.
  • In January of 2018, Logik Precision Inc. (LPI), a CNC machining, water jet, EDM and welding/fabrication service provider primarily operating in the oil & gas industry, selected QMSC, which provides quality management consulting services and is the developer of QMS, to provide professional consulting services to transition the organization from ISO 9001:2008 to the current revision of 2015. QMSC performed gap audit, completed revisions to the quality management system, performed employee training, and represented LPI during the registrar audit which was conducted on July 11th and 12th. Logik Precision successfully demonstrated compliance and commitment to its quality program. The audit was closed with zero findings and no observations. QMSC will provide ongoing fractional Quality Director services to assist LPI with continuous improvement.

 

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.

15 Quick Heat Treat News Items to Keep You Current Read More »