Heat Treat Today offers News Chatter, a feature highlighting representative moves, transactions, and kudos from around the industry.
Personnel & Company Chatter
- A long-term agreement to supply materials used in the manufacture of naval nuclear reactor components has been signed between BWX Technologies, Inc., and Allegheny Technologies Incorporated.
- Kennametal Inc. announced that it has formed a 3D printing materials and production business unit, Kennametal Additive Manufacturing, as part of its infrastructure segment. The new business unit combines the company’s longstanding expertise in materials science and wear-resistant solutions with additive manufacturing capabilities to supply high-performance metal additive powders and fully finished 3D printed parts for wear, erosion, corrosion, and high-temperature applications.
- StandardAero Component Services celebrated the grand opening of the company’s 30,000 sq. ft. expansion of its Hillsboro, Ohio, engine component manufacturing and engine component repair facility. The additional working space and capital improvements included the building and additional equipment to support aerospace engine low-pressure turbine vane manufacturing. The Hillsboro location expansion completes StandardAero’s current plans for new building and expansion investments, which have also occurred at its Cincinnati, Miami and Kansas City locations over the last 18 months.
Equipment Chatter
- A 30-ton tilting rotary furnace for aluminum recycling was installed by GHI at the new facility of Latem Aluminium in Villadangos, Spain.
- No. 965, a 1350ºF (~733ºC) electrically-heated cabinet oven from Grieve, has been purchased for heat treating titanium at the customer’s facility.
- Tangshan Zhengfeng Iron & Steel Co., LTD, in Hebei Province, China, recently commissioned three iRecovery® (intelligent waste heat recovery systems) from Tenova, a Techint Group company. Tenova iRecovery® systems will be applied downstream of the new Consteel® Evolution to recover the waste heat and to use it for the production of steam, which will then be available for the existing power plant.
- A vacuum drying oven has been shipped to the aerospace industry by Tenney Environmental, a division of Thermal Product Solutions. This vacuum drying oven is designed to remove moisture from a large spacecraft engine after it goes through a washing process. The previous conventional method of drying took over 12 hours due to the intricacy of small diameter tubing, fine screen meshes, and other hard to get to areas. The vacuum drying oven will reduce that time to 4 hours. This vacuum drying oven utilizes radiant heat wrapped around the pressure walls to heat the product to approximately 100°F.
- An electrically heated two-zone bottom flow conveyor oven was shipped to the consumer goods industry by Wisconsin Oven. This belt conveyor oven will be used to cure a latex barrier coating onto maple syrup bottles.
- Exlabesa, an aluminum extrusion provider for the construction industry in Europe, recently ordered a multi-chamber PR130 melting furnace (complete with charging unit) for its Hertwich continuous homogenizing plant at its Padron (Spain) based facility. This furnace will increase its capacity to 60,000 tons from its Padron casthouse. The new furnace with a capacity of 130 tons per day is designed for a relatively wide range of scrap. The temperature level in the main chamber from which the melt is tapped for casting is about 1800°F (1000°C).
- Walsin Yantai Stainless Steel Co. Ltd. has contracted with Primetals Technologies to design and manufacture a new stainless steel combination mill to convert billets from an existing plant into finished products with precision tolerance and surface quality. Located in Yantai, Shandong Province, China, the new mill project with Primetals Technologies will be completed in consortium with CERI Long Product Co. Ltd., including all electrics and automation to approach Industry 4.0. The combination mill will have a straight bar outlet, a bar-in-coil outlet, and a wire rod outlet.
- A leading industrial engineering and manufacturing group recently completed several furnace projects for global clients. Fives was contracted by Habaş, a leading conglomerate in Turkey which operates in the field of industrial gases, steel, LPG, and heavy machine manufacturing, to design and supply a new generation slab reheating furnace, the Stein Digit@l Furnace®, for its hot strip mill, located in Izmir, Turkey. In addition, Shijiazhuang Iron & Steel Company within China’s HBIS Group ordered two Stein Digit@l Furnaces® from Fives to reheat blooms and billets. The walking beam furnace will have a production capacity of 130 tons per hour and will operate on natural gas. Fives was also selected by Yantai Walsin Stainless Steel to design and supply an ultra-low NOx emission furnace to reheat long products. Yantai Walsin Stainless Steel is a subsidiary of Walsin Lihwa, a world-leading manufacturer of stainless steel, power cables, and wires.
- A 500°F (260°C) enhanced-duty walk-in oven was delivered by Lewco Inc., of Sandusky, Ohio, that will be used to dry various parts during a manufacturing process.
Kudos Chatter
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
