Solar Atmospheres

MTI Distinguished Service Award Presented to Solar Atmospheres’ Jamie Jones

The Metal Treating Institute (MTI) Distinguished Service Award for 2017 was recently presented to Solar Atmospheres president, Jamie Jones. Jones (pictured on right above), who has served on MTI’s Board of Governors since 2013, was also nominated as vice president/president-elect of the Institute for 2017-2018.  He has served on a variety of different committees including the Education Committee and NextGen Creative Team.

Jones was honored to receive the Distinguished Service Award, an award given for outstanding, significant, and well recognized contributions of lasting importance to the MTI.

Solar Atmospheres has been a member of MTI since 1983.

Jones indicated that he was “very happy to serve the MTI in this capacity. I look forward to the challenges ahead and embrace the opportunity to build MTI to be an even more all-encompassing organization for commercial and contract heat treaters around the globe.”

The Metal Treating Institute (MTI) is the world’s largest collection of commercial heat treaters with locations in 40 states, 8 countries, and over $1.2 billion in annual sales.

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Nadcap Approval for Furnace Brazing Awarded to Southeast Heat Treat Facility

The Southeast U.S. facility of a heat treat supplier for the aerospace industry has received Nadcap approval for vacuum furnace brazing.

The Nadcap accreditation is the second in two years for the Greenville, SC, location of Solar Atmospheres’ operations; the facility received its first Nadcap approval in September 2016 to include low-pressure vacuum carburizing.

“Earning this Nadcap accreditation for vacuum furnace brazing reaffirms our commitment to providing our customers with quality services that meet the increasingly stringent requirements of the aerospace industry,” said Jon Collier, Quality Manager at Solar Atmospheres in Greenville, SC.

 

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Memoirs of Heat Treating Leader Assigned October Publication Date

William R Jones, CEO of Solar Atmospheres Group and Author of The Golden Nugget: An Entrepreneur Speaks

Part memoir, part technical guide, The Golden Nugget: An Entrepreneur Speaks, by William R. Jones and co-author Heather Idell, is set for publication in October 2017, Solar Atmospheres announced Thursday.

The book includes the memoirs of Bill Jones, the founder and owner of Solar Atmospheres and a leader in the heat treating industry, taking the reader on a journey through Mr. Jones’ life and career–from a curious, technically adept young man to becoming one of the most lauded and respected leaders in the vacuum furnace and heat treating industries. Providing insight into the mind of an entrepreneur, the book also chronicles the technical innovations that propelled Mr. Jones to the forefront of these industries.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER THIS BOOK.

 

 

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ASM International Developing Stronger Relationships

ASM Leadership Visits Solar Atmospheres & Solar Manufacturing
Pictured left to right: Jim Nagy, President, Solar Manufacturing; Don Jordan, FASM, Vice President/Corporate Metallurgist, Solar Atmospheres; Bill Mahoney, Managing Director, ASM International; Fred Schmidt, Vice President, ASM; Ron Aderhold, Associate Managing Director and Chief Information Officer, ASM; Rachel Stewart, Student Board Trustee, ASM; Jamie Jones, VP of Operations, Solar Atmospheres; Roger Jones, Corporate President, Solar Atmospheres. Photo Courtesy: Solar Atmospheres

Souderton, PA – ASM International visited Solar Atmospheres on Wednesday, March 22 to renew stronger relationships with supporting companies, and to gain a better understanding of Solar’s commitment and involvement with ASM.  Managing Director, Bill Mahoney, along with Ron Aderhold, ASM Associate Managing Director and Chief Information Officer, Fred Schmidt, ASM Vice President, and Rachel Stewart, Student Board Trustee, met with representatives from Solar and toured the facility.

ASM presented firsthand information on the objectives and progress of the ASM renewal, spearheaded by Mahoney.  Some of the objectives are pursuing an easier renewal process, developing stronger relations with affiliate societies, improving professional development, and developing a culture of excellence within the headquarters at Materials Park, OH.

Solar Atmospheres came away from this meeting with a high level of confidence with the new team at ASM Materials Park, and we are encouraged with the early results from the renewal deployments, and Solar offers complete support of the program for the betterment of the society.

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Enhanced Properties for Bright 17-7 PH Stainless Steel

  Source:  Today’s Medical Developments

Already extensively used in aerospace, semiaustenitic stainless steel 17-7 PH is finding new applications in the medical industry. The material is most often used in sheet and strip form, with springs, clips, and bellows being widely produced. The high alloy content of 17-7 provides excellent corrosion resistance, an attractive attribute to the medical industry.

