penna flame industries

MTI Prepares for Nadcap with Rigorous Special Meeting

/ FEATURED NEWS, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT NEWS
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The Metal Treating Institute (MTI) hosted a special meeting for members at the Embassy Suites by Hilton in Downtown Pittsburgh, PA, on Monday, October 17, to review key Nadcap and AMEC topics. During the meeting, members addressed challenges that heat treaters face in Nadcap/audit compliance, how to navigate audits more effectively, and what suggestions to present to the Nadcap committee so that heat treaters would be better equipped for audits.

MTI’s Technical Standards Committee Co-Chairs Bob Ferry, VP of Engineering and Quality at FPM Heat Treat, and Edward (Ed) Engelhard, VP of Corporate Quality at Solar Atmospheres, facilitated the meeting. It was hosted by Tom Morrison, CEO MTI Management, and Jim Orr, president of Penna Flame Industries and current president of MTI. Several attendees who made particularly significant contributions to the discussion were; Doug Shuler, lead auditor at Pyro Consulting, LLC; and Roy Adkins, director of Corporate Quality at Braddock Metallurgical and recipient of the 2022 MTI Award of Industry Merit.

A Room Full of MTI members
Including (l-r): Doug Glenn, Ed Engelhard, Bob Ferry, and Doug Shuler

At the meeting, attendees identified the number one challenge in Nadcap/audit compliance is understanding and implementing new Nadcap revisions; a close second was the challenge of ensuring quality when auditors give different feedback. These challenges were addressed in the meeting, especially when discussing two specific topics: first, Auditee Advisories – Type P (Potential Product Impact) and Type C (Confirmed Product Impact) as well as Audit Observations.

Several key points that came out of these discussions were to (1) always read up on the most recent revisions in order to be confident in your compliance with quality standards; (2) be sure to reference objective evidence on the Nadcap Checklist questions to help facilitate the audit; (3) let the Nadcap auditor do their job but address any clarifications/follow-ups to the staff engineer immediately; (4) investigate immediately when receiving a Type P write-up so that you can ask the auditor to add a comment on the limits of that product impact; and finally (5) always push-back on findings that are clearly not valid so that they are “voided” by the Performance Review Institute (PRI).

Another main point of the meeting was to address AMS2750H, an update consisting of editorial and language updates for added clarity.

Lastly, the facilitators of the meeting addressed aerospace standard AS13100: AESQ Quality Management System Requirements for Aero Engine Design and Production Organizations. The standard seeks to harmonize and simplify supplier quality requirements among the major aero engine manufacturers, supplemental to standard AS9100. This standard is in the process of being flowed down to the supply chain and compliance is required January 1 of 2023, meaning that heat treaters have a couple months to get up to standard.

This special meeting happens each year during the October Nadcap meeting in Pittsburgh, PA. MTI encourages heat treaters to attend the Nadcap meetings to share their invaluable voice to guide industry standards.

Photo caption for main image: Jim Orr speaks to members of MTI.

Find heat treating products and services when you search on Heat Treat Buyers Guide.com

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Celebrate January 6th: National Technology Day!

/ BRAZING TECHNICAL CONTENT, FEATURED NEWS, HARDENING TECHNICAL CONTENT, HIPING TECHNICAL CONTENT, INDUCTION HEATING TECHNICAL CONTENT, MANUFACTURING HEAT TREAT, NITRIDING TECHNICAL CONTENT

OCWhat’s new in heat treat? A LOT.

Over the past year, we’ve seen numerous new technologies in the way of research, new partnerships, and conversations throughout the industry. So in honor of today being #NationalTechnologyDay, we’re sharing an original content article about just several of these new technologies that are changing the work of heat treaters across North America.

Research

Using HIP to Advance Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Center Programming – “‘Today’s globally competitive manufacturing industry demands rapid innovations in advanced manufacturing technologies to produce complex, high-performance products at low cost,’ observes Dr. Mostafa Saber, associate professor of Manufacturing & Mechanical Engineering Technology at Oregon Tech.”

College Students Implement a NEW Heat Treat Solution with Induction? – “‘We were in shock,’ Dennis admitted, ‘because we didn’t expect it to [work].’ The expectation, Dennis continued, was that something would go wrong, like the lid would not be able to clamp down, or the container would leak.”

The Age of Robotics with Penna Flame Industries – “The computerized robotic surface hardening systems have revolutionized the surface hardening industry. These advanced robots, coupled with programmable index tables, provide an automation system that helps decrease production time while maintaining the highest quality in precision surface hardening.”

