Nitrex and Linde announced they have renewed and expanded their heat-treating focused joint marketing agreement. What started as a local agreement 13 years ago, between Nitrex and Linde, formerly known as UPC-Marathon and Praxair, respectively, has evolved into an international marketing agreement and now covers Europe and North America.
To date, Nitrex and Linde have worked together on over 30 projects. By using their complementary offerings, they have upgraded essential equipment and have helped customers achieve quality results. Nitrex provides Linde customers with equipment and analyses to control first-rate gas atmospheres, thanks to its competence in the heat treatment and electrical fields, technical solutions, support, and world-class gas panels.
“Our competencies complement each other,” says Roman Grosman, National Director of Business Development for Linde in the U.S. “In the event that Linde’s heat treatment clients require equipment that we do not offer, Nitrex can meet this need.”
“This continues to be a win-win relationship,” says Paul Oleszkiewicz, President, CPO & CSO of UPC-Marathon, a Nitrex company. “We can supply Linde gas customers with process controls, and in turn, Linde offers a reliable gas supply network. We are both aiming for the highest quality, efficiency, performance, and a greener tomorrow and providing optimal service for our customers.”
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A European subcontractor for the automotive and racing industries as well as a partner for teams participating in Formula 1 races has acquired a second vacuum furnace.
The order from SECO/WARWICK includes a Vector® vacuum furnace with 15 bar abs high pressure gas quenching, and high vacuum (HV). The furnace will process engine and gear components for vehicles racing large-scale motorsport competitions.
This partner provides carburizing, and various heat treatment services for titanium, aluminum and precipitation hardening of alloys. These services must be of aviation quality within the demanding timeframes required by European F1 teams.
In the new SECO/WARWICK furnace, the customer will execute vacuum heat treatment of titanium and its alloys and will perform vacuum carburizing processes for steel elements. Titanium alloys are very strong materials, but at the same time soft and plastic, which makes them difficult to machine. Low thermal conductivity and density creates an environment where the cutting material is subject to a strong thermal load and tends to harden.
The FIA regulations for Formula 1 racing specify in detail what material a part must consist of and how it must be manufactured. Titanium or titanium alloys are used for many engine parts and suspensions because they have high toughness, strength, and ductility, and are corrosion resistant. Formula 1 car components must be manufactured precisely and safely in both prototype and small series production.
The purpose of this particular model of Vector furnace will be unique, as carburizing and hardening of parts such as gears for engines and transmissions for high-performance F1 sports cars are not the typical processes for which SECO/WARWICK supplies its furnaces.
Commenting on this order, Maciej Korecki, vice president of the Vacuum Segment at SECO/WARWICK, explained, "The vacuum furnace system which will be delivered to England has numerous options such as cryogenic processing, convection, FineCarb® vacuum carburizing, pre-nitriding for PreNitLPC® carburizing technology or low-pressure carbonitriding LPCN."
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Siemens Energy, a recognized manufacturer of gas turbines and other energy technologies, has selected an eco-friendly vacuum furnace with high-pressure gas hardening (6 bar abs.) and high vacuum for one of its production facilities.
The vacuum furnace from SECO/WARWICK, known as Vector®, will execute efficient and ecologically clean processes in a high vacuum range. Consisting of a dry pump, a Root’s pump, and five Oerlikon/Leybold turbomolecular pumps, the furnace will meet the manufacturer's restrictive requirements.
Maciej Korecki
Vice President of Business of the Vacuum Furnace Segment
SECO/WARWICK
(Source: SECO/WARWICK)
The Vector also contains a metal heating chamber, which prevents direct heat loss to the vacuum chamber’s wall and ensures high process purity. The efficiency is also influenced by the ability to conduct the heating and cooling process at 6 bars with two gases (nitrogen or argon).
Maciej Korecki, vice president of the Vacuum Segment at the SECO/WARWICK Group, states, “This is our first order from a Siemens Energy production facility, but in the past, we have supplied equipment to gas turbine manufacturers."
