In May 2019, the forging industry will come together to showcase their products and services at Forge Fair, North America’s largest event dedicated exclusively to the forging industry. More than 1,650 forging professionals from across the globe come to Forge Fair to learn about new products, make purchasing decisions and network with each other. No other industry event offers suppliers and forgers the platform to connect with more qualified potential customers. Attendees will include everyone from C-level executives to purchasers, representing OEMs, and Tier 1 and Tier 2 manufacturing companies.
From material selection to the shipment of finished parts, Forge Fair will showcase innovations in heating, tooling, equipment, testing, automation, conservation of resources, process and plant improvements and technology for all types of forging operations.
Why should you attend Forge Fair 2019?
MEET with more than 150 industry producers and suppliers from around the world.
HEAR about the latest forging trends and technologies at more than 60 exhibitor presentations.
NETWORK with industry professionals.
ENJOY complimentary hot buffet meals, receptions, and new in 2019, an industry night networking event.
LEARN about advancements in the forging industry that will affect your business in 2019 and beyond.
Join industry peers and colleagues for three days of new products and technologies, industry presentations and peer-to-peer networking.
Click here to for more information or to be registered.
The study was led by James Pikul, Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at Penn Engineering.
We’ve come a long way in the search for and application of lightweight metals, which are being used now in everything from high-performance golf clubs to airplane wings, but random defects that arise in the manufacturing process mean that these materials are only a fraction as strong as they could theoretically be.
In a new study published in Nature Scientific Reports, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, and the University of Cambridge have designed and built materials that are stronger than anything heretofore developed, using a sheet of nickel with nanoscale pores that make it as strong as titanium but four to five times lighter.
“The empty space of the pores and the self-assembly process in which they’re made make the porous metal akin to a natural material, such as wood.
And just as the porosity of wood grain serves the biological function of transporting energy, the empty space in the researchers’ “metallic wood” could be infused with other materials. Infusing the scaffolding with anode and cathode materials would enable this metallic wood to serve double duty: a plane wing or prosthetic leg that’s also a battery.”
Photo credit/caption: Penn Engineering/A microscopic sample of the researchers’ “metallic wood.” Its porous structure is responsible for its high strength-to-weight ratio, and makes it more akin to natural materials, like wood.
In 2018, Heat TreatToday introduced one of its most popular features, the 40 Under 40 Awards for young, up-and-coming talent in the North American heat treat industry. Click here for the 2018 recipients. Heat TreatToday is posting occasional features of some of the 2018 recipients in anticipation of the 2019 40 Under 40 awardees to be presented in September (nominations are being accepted here). Today we feature Christina Somogye of Akron Steel Treating Company.
Christina Somogye
Akron Steel Treating Company
VP of Administration and Operations; Shareholder in ASTC
Christina Somogye was nominated from within Akron Steel Treating Company. The following was provided by the nominator:
Christina graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from The Ohio State University and has also completed the MTI “Yes” Program. She has earned respect from her fellow employees, the customers and the vendors at Akron Steel Treating, being wise beyond her years. In January [2018], she purchased a 10% interest in ASTC and is an integral part of the succession plan. Christina balances her responsibilities at Akron Steel Treating Company with being wife to Aaron and mother to her 3-year-old daughter, Olivia. The family resides in Sarnia, Ontario.
Christina Somogye follows three generations of steel treaters at Akron Steel Treating Company, which celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2018. Her great-grandfather, Prosper P. Powell, founded the company in 1943, and her father, Joe Powell, is currently at the helm. In this way, Christina has grown up in the environment of metallurgy, steel treatment and manufacturing, and heat treating operations. Asked what interests her about the industry that compelled her to stay with the family business, she says, “I enjoy evaluating our racking procedures to optimize load size and ensure uniformity throughout the load with an ergonomic work set up for our employees.”
With the changes in the industry due to technology, new materials, etc., Christina is enthusiastic about the way ASTC is seeking innovative methods, equipment and processes to keep up.
“ASTC, especially our President, Joe Powell, has been very passionate about new heat treating process technology,” she says. “We are a licensee of the IntensiQuench® process. We work with fabricators to build new and unique equipment for ourselves and to prove out new heat treatment processes. Akron Steel Treating Company is the ‘skunk works’ for IHTS Akron, Joe’s heat treat and metallurgical consulting company.”
Heat treating is an industry that offers a unique path to invention, innovation, and discovery. Christina agrees that “there are many opportunities in large and small heat treating companies (commercial and captive) as well as the equipment, alloy, material suppliers and service industries that serve the heat treating companies. The knowledge of senior industry members is ready to be passed on to the next generation with tremendous opportunities for growth and technical expertise. Small, privately held businesses and large, multi-facility companies have the need to pass down this tribal knowledge for their continued success.”
The world’s largest provider of heat treatment and specialist thermal processing services based in Macclesfield, United Kingdom, is pleased to announce plans to open a new heat treating facility in Elgin, Illinois.
Bodycote’s new facility will include advanced heat treating technologies such as low pressure carburizing and carbonitriding, vacuum nitriding and ferritic nitrocarburizing, Bodycote’s proprietary Corr-I-Dur® process, and traditional carburizing of large parts. The facility, scheduled to be operational by late 2019, will support the automotive, agricultural, mining, construction and various other manufacturing supply chains in the Upper Midwest region.
“This investment demonstrates Bodycote’s commitment to serving the Midwest with the services our customers ask for and require,” said Dan McCurdy, President Automotive & General Industrial, North America & Asia division.
A firearms maker from New York looking for a more spacious location for its business recently announced it will expand its manufacturing, including heat treating capabilities, to Thomasville, Georgia.
Although most well known for its magazines for small arms and rifles, Check-Mate Industries, currently located in Long Island, New York, is a metal stamping and tool and die manufacturer for medical, automotive