Trevor Jones

Heat Treat Boot Camp Tours Solar Atmospheres’ Western PA Facility

Last week, Heat Treat Today wrapped up its third annual Heat Treat Boot Camp with a tour of a local commercial heat treating company, witnessing the operation of multiple vacuum furnaces, including the largest capacity vacuum furnaces in the United States.

The overall sentiment from the Heat Treat Boot Camp attendees was resounding gratefulness for and enjoyment of the visit to the 115,000 square-foot Solar Atmospheres of Western Pennsylvania facility, located in Hermitage, PA. For those newbies to the industry, it provided them the opportunity to experience a heat treat shop environment and connect what they learned during the sessions to how it looks in operation.

Heat Treat Boot Camp attendees in front of the NEO, one Solar Atmospheres’ vacuum oil quench furnaces

“Really great tour,” said Heat Treat Boot Camp attendee G. Eric Gisonno. “[I’m] so thankful to Solar and Bob Hill for spending time with us and allowing us to see them in action.”

Robert Hill, FASM
President
Solar Atmospheres of Western PA

Bob Hill, president of Solar Atmospheres, treated the 22 attendees to a comprehensive and fascinating tour which ranged from learning about the origin of the company to observing products in production process to seeing final completed parts. Attendees were in awe as they walked the floor taking in the daily production protocols. The tour concluded in front of the NEO, a vacuum oil quench furnace that earned Solar Atmospheres an accreditation from Boeing for its ability to oil quench alloy steels in accordance with Boeing’s specification BAC 5617. Those present were able to observe a part being vacuum oil quenched in real time.

Trevor Jones
CEO
Solar Manufacturing

Mr. Hill also provided an exclusive sneak preview of the company’s upcoming presentation, “The Future of Vacuum Oil Quenching is Now!,” which he and Trevor Jones, president of Solar Manufacturing, will deliver at the FNA 2024 show in Columbus, OH, this October.

Thanks to Bob Hill and the team at Solar Atmospheres of Western PA for their kindness and hospitality.

Main photo: Heat Treat Boot Camp attendees touring Solar Atmospheres of Western PA



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North American Heat Treat Manufacturer To Ship 10 Furnaces

HTD Size-PR Logo

Trevor Jones
President
Solar Manufacturing, Inc.
Source: Solar Manufacturing, Inc.

A vacuum furnace manufacturer in North America has acquired purchase orders for ten vacuum furnaces this 3rd quarter.  The furnaces will be shipped to companies in the following market sectors: aerospace, commercial heat treating, and additive manufacturing.

Solar Manufacturing Inc. is based out of Pennsylvania, and the new systems will be sent to locations throughout North America. The various types of new furnace orders ranged in size from the compact Mentor® and Mentor® Pro series to a large production furnace with a work zone of up to 72” in length.

“[S]trong quotation activity levels seem to indicate customers are optimistic to expand after the pandemic ramifications continue to ease," commented Trevor Jones, President of Solar Manufacturing.


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Heat Treat Future with AM and 3D Printing

OC

All the buzz in our industry seems to indicate that additive manufacturing (AM) and 3D printing are the next hot topics in heat treat, particularly in vacuum heat treat. Heat Treat Today decided to find out how these new technologies are shaping the industry. Read what five heat treat industry leaders had to say about how their companies are preparing for the next generation of AM and 3D printing.

This Technical Tuesday article bringing together the responses from these five companies was first published in Heat Treat Today‘s November 2022 Vacuum print edition.


What changes have you made to accommodate the AM/3D printing marketplace?

Dennis Beauchesne
General Manager
ECM USA, Inc.

The most important changes relate to the build plate size and how it connects to our standard size systems. Build plates are ever-changing, it seems, as customers have new applications and mostly larger build plates are being requested. In addition, the process parameters – such as temperature and time at temperature and quantity of material – are important. These two items have the most to do with reconfiguring equipment for the AM market. We have also been able to implement our wide range of automation and robotics skills into this equipment as the market scales up for high production.

How will your products and/or services change to accommodate this marketplace?

We are/will be introducing equipment that is in line with standard-build plate dimensions along with reducing operating costs.

