Schilling Forge, a supplier of precision forgings based in Syracuse, NY, recently increased its annealing capacity with a car-bottom furnace. The company produces forgings for a variety of industry segments in medical manufacturing, including surgical, dental, orthodontic, and endoscopic.
The furnace, designed and manufactured for the company by Gasbarre Thermal Processing Systems, is electrically heated with an operating range of has a work zone of 60” x 84” x 40” with a 9,000-lb load. It is electrically heated with operating range of 1250°F to 1600°F (732°C to 871°C).
“We are excited about the arrival of our new Gasbarre car-bottom furnace that increases our annealing capacity by 67%,” reported Schilling Forge on a LinkedIn post. “You can see our survey posts where we attached our thermo-couples at 9 various locations to verify the temperatures throughout the cycle.
Kuźnia Jawor, a company specializing in the production of hot forged and CNC machined components for the automotive, machinery, mining, and piping industries, has enhanced its manufacturing capabilities through the addition of an oil-hardening furnace and two nitriding furnaces from a supplier based in North America.
Kuźnia Jawor replaced their production line with an oil-hardening furnace and two outdated nitriding furnaces from Nitrex. The decision to upgrade was prompted by the need to eliminate outdated technology and address controls issues. The current production line has been designed using a Nitrex nitriding system and a vacuum hardening furnace.
Kuźnia Jawor leverages its in-house capabilities to design and manufacture forging tools, a crucial element of the production process. This is necessary for obtaining repeatable strength parameters in steel and ensuring their resistance to geometric changes or abrasive wear, factors that are addressed through heat treatment. The new equipment enables them to actively reduce CO emissions, decrease energy consumption, and more.
Nitrex furnace
The company’s forging and CNC processes are marked by meticulous precision, with dies initially undergoing treatment in the vacuum furnace before proceeding to the nitriding phase. This multi-step approach is essential for achieving a zero-white layer, effectively preventing surface cracking in the H11, H13, and WNL hot work steel dies subjected to high-pressure hammer forging. A crucial part of this initiative was the installation of a Nitrex horizontal-loading system, featuring the furnace model NXH-9912, a custom solution designed to facilitate the seamless automatic transfers of loads between operations.
The turnkey system is equipped with Nitreg® nitriding technology, which enhances the wear and corrosion resistance of treated tooling. This technology improves efficiency gains, leading to savings in process time and resources, including electricity and process gases. Furthermore, the system adheres to industry standard 2759/10 controlled nitriding, ensuring the highest quality and precision in the heat treating process.
Interestingly, Kuźnia Jawor is also engaged in an ongoing collaborative research and development project with a local university, exploring hybrid coatings that combine Nitreg® nitriding technology with PVD and CVD processes, with the aim of further enhancing tool performance.
Located in the southwestern region of Poland, Kuźnia Jawor is a provider of forged and CNC automotive parts within Poland and mining parts in international markets such as Czechia and Türkiye.
Marcin Stokłosa, Nitrex Technical Sales Manager, NITREX Poland (Source:LinkedIn.com)
Marcin Stoklosa, manager of Technical Sales at Nitrex, who oversaw this endeavor, sums it up, “Kuźnia Jawor’s choice to partner with Nitrex was driven by the need to replace outdated equipment, modernize, and expand their production facility. The result? Improved quality, enhanced performance, and a stronger position in the forging industry.”
Today’s News from Abroad installment shares exciting news from the steelmaking world that is of international importance.
Heat Treat Today partners with two international publications to deliver the latest news, tech tips, and cutting-edge articles that will serve our audience — manufacturers with in-house heat treat. heat processing, a Vulkan-Verlag GmbHpublication, serves mostly the European and Asian heat treat markets, andFurnaces International, a Quartz Business Media publication. primarily serves the English-speaking globe.
French ECM Group Expands with IOS Acquisition in Europe
ECM Group to consolidate its presence in Germany Source: heat-processing.com
“With the acquisition of IOS, the French ECM Group strengthens its presence in Germany and Northern Europe as well as its service activities. The medium-sized company IOS – Industrie Ofen Service is based in Arnsberg (Hochsauerlandkreis) and specialises in the maintenance of industrial furnaces for vacuum heat treatment. IOS currently employs around a dozen people and is mainly active in the German-speaking and Northern European markets. The company has extensive expertise, is a competent partner for its customers and focuses on rapid response and high quality.”