New Partnerships

Captive Extrusion Die Maker Levels Up With 11 New Furnaces – Heat treaters are leaning into the benefits of nitriding and vacuum technology.

Auto Partner Enters Agreement for New Nitriding Technology – As nitriding technology becomes more popular, heat treaters are brushing up on their understanding of case hardening processes across the board. (Read this article comparing 5 common case hardening processes.)

Vacuum Heat Treat Supplier Partners with Neota to Advance MIM Technology – Learn how this partnership produced solid and strong metallic parts with near 100% density.

Conversations in the Industry

Heat Treat Radio: Five experts (plus Doug Glenn) discuss hydrogen combustion in this episode. An easily digestible excerpt of the transcript circulated by Furnaces International here and is available to watch/listen/read in full for free here.

Heat Treat Radio: Get on-the-ground projections of what technologies Piotr Zawistowski believes will be bringing in the future. Watch/listen/read in full here

Heat Treat Radio: HIP. The Revolution of Manufacturing, that is, according to Cliff Orcutt. Watch/listen/read in full here

Heat Treat Radio: Will indentation plastometry find its way into North America? If you’ve been listening to James Dean, it seems like it already has. Watch/listen/read in full here

Heat Treat Radio: Fluxless inert atmosphere induction brazing. That’s a mouthful! But what is it? Watch/listen/read in full here

Learn More About New Tech!

Everything You Need to Know About HIPing eBook

Metal Hardening with Mark Hemsath Podcast

Stories About Heat Treaters Implementing New Hardening Methods Article

 

 

Celebrate January 6th: National Technology Day! Read More »

Penna Flame Industries

/ HEAT TREAT NEWS INDUSTRIES, MTI MEMBER PROFILES

Penna Flame Industries (PFI) was founded in 1968 by Garrett D. Orr, Sr. and his wife Mary Patricia (Pat) Orr to provide flame hardening services to the growing steel industry. Orr chose the Zelienople, PA site because it was centrally located between Pittsburgh, PA, and Cleveland, Ohio, which was then heavily into steel manufacturing. Garrett was employed as a sales representative for a foundry and was involved in other steel-related industries. Through this experience, he recognized the need for flame hardening in the steel industry. In 1968, at the age of 39, he founded Pennsylvania Flame Hardening. The groundbreaking took place on April 1, 1968.

Bert demonstrates the benefits of working with a collaborative robot to induction harden steel parts. The robot gives the operator the ability to work directly next to it, as opposed to conventional robot arms where fencing and distance is required.

In 1990, James P. Orr was named president of the company, continuing his father’s commitment to the industry by adding new technology and innovations in surface hardening and roll manufacturing.

In 1995 the company added a roll manufacturing and machining facility to meet the needs of customers who wanted highly polished rolls used in the automotive and other industries. Today, PFI also serves the military, mining, and agriculture (heavy equipment) sectors.

In 2008, the company added the industry’s first robotic cell that replaced manual scanning and reduced the amount of setup required for tooling, thereby increasing precision and repeatability. The company has since added three additional robotic cells.

The computerized robotic surface hardening systems have revolutionized the surface hardening industry. These advanced robots, coupled with programmable index tables, provide an automation system that helps decrease production time while maintaining the highest quality in precision surface hardening.

A few benefits of this service are:

  • Increased wear resistance
  • Higher hardness and longer life
  • Less processing time
  • Higher efficiency and productivity
  • Maintain tensile strength
  • Quick turnaround of the project
  • Consistent, repeatable process
  • Less distortion when compared to furnace treatment

A crane wheel, in the process of being flame hardened, glowing red hot about to submerged in a quench bath.

Additional services include flame hardening, robotic flame hardening, robotic induction hardening, roll hardening, roll manufacturing, roll straightening, hardness testing, wheel and axle assembly, deep cryogenics, stress relieving, and tempering.

In 2017, the company expanded its facility to incorporate the world’s largest spin flame hardening tank (80-inch diameter) and added a collaborative robotic cell that induction hardens and allows the operator to work right next to the robot without having safety fences.

Here’s a fun fact: while PFI doesn’t know the final destination of many of the parts they heat treat, they have flame hardened wheels that are in the roofs of professional sports stadiums and fields that roll out.

As they look to the future, James P. Orr, together with his sons Michael (Vice President) and Andrew (Vice President) are poised to lead the 28 employee-strong company into the next generation of products and services.

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