Commenting on the future of clean energy for the power industry, Korecki further notes, "Gas turbines can run on a variety of gases, including hydrogen. Green hydrogen, as an energy carrier without a carbon footprint, will gradually increase its market share not only in the energy industry, but also in other economic sectors, contributing to gradual decarbonization of the atmosphere."
A service hardening plant in Spain will receive a vacuum furnace that is adapted to the aviation standard to perform production for this industry. The furnace will increase the company’s efficiency when hardening larger-dimension elements.
"The Vector [furnace] will enhance and increase the hardening processing capacity and will improve process efficiency," comments Maciej Korecki, vice president of the Vacuum Segment at SECO/WARWICK Group, a heat treat furnace supplier with North American locations. "The advantage of this product is a large working space with the capacity to adjust to an oversized load, utilizing the advantages of a circular heating chamber."
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A heat treat company based in Waukesha, WI, has expanded with a 95,000 square foot building in New Berlin, WI. The New Berlin facility is seven miles from their Travis Road campus.
Steve Wiberg and Mary Wiberg Springer, owners of ThermTech, share that the plant’s square footage will be 270,000. The new space will be used for the company’s expansion. The new facility will allow the heat treater to continue to meet their clients’ needs as they expand their core offerings: hardening, tempering, surface heat treatment, carburizing, vacuum treatments, annealing, press quenching, austempering, and aluminum heat treatment.
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Three electrically heated RO pit furnaces with air-cooled fans have been shipped from Riverside, MI. The furnaces will be used for heat treating various steel components.
“These pit furnaces are designed for a nitrogen atmosphere,” commented Kelley Shreve, general manager at Lindberg/MPH. “They have been designed to utilize three independent heating zones for optimal temperature uniformity and meet AMS 2750G Class 3.”
These heat treating pit furnaces from have a maximum temperature rating of 2,000°F and are designed to handle a wide range of part sizes. Two of the units have work chamber dimensions of 28″ x 36” and a maximum gross workload of 2,000 lbs. each. The third furnace has work chamber dimensions of 60” x 109” and a maximum gross workload of 20,000 lbs.
All of the pit furnaces have pneumatically operated lids with three-way hand control valves and limit switches that disconnect power to the heating elements when the covers are open. The pit furnaces are electrically heated with heavy duty rod overbend heating elements.
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ThermTech, heat treat service provider in Waukesha, WI, has increased their capabilities to provide services for the medical, aerospace, mining and oil, nuclear, and agricultural industries.
Jason Kupkovits, vice president of Sales & Strategic Direction at the company, commented on that ThermTech will be continuing their 40 years of quality assurance, turnaround time, on-site engineering, and customer service standards.
Ben Gasbarre Executive Vice President of Sales Gasbarre Thermal Processing Systems
Partnering with Gasbarre Thermal Processing Systems, ThermTech significantly increased their normalizing, annealing, stress relieving, tempering, and neutral hardening capacity through the acquisition of three new furnaces. These three furnaces --- now fully operational --- include: a dual zone, direct-fired box austenitizing furnace; a large batch tempering furnace; and an additional tempering furnace. These furnaces are compliant with AMS2750 at different class certifications.
ThermTech has also added two additional vacuum furnaces from Ipsen, USA. The furnaces have dimensions of 36” wide x 36” tall x 48” long with capabilities of quenching up to 6 bars of pressure utilizing nitrogen or argon gas as the quench medium. These large vacuum furnaces are AMS class 3 (+/-15°F) certified capable of AMS2750.
ThermTech added a solution annealing furnace from Williams Industrial Service to give their operational aluminum line additional heat treat capabilities. This line is capable of a sub-15 second transfer to air blast quench, a water quench range of 55°F up to boiling, a sub-7 second transfer to water quench which exceeds AMS 2770/AMS2771 specifications, as well as load thermocouple monitoring during the solution treatment, quenching, and aging.