Share how 3D printing or AM products/services help heat treaters.

Contact us with your Reader Feedback!

Recent debind and sinter applications have involved, as previously mentioned, complete robotics to handle parts after printing, to debind, to sinter, and then to process specialized by ECM, such as low-pressure carburizing. ECM has also provided equipment to provide all three processes in the same furnace without moving the load or requiring the furnace to cool and reheat. This reduces work processing time along with less handling and less utility cost.

What changes have you made to accommodate the AM/3D printing marketplace?

Mark Hemsath
Vice President
of Sales, Americas
Nitrex Heat
Treating Services

Nitrex Vacuum Furnaces, through its GM Enterprises acquisition, has moved heavily into additive manufacturing via large production MIM furnaces, which are able to both remove large amounts of powder binders and sinter the parts in the same process. We are in the process of installing and/or starting up five furnaces for these markets, and we have recently employed even more advanced concepts on high volume wax removal. A further trend is on higher value materials, like nickel and cobalt alloys and titanium, necessitating diffusion vacuum levels for processing. Nitrex Vacuum has had this experience already for many years, so moving to smaller scale 3D designs comes with years of experience.

How might your products and/or services change to accommodate this marketplace?

Smaller units are a trend to keep an eye on. We have over a decade of learning from the large units we offer, and this will allow us to compete in these lower volume markets (i.e., 3D) via our proven expertise. Several facts/ideas that we are keeping top of mind are:

  • Large potential in the future (whole new market starting to evolve)
  • Redesign the product to meet the new needs
  • Good for rapid prototyping and quick low volume parts

Furnaces need to be available with fast delivery 3D printing is finding a tremendous niche in fast part production, sourced internally or sourced quickly. These parts may cost more per piece, but having them fast is often more important, and 3D offers this ability to cut weeks or months off of supply chain sourcing.

Share how 3D printing or AM products/services help heat treaters.

The AM sector is still in growth mode. How we help is to give a full-service solution to those customers who want to really increase their volume yet use vacuum in the process. Vacuum helps to transport the binder vapors away from the parts and into the traps for removal. Full binder removal adds to the quality of the parts, as does vacuum sintering of the final parts. We have supplied a few systems over the years with higher, diffusion vacuum levels. As powder materials evolve to higher value materials, there is more interest in diffusion vacuum, and we recently supplied such a system.

What do readers need to know about AM/3D to make decisions today?

Vacuum is the proper way to debind and sinter. Additionally, 3D printing started slow and there were many technologies evolving. Now, it has started to really grow, and the need for smaller furnaces that can offer the same quality as MIM parts produced in high volumes will be a need for 3D part makers, in medium to low volume parts. This may involve furnaces for sinter only, debind and sinter, or even sinter and heat treat. We can see the need to both sinter 3D parts in a small furnace and also heat treat them with special added processes and surface treatments.

What changes have you made to accommodate the AM/3D printing marketplace?

Phil Harris
Marketing Manager
Paulo

Adding a hot isostatic press has been the most notable change Paulo has made to serve the growing AM market. It goes a step further than that though; heat treatment of AM parts has rapidly evolved, and the desire for custom cycles and more data has caused us to make instrumentation changes and do more R&D type work. Understanding the full production path of the parts and doing our part to reduce the time parts are spending in post-processing steps, including offering stress relief, HIP, EDM, and vacuum heat treatment in a one-stop-shop.

How might your products and/or services change to accommodate this marketplace?

As trials continue and boundaries are pushed for both additive and the accompanying thermal processing, we’re constantly keeping an eye on what’s next. Investing in equipment that’s capable while maintaining and instrumenting it to provide the data and reliability the market needs is the name of the game. Of course, open communication with additive manufacturers and printer designers makes this far easier. We value communication with printer manufacturers as it helps us understand demand for our services in terms of build plate size, since, as we all know, furnaces and HIP vessels aren’t one size fits all!

Share how 3D printing or AM products/services help heat treaters.