Read more to find out how this material behaves after annealing at 1,950°F…….

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Nadcap 18 Month Merit Status for Heat Treating Awarded to Solar Atmospheres

Solar Atmospheres announces that it has been awarded Nadcap 18-month Merit status for Heat Treating at the Souderton, PA facility.

Solar Atmospheres in Souderton has held Nadcap accreditation since 1995, maintaining merit status for the majority of that time. Having demonstrated their ongoing commitment to quality by satisfying customer requirements and industry specifications, the Nadcap Task Group has determined that Solar Atmospheres has again earned this special recognition.

“Achieving Nadcap accreditation is not easy; it is one of the ways in which the aerospace industry identifies those who excel at manufacturing quality product through superior special processes. Companies such as Solar Atmospheres go above and beyond achieving Nadcap accreditation to obtain Merit status and they should be justifiably proud of it,” said Joe Pinto, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at the Performance Review Institute. “Benefiting from a less frequent audit schedule reduces audit costs and associated pressures and demonstrates the trust that the aerospace industry has in Solar Atmospheres based on their past performance in Nadcap audits. PRI is proud to support continual improvement in the aerospace industry by helping companies such as Solar Atmospheres be successful and we look forward to continuing to assist the industry moving forward.”

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Solar Atmospheres Group Adds Vacuum Pump Services Corp.

VPS LogoSouderton, Pennsylvania: Solar Atmosphere announced the formation of a new vacuum pump servicing company, Vacuum Pump Services Corp. Solar Atmospheres group of companies has over one hundred mechanical vacuum roughing pumps and mechanical holding pumps. Solar currently operates a fleet of vacuum furnaces across the United States many of which are still in operation after 30+ years.  Since mechanical pump life averages five to ten years, depending on usage, it became advantageous for the commercial vacuum heat treating company to establish its own vacuum pump service center.

Currently, there are three employees:  Bob Sandora, Vice President of Operations, a longtime Solar Atmospheres employee with over 40 years of mechanical vacuum pump experience; Steve MacInnes, Manager of Operations with 15 years of mechanical vacuum pump experience; and another recently hired pump technician.

According to William R. Jones, CEO of the Solar Atmospheres family of companies, “We know vacuum pumps, when to have the pumps serviced, and how to service them correctly.  This is the base reason for establishing our own organization.  We have also serviced pumps for other organizations including our competitors.  So we’re eager to share our knowledge and expertise and to offer our services broadly across the industry.”

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Heat Treat TV: 48′ Vacuum Furnace Installed in Western Pennsylvania

Take a look at this fascinating time-lapse video of a 48 foot vacuum furnace being installed at a leading commercial heat treat shop in western Pennsylvania. The furnace was manufactured by Solar Manufacturing and will be used for vacuum processing very large, long, and/or heavy aerospace, automotive and energy sector parts. Watch it now by clicking here or on the image below.

Solar Atmospheres' 48' Vacuum Furnace 2

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Largest Commercial Vacuum Furnace Nearing Completion

Solar Atmospheres of Western Pennsylvania and Solar Manufacturing, Inc. have been very busy these days building the largest vacuum furnace anywhere in the world.  The working hot zone of this high vacuum (three 35 inch Varian diffusion pumps) furnace is 80 inch diameter X 48 feet long with a maximum operating temperature of 2400°F.  Thirty five points of temperature will be surveyed to within +/- 10°F per the stringent AMS 2750E specification. The robust US Patented dual load car design will have the capacity to transfer up to 150,000 pounds of material in and out of the furnace.  For dimensionally critical, near net shaped jobs, the dual load car design will also have the capability to maintain the critical support needed at elevated temperatures to keep parts flat to within .030 inches.

All of the major components have been delivered and installed.  The gas and water systems are in place.  The remaining installation of all the electrical components and wiring will occur over the next several weeks.  This multi-million dollar project is expected to be completed in June with the commissioning of the furnace into production in July of 2016.  This unique piece of equipment will not only open up new production opportunities within the North American vacuum heat treating markets, but also internationally.

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Vacuum Heat Treating for Space Exploration

BOTW-50w Source:  Solar Atmospheres

Vacuum furnaces are highly flexible tools capable of providing numerous thermochemical conditions with various reactive gases at elevated temperatures and extreme pressures to alter the chemical or mechanical properties of materials.  Conditions inside vacuum furnaces are equivalent to conditions found on the planets in our solar system.    Each planet in our solar system is unique in terms of its atmospheric contents, pressures, and temperatures.  One planet with unique atmospheric conditions is Venus.

Read More: Vacuum Heat Treating for Space Exploration

 

 

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