Center set to help forgers explore modern processes and new integrated digital technologies. Source: furnaces-international.com
“A research and innovation hot forging platform has announced it [would open] on the 21st March at the University of Strathclyde’s Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC), part of the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland, connecting the $75 billion global forging sector with the Scotland-based team and industry-scale testbed, no matter where they are in the world.”
Metso has decided to discontinue foundry operations in Prerov, Czech Republic. Source: heat-processing.com
“According to the statement of Metso, the decision is based on fundamental changes in the market environment, which have negatively impacted the foundry’s competitiveness. The decision affects around 160 manufacturing-related positions. Operations at the foundry will be ramped down during the second quarter of 2024.”
Tenova Takes on Sustainable Steel with RINA Partnership
Caption: Schematic for Hydra project Source: furnaces-international.com
“Tenova, announced it is partnering with RINA on the ambitious European Commission-backed Hydra project. This partnership will drive innovation in sustainable steel production leveraging Tenova’s cutting-edge technologies. The €88M project is funded by the European Commission’s NextGenerationEU and backed by the Italian Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy.”
Sudosilo S.A., a commercial heat treatment service provider in South America, is bringing premier nitriding to the Argentine industrial sector with the recent commissioning of turnkey heat treat installation. This newly operational nitriding system represents a significant milestone as the first of its kind in Argentina, offering third-party heat treatment services to the region.
Source: Nitrex
The integration of this system from NITREX — a global supplier of heat treat systems with North American locations — is set to establish a new benchmark for quality and precision in nitriding treatments. Particularly, it will help Sudosilo cater to various sectors, including aluminum injection, aluminum extrusion, forging, and oil applications.
Jerónimo Alberto Colazo Production Manager Sudosilo
Jerónimo Alberto Colazo, production manager at Sudosilo, highlighted, “The competitive edge of this installation lies in its meticulous control and automation capabilities, ensuring process stability and the ability to generate specialized processes and recipes tailored to unique requirements of each application. This high level of customization and precision guarantees superior quality, meeting the intricate demands of industries served by Sudosilo.”
This press release is available in its original form here.
Metallus, formerly known as TimkenSteel and a leader in high-quality specialty metals, manufactured components, and supply chain solutions, announced that the company has entered an agreement for up to $99 million in funding from the United States Army.
Half of the funding is currently obligated, with the balance subject to mutual agreement during subsequent phases after the final project details are presented to the Army. This funding will support a project aimed at bolstering the Army’s mission of ramping up artillery shell production in the coming years.
Mike Williams President and CEO Metallus Source: Metallus
Specifically, this project will enable the development of additional capacity to help fulfill increased global demand for artillery shells. The new capability is expected to increase throughput of high-quality bar-based products used in artillery applications and support approximately $60 million of incremental base sales annually, demand dependent. The company is targeting late 2025 for this new capability to be operational with funding to be provided throughout the procurement and installation process.
“Metallus is honored to expand our commitment to the defense sector, reliably providing high-quality specialty metals for critical applications. With this funding, we intend to further optimize our assets to meet the Department of Defense’s heightened demand while reducing our carbon footprint,” affirmed Mike Williams, president and CEO.
The 2022 National Defense Strategy outlines the Department of Defense’s commitment to establishing a modernized and coordinated defense industrial network. This initiative aims to develop a reliable and resilient supply chain of industrial partners over the next several years that will significantly enhance the nation’s defense capabilities for the long-term.
This press release is available in its original form here.
IperionX, a producer of high-quality titanium alloys, has commissioned a titanium production facility in Virginia.
Anastasios (Taso) Arima, CEO of IperionX, commented in a letter to the company’s shareholders: “Our Virginia titanium facility is designed to apply our HAMR [Hydrogen Assisted Metallothermic Reduction] and HSPT [Hydrogen Sintering & Phase Transformation] technologies to produce sustainable, high-quality and high strength titanium metal products at low cost.”
Full capacity is scheduled for 2026, with more than 1,000 metric tons of titanium produced per year. Using titanium powder produced on site, IperionX plans to employ unique forging technologies to produce titanium mill products and near net shape titanium products and to apply AM to produce 3D printed titanium products.