Additive parts have become commonplace and we’re now regularly providing HIP, stress relief, and solution treating for them. A more interesting example is for parts printed in Inconel 718; we’ve developed a combined HIP and heat treat (or High Pressure Heat Treat) cycle which was able meet material properties specifications when the traditional processing techniques were not. This is where we feel the real cutting edge is when it comes to heat treatment of additive parts; the slow cooling HIP cycles developed for casting decades ago aren’t always optimal for today’s additive parts.

What changes have you made to accommodate the AM/3D printing marketplace?

Trevor Jones
President
Solar Manufacturing, Inc.
Source: Solar Manufacturing, Inc.

There are several methods for 3D printing and we as heat treaters and vacuum furnace manufacturers generally classify those methods into two basic groups: those that use liquid binding polymers and those that do not.

For the group who does not use liquid binding polymers, there are no changes thus far to the design of the vacuum furnace that must be made. One significant caution is insuring there is no loose powder on the surface or cavities of the parts. Residual powder on or in the parts could have adverse effects on the parts themselves and to the vacuum furnace. The loose powder can liberate from the part during the heat treat or quench steps during the process and contaminate the vacuum furnace. The powder in the furnace is then considered FOD (foreign object debris) for subsequent heat treatments processed in that furnace. The powder could also accumulate over time and cause an electrical ground the heating elements or the quench motor, clog the heat exchanger, contaminate vacuum gauges and hot zone insulation, among other issues.

For the group that does contain liquid binding polymers, in addition to the comments about avoiding loose powder on or in the parts, care must also be taken to accommodate for the vaporization of the binder that occurs during heating of the parts. The binder, in its vapor form, will condense at cooler areas in the vacuum furnace. The condensed areas are potential contamination points and could have all the same issues and concerns of loose powder as described above. The binder collection locations, whether at intentional or non-intentional places, will also have to be routinely cleaned to maintain ideal binder collection, optimum vacuum pumping, and overall furnace performance.

How might your products and/or services change to accommodate this marketplace?

With the growth of 3D printing using liquid binder polymers, Solar Manufacturing has taken what was learned from the furnace modified at Solar Atmospheres of Western PA for MIM and AM processing and applied it to a new furnace product line specific for the debind and sinter applications. Solar Manufacturing collaborated with our affiliate company, Solar Atmospheres of Western PA, in modifying an existing vacuum furnace to accommodate the debind and sintering processes. A modified hot zone was installed, and a dedicated binder pumping port was added that helps minimize and target the condensation of detrimental binders evaporating out of parts containing binders. The modified Solar Atmospheres furnace is extremely valuable in gaining knowledge about various aspects of the process and learning what works, and what does not work, in furnace and recipe design. Combining the knowledge and experience of process development of Solar Atmospheres with the advanced Engineering Design Team at Solar Manufacturing, we believe we have a furnace design that modernizes and simplifies the debinding process while minimizing traditional maintenance issues.

Share how 3D printing or AM products/services help heat treaters.

We developed a process of debinding and sintering stainless steel parts with our affiliate company Solar Atmospheres in Souderton PA. The project started out with our Research and Development group to develop the process for the client’s parts. As the trials scaled up, test coupons became test parts, eventually full-size loads. There are always challenges to scaling up from test parts to production loads and we were able to provide the support the customer needed through that transition. The R&D eff orts were successful, and the client ended up purchasing multiple furnaces, which was the end goal for both parties.

Additionally, Solar Atmospheres is currently vacuum stress relieving a 3D component for a major U.S.-based aerospace company that is in use in aircraft today. Also, numerous large-scale components destined for deep space.

What do readers need to know about AM/3D to make decisions today?

Bob Hill, president of Solar Atmospheres of Western PA, reminded us to “realize and acknowledge that AM is still in its infancy stage. Therefore, many metallurgical uncertainties still exist for the multiple printing processes that exist. Understanding this new kind of metallurgy for each printing process, while developing standards and specifications unique to additive manufacturing, is still a huge obstacle. Until this is accomplished, AM will not be the ‘disruptive’ technology that all the experts predict it will be.” If your business is printing parts with liquid polymer binders, you should seriously consider how you plan on debinding and sintering the parts ahead of time. Printed parts in the “Green” or even “Brown” state are fragile and if you are going to ship the parts somewhere else for the debind and sinter steps, extreme care must be taken to prevent the parts from fracturing during transit. Although the shipping can be safely and successfully accomplished, ideally a furnace is available at the print shop to immediately perform the debind and sinter process to avoid those potential shipping difficulties. The other forms of 3D printing that do not contain liquid polymers generally do have this issue.