Daniel Hill, PE Sales Engineer AFC-Holcroft Source: AFC-Holcroft
Another recent acquisition includes a new austempering/marquenching furnace from Michigan based AFC-Holcroft. This furnace can handle a single part racked in the vertical orientation up to 56" long. The working dimension of the furnace is 36" W x 72" L x 56" H and is capable of operating with salt temperatures ranging from 350°F -- 750°F. "The UBQA system is an environmentally friendly ‘green technology,’" commented Dan Hill, sales engineer at AFC-Holcroft, "which can be used to impart resistance to distorting, cracking or warping of heat-treated components.” Applicable processes include marquenching, austempering, and carburizing with additional washing and tempering capacity accompanying the new marquenching/austempering furnace. Installation is expected in early 2023.
The heat treat service provider's long-term strategy is to increase growth in the Midwest and on a national scale. This includes adding more workers and integrating the use of a robotics handling systems, which is expected to be installed in late 2022.
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Alberto Martin Sales Director -- Spain Aalberts surface technologies TEY
International manufacturer Aalberts surface technologies Group will receive two vacuum furnaces to the group’s Spanish branch in País Vasco. The system on order solves the manufacturer's problem with hardening large dimension elements.
The manufacturer mainly operates in the automotive industry, as well as the machine industry and, with this order, has signed its tenth contract with international furnace supplier, SECO/WARWICK. Aalberts is ordering the heat treat furnace provider's horizontal retort furnace for high-efficiency tempering with vacuum purging and the Vector® vacuum furnace. The Vector, with a useful working space of 600mm x 600mm x 900mm will increase the efficiency of the current hardening plant, improving the economics of hardening processes. The retort furnace will significantly increase the processing capacity of the current hardening plant for tempering processes.
Once again, SECO/WARWICK equipment will contribute to increasing the efficiency of our entire Group," said Alberto Martin, director of Sales --- Spain at Aalberts surface technologies TEY. Aalberts surface technologies is a global company with over 80 years of experience, operating in over 70 countries.
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Mr. Sivaraman Arjunan Senior Manager Sundram Fasteners Limited Source: LinkedIn
Indian fastener manufacturer Sundram Fasteners Limited will receive a vacuum furnace to heat treat high quality aviation screws.
This will be the second furnace from SECO/WARWICK --- a global heat treat solution provider --- for this manufacturer. The vacuum furnace on order is a compact Vector device that meets the Indian partner’s requirements in the field of fastener heat treatment for use in the aviation industry, particularly for heat treating large loads of manufactured aviation bolts.
“[The] Vector," commented Mr. Sivaraman Arjunan, senior manager at Sundram Fasteners Limited, "will improve and increase the processing capacity of the tempering, hardening and annealing processes, and will improve the process economics, considering energy savings and the graphite chamber efficiency.”
Sundram Fasteners Limited is a world leader in manufacturing precision components for the automotive, energy (windmills) and aviation sectors.
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A manufacturer of machining tools, industrial knives, mulching knives, and chippers has placed an order for a vacuum furnace with 10 bar high-pressure gas quenching. It will be used for tool steel hardening and tempering processes.
The furnace on order, the Vector® -- a furnace from North American SECO/VACUUM and the international SECO/WARWICK -- has been adapted to match the Czech manufacturer's needs: SECO/WARWICK engineers have designed a 600 x 600 x 1800mm work space. The device modification was implemented to fit the long and straight characteristic shape of the workpieces. The unit was also equipped with a directional cooling option to effectively cool down long and thin knives that, a shape that's prone to distortion during the hardening process.
The application for the device required an inverter that enables complete control over temperature at every stage of the hardening process to reduce distortion. Together with the additional option of directional cooling and the convection system, the system design helps to reduce the undesirable distortion significantly.