Arima also added, “We engaged with Lockheed Martin, GKN Aerospace, and the U.S. Army to replace traditional titanium mill products, in this case titanium plate, providing a new domestic and sustainable source to enhance their critical supply chains.” To aid these goals, Iperion is installing a large-scale, industrial furnace at their Virginia facility.
This letter to IperionX’s shareholders can be found here.
Effective November 30, 2023, Joe A. Powell has sold his remaining shares in Akron Steel Treating Company, his family’s commercial heat treating business for over 80 years in Akron, Ohio, USA, to a fourth generation of new “family” ownership.
The team at AST will continue to deliver ISO and Nadcap aerospace heat treating and related metallurgical services to part making customers.
Joe A. Powell, AST’s Chairman of the Board, will remain active in the heat treating and metallurgical services community as president ofIntegrated Heat Treating Solutions, LLC. (IHTS). IHTS is a “heat transfer” consulting company for product development teams to enable more sustainable heat treating equipment and practices to be integrated into their new product designs. IHTS and its team of part making consultants enable their part making clients to deliver more “total added value” from heat treating and forging per BTU expended in making their products for their end users; including the design of the associated heating and quench cooling equipment for "leaner + greener, more sustainable, manufacturing" and for greater recyclability of metal alloys.
Pictured in the image above: AST’s new shareholder team, and Joe A. Powell, Chairman of the Board, are pictured from left to right: Matt Moldvay, President; Steve Powell, Vice President of Quality, Christina Powell Somogye, Vice President of Administration; Joe A. Powell, Chairman; and Joe N. Powell, Vice President of Sales. (Source: AST)
Following a formal process, Sheffield Forgemasters have placed an order of over $25 million for seven new furnaces — 3 forging and 4 heat treat — for the company’s proposed 14,000+ ton forging line. The large, open die forge will replace the company’s existing forging press and will complement its smaller press to serve defense and commercial markets.
Andritz, a company with North American locations, will supply the furnaces which will have up to 1,102 tons of capacity and will have rail-mounted car-bottoms which can roll in and out for the loading of ultra-large components.
“The furnaces will be the mainstay of our new heavy forging line, delivering both heat-treatment and main forging heating cycles, using the latest burner technologies for optimum efficiency and heat control," commented Steve Marshall, manufacturing transformation director at Sheffield Forgemasters. “New innovation in furnace technologies includes dual-fuel burners which can switch to hydrogen if the technology to move away from natural gas becomes viable."
Main photo l to r: Roman Mueller-Huenervogt from Andritz Metals and Steve Marshall from Sheffield Forgemasters, sign the furnaces contract.
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Jiuli has awarded the final acceptance certificate (FAC) for a hydraulic radial forging line to a metals industry technology supplier with North American locations. The plant has a press force of 18 MN for each of the four press cylinders, which will allow sophisticated materials for the aerospace industry to be forged.
"The new SMX forging line enables us to manufacture our products in a highly cost-efficient way. The high productivity and the wide range of products give us the necessary flexibility to respond quickly to changing demands," commented Luo Tongwei, project manager at Jiuli.
In addition to the SMX 900 / 18 MN as the core machine, the plant comprises two fully synchronized eight-ton forging manipulators and equipment for loading and unloading as well as for cutting, marking and cooling of forged bars. SMS group manufactured the plant to provide a forging strategy that is calculated on the basis of a comprehensive material database as well as the preset machine, material, geometry, and product-related parameters.
“SMS group has enjoyed a close working relationship with Jiuli for over ten years and has supplied them with different types of equipment during this period. We are looking forward to the further fruitful cooperation”, says Jia Hui, senior sales manager at SMS group.
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A forging tool manufacturer will receive an agitated heated oil quench tank to be used post-heat treatment in order to set hardness. Tools such as nippers and ladles -- critical components in the foundry and in forging equipment -- are heat treated to the required hardness and then quenched in oil to set that hardness.
The L&L Special Furnace Co. small model QTO1224 heated oil quench tank holds 65 gallons of oil and can quench parts from 50 to 75 pounds. The quench tank oil is agitated by an impeller with a ½ HP explosion-proof motor and is heated with a 4.5 kW immersion heater to maintain the oil at a slightly elevated temperature to help eliminate oil flashing and fire potential.
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