What changes have you made to accommodate the AM/3D printing marketplace?

Ben Gasbarre
Executive Vice President
Sales & Marketing
Gasbarre Thermal Processing Systems

From our inception, Gasbarre has had expertise in the powder metallurgy industry, which requires debind and sinter applications similar to that in the AM and 3D printing markets. Our ability to supply equipment for both powder and parts producers has set us up for quick adoption into this market. While considerations need to be made specific to AM, our focus has been on technical support and helping the market grow to higher volume applications.

How might your products and/or services change to accommodate this marketplace?

As adoption of these technologies grow, the volume at which parts need to be produced will grow. Our line of continuous processing equipment in both vacuum and atmosphere applications are well suited. Whether it be debind and sinter, annealing, or stress relieving, we have equipment and expertise that can grow from early production to high volumes.

Share how 3D printing or AM products/services help heat treaters.

Overall, Gasbarre is here to be a resource and support the growth of the additive market. Whether that be through new equipment, servicing existing equipment, or involvement in the industry organizations, we have the expertise to drive success today and into the future!

What do readers need to know about AM/3D to make decisions today?

Additive manufacturing is such a dynamic technology, it is difficult to state one specific item. There is the potential for significant growth opportunities for new applications, but also the potential replacement of traditional manufacturing methods. We also know there is substantial backing for the technology by both private industry and government entities. Like other emerging technologies in the automotive and energies sectors, additive manufacturing isn’t a matter of if, but when it’ll achieve wide scale adoption and high-volume applications.

It is amazing how the list of materials being utilized with this technology is growing. While metals and alloys have not been the majority of the market, it is rapidly growing. With that growth, there is a wide variety of applications and thermal processing requirements for those materials. As well, the different additive and 3D printing processing methods (i.e., binder jetting, powder bed fusion, etc.) leads to a similar diversity in thermal processing requirements.

For more information, contact the leaders:


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Spotlight on 40 Under 40 Alumni

OCHeat Treat Today’s 40 Under 40 was created to bring recognition to young professionals in the industry, giving names, faces, and words to the rising generation of industry professionals. In this original content article, released on the final day to nominate someone to Heat Treat Today’s 40 Under 40 Class of 2022, we caught up with exemplary classmates from past years to hear where they are now and what comments they have about the industry.


Justin Powell

It has been 15 years since, "at the age of 19, I started working for a company that serviced high temperature furnaces and industrial combustion systems. I cut my teeth in the industry by doing burner retrofits and turnkey system installations."

Since being nominated to receive Heat Treat Today’s 40 Under 40 award, Justin says he has "started a company called MP Combustion with my very good friend, Ryan McClain. We literally started the company working out of our basements in 2019 and with the support of this wonderful industry have since grown to a team of six with hopes to expand to more employees soon. Our team works hard to support the heat treat community by supplying the best combustion equipment and technical support in the industry." Justin notes that starting MP Combustion is "easily the highlight of my career so far."

When asked what his favorite thing about the industry is, he commented, "The never-ending learning curve. I love to learn, and this industry has a seemingly endless supply of new skills to learn and hone. I also have a great admiration for the people in this industry, they are always willing to help teach and learn from one another. It's an amazing community to be a part of!"

As a final word of advice for the winners being selected to Heat Treat Today’s 40 Under 40 Class of 2022 this summer, Justin encourages them, saying, "My friends, this is only the beginning. I wish you all great success throughout your career and hope that our paths meet along the way!"

Read more about Justin here.

Jaime Sanchez

Jaime got involved in the world of heat treat seven years ago, seeking "a job opportunity in Engineering and Project Management and in automotive, power generator, or automation." Since receiving the award, Jaime has "received a promotion from Engineering Manager to Operations Manager in MATTSA FURNACE COMPANY, expanding my area of responsibilities to equipment manufacturing without [fully] leaving engineering and project management."

His aptitude to pivot is evident in what he finds most exciting about heat treating: "Every day is a new challenge for me, from receiving and managing new projects to helping our clients to solve issues or coordinate the activities of MATTSA plant with all the personnel involved. All these activities and the way I solve them make me excited every day when I arrive at my workplace."

"Receiving this nomination is an honor," Jaime shares, "it is a way of showing the world the talent you have, in addition to showing that being young is not synonymous with being inexperienced, but that our generation can do great things with a lot of dedication and effort. Never stop fighting for what you want and show that your talent is world class."

Read more about Jaime here.

Miguel Humberto Fajardo

For Miguel, it has been six years of service in the heat treat industry. "I started in 2016," he commented, "with an internship program, in the John Deere materials laboratory. I had the opportunity to collaborate in the development of suppliers, certify the quality and mechanical properties of treated parts, participate in the design of new heat treat recipes and the introduction of new processes. Those were the first steps in the world of heat treat. After the internship and thanks to that experience, I was hired as the engineer in charge of John Deere's heat treatment lines."

Over the past few years since nomination, Miguel notes that his role in heat treatment "has changed a lot. My position evolved to a Sr. level with more responsibilities and challenges, including renewing the technology of our lines, implementing improvements to make processes more efficient and achieving cost and expense reductions. I was awarded trade secrets for these upgrades." He continues, saying, "I am currently working on fully exploiting the capacity of our equipment, focusing on cost reductions, reducing gas consumption, and improving emissions."

It's the science paired with experimentation in heat treat that continues to interest Miguel: "What I like the most is that it is a true science, it requires a lot of experimentation and generating hypotheses. My colleagues tell me that they are like occult arts or magic, since two parts that look the same can be completely different inside."

To the upcoming 40 Under 40 Class of 2022, Miguel offers a challenge: "Although the literature on HT is many years old, there is always an opportunity to innovate and create different things and different ways of doing things. Experiment and ask yourself many things. and this will become more than a job, a different experience day by day. Very challenging and fun."

Read more about Miguel here.

Heat Treat Today's 40 Under 40 Authors

Check out some of the technical content that 40 Under 40 award winners have published with Heat Treat Today over the years:

Alberto Cantú - 40 Under 40 profile

Ben Gasbarre - 40 Under 40 profile

Josh Hale - 40 Under 40 profile

Mike Harrison - 40 Under 40 profile

Kyle Hummel - 40 Under 40 profile

Trevor Jones - 40 Under 40 profile

Ellen Conway Merrill - 40 Under 40 profile

Shawn Orr - 40 Under 40 profile

Justin Sims - 40 Under 40 profile

Andy Wilkosz - 40 Under 40 profile


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Why AM Medical Devices Should Be Vacuum Heat Treated

OCMedical devices, medical tools, and prosthetics all have a long history with heat treating. As we look to the future, the materials industry and the advancement of AM into the heat treat industry is moving at lightning speed.

In this article by Trevor Jones, CEO, Solar Manufacturing Inc., see why vacuum furnaces are excellent choices for accurately providing the necessary process parameters for this incredible medical technology that can provide people with mobility, function and independence to improve their quality of life.

This original content column was originally published in Heat Treat Today's Medical and Energy magazine, December 2020.


Trevor Jones
CEO
Solar Manufacturing, Inc.
Source: Solar Manufacturing, Inc.

Thermal processing of metallic alloys is the backbone of the heat treating industry. Speaking of backbones, the human spine, a critical part of the human body, can now be replaced with an additively manufactured and heat treated prosthetic metallic alloy spine. Medical devices, medical tools, and prosthetics all have a long history with heat treatment. As we look to the future, the materials industry and the advancement of AM into the heat treat industry is moving at lightning speed.

AM parts require precise heat treating especially, when it comes to atmosphere control, temperature uniformity, and flexibility. Vacuum furnaces are ideal for accurately providing each of these process parameters. Let’s take a look at each of these heating treat parameters a little more closely.

Atmosphere Control

Vacuum, by nature, is a neutral atmosphere which, in part, means it has no carburizing or decarburizing potential. Therefore, the surface of the parts that is directly exposed to the vacuum atmosphere cannot gain or lose the base carbon content of the alloy. Additionally, vacuum is practically void of oxygen. If the parts were exposed to oxygen at the elevated processing temperatures, the surface of the parts would become oxidized. In minor cases, a superficial oxidation layer would be the result. In more severe cases, the surface could experience alloy depletion and diffused oxygen.

This is particularly important when processing titanium alloys, which are inherently more sensitive to carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen. When titanium is exposed to any of these elements, a metallurgical phase called “alpha case” can develop on the surface of the titanium and diffuse inwards towards the core of the part.

In most applications, the alpha case is undesirable, and precautions should be taken to prevent it.

Vacuum processing can also provide an atmosphere where an elemental substance, like nitrogen, can be kept in balance with the parts being processed. For example, if an AM part intentionally contains nitrogen, processing this part in a deep vacuum may remove some of the nitrogen base content in the part. To prevent this from occurring, partial pressure nitrogen in the vacuum furnace keeps the nitrogen in equilibrium. The surface condition of these parts is extremely important especially if the AM parts will be implanted into the human body.

The medical processing room at Solar Atmospheres.
Source: Solar Manufacturing, Inc.

Temperature Control

The working zone of the furnace encompasses the parts being processed. It is critical that this entire working zone volume be thermally uniform to achieve predictable and consistent results. If any area of a working zone is cooler or hotter than the temperature of another area, it may negatively impact the heat treatment results including difference in mechanical properties and dimensional changes of the parts. For example, if the process is stress relieving and the parts were not subjected to high enough temperature for the requisite time, the parts may still contain some residual stresses.

Residual stresses can have various negative consequences during manufacturing, including cracking and part distortion – during build and finish machining. Tensile residual stresses in finished parts can also reduce fatigue and corrosion performance.A failure of a medical implant in the human body would be disastrous if it could have been avoided with proper heat treating!

Medical Instruments
Source: ??

With proper design, vacuum furnaces can provide very tight temperature uniformity of ±5°F with direct part temperature monitoring throughout an entire working zone over a broad temperature range.

Flexibility

The vacuum furnace is extremely versatile in the infinite amount of process variables that are available to be adjusted, including heating rates, soaking temperatures, soaking times, atmospheric conditions, and cooling rates. All these variables can be adjusted to provide precisely what is required for a given alloy to optimize the heat treatment needs for the part being processed. To meet the need of the modulus and the strength and fatigue characteristics of a medical implant, AM technology can adjust the mechanical properties of the implant by changing some of the parameters in the processing.2

One of the many steps in the AM process is heat treating, and vacuum furnaces provide the flexibility that can be tailored to the alloy and heat treatment required. Having an AM prosthetic custom vacuum heat treated to fit the human body, could be the key to its success.

Vacuum furnaces and their unique heat treatment processes are ideal for providing the atmosphere control, temperature control, and flexibility that are essential for AM medical devices, tools, and prosthetics. As the AM market expands and the technology advances, vacuum furnace technology will continue to be integral in fostering that growth.

 

References:

  1. Adrian Dewald, “Residual Stress in Additive Manufacturing,” Hill Engineering Blog. https://hill-engineering.com/general-interest/residual-stress-additive-manufacturing/.
  2. LB, CG, XC, YS, JZ, LC, SZ, SQX, “Additive Manufacturing of Customized Metallic Orthopedic Implants: Materials, Structures, and Surface Modifications,” MDPI. https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4701/9/9/1004/htm.

 

About the Author:
Trevor Jones began his career as the project engineer at Solar Atmospheres commercial heat treating on their Research and Development Team, concentrating on the improvement of vacuum thermal processing equipment and the development of new processes. He is currently the CEO of the Solar Manufacturing, Inc., a division of the Solar Atmospheres Family of Companies.

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Solar Manufacturing and Bucks County PA Officials Participate in Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

Three generations of the Jones family. This picture taken just moments before the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony shows (l-r) Trevor Jones, CEO of Solar Manufacturing; Trevor’s grandfather, William R. Jones, CEO of the Solar Group of Companies; and Trevor’s father, Roger A. Jones, President of Solar Atmospheres (retired).

William and Myrtle Jones were recently joined by a group of key Solar Manufacturing employees including Roger Jones and Trevor Jones at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the company’s new manufacturing site in Sellersville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Speaking at the ceremony in addition to William Jones was Sellersville Borough mayor Thomas C. Hufnagle, Gorski Construction president Jerry Gorski, Bucks County Industrial Development Authority chairwoman Mary Smithson, and Bucks County Board of Commissioners chairman Robert Loughery. Employees moved into the newly constructed 59,000 square foot facility in early October on land vacated by AMETEK in 2008.

 

 

 

 

 

Gorski Construction president Jerry Gorski; Myrtle Jones; CEO of Solar Group William Jones, Solar Manufacturing CEO Trevor Jones; Sellersville mayor Thomas C. Hufnagle; Solar Manufacturing president Jim Nagy; and retired president of Solar Atmospheres Roger Jones.

"It is important that we invest in our communities,” explained CEO William Jones. “When AMETEK left, they left more than a couple of vacant lots. It’s our goal to grow and support the local economy.”

Jim Nagy, president of Solar Manufacturing, gave the local dignitaries a tour of the facility including a shop floor filling up with equipment being transferred in from the company’s previous manufacturing locations.

The company plans to hold an open house event in the first or second quarter of 2020 once the dust has settled on the new construction and employees have had a chance to acclimate to their new surroundings.

In the video below, Gorski Construction president Jerry Gorski presents a shovel to William Jones, representing the groundbreaking of the new location.

 

 

 

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Vacuum Heat Treat Furnace Manufacturer Breaks Ground on New Facility, Reunites Operations

Bill Jones, CEO, Solar Manufacturing, Inc.

With the recent groundbreaking at a site in Sellersville, Pennsylvania, a leading vacuum furnace manufacturer launched its plans to reunite its manufacturing operations under one roof in order to combine its staffing and production efforts into an expanded space.

Solar Manufacturing Inc. celebrated this new chapter in its history with a groundbreaking ceremony for a new manufacturing facility at the Sellersville Business Campus in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Due to substantial growth in recent years, Solar Manufacturing has been operating out of two separate manufacturing facilities located a few miles apart. The nearly 60,000 square-foot building will be built on 8.55 acres and is expected to be completed in early 2019.  The new building will contain a two-story office space of nearly 20,000 square feet and 40,000 square feet of crane-served, manufacturing space.

"Solar Manufacturing has been very fortunate to experience steady growth over the past 15 years," said Bill Jones, CEO. "We needed more manufacturing space to expand and grow our business. Bucks County and Sellersville Borough have been very supportive and welcoming. It is an ideal location for us."

Solar Manufacturing is a member of the Solar Atmospheres family of companies, which is based with headquarters in Souderton, Pennsylvania, has four US commercial heat treating facilities with over 60 vacuum furnaces in operation, and services the aerospace, medical, automotive, defense, and other industries with heat treating equipment. This move to the Sellersville location will free up space for Solar Atmospheres' growing operations.

Pictured left to right: Jim Nagy, President; Bob Wilson, VP of Engineering; Scott Jacoby, Corporate Controller; Myrtle Jones, Owner; Bill Jones, CEO/Owner; Trevor Jones, CEO; Nick Cordisco, Service Manager; Pete Reh, VP of Sales; Rick Jones, International Sales Manager

 

Main image photo credit: Madeleine Cook, The Morning Call. Caption:  CEO of Solar Manufacturing Inc., Trevor Jones, receives a certificate from his grandfather, owner William Jones, during the groundbreaking ceremony for a new manufacturing facility on June 21, 2018, in Upper Bucks County. 


Read more here: "Construction starts for Bucks County manufacturer’s new $8M HQ" (Lehigh Valley Business); "Upper Bucks' Solar Manufacturing breaks ground on new headquarters at reclaimed brownfield industrial site" (The Morning Call); "Manufacturer breaks ground on new $8.5 million Sellersville plant" (The Intelligencer)

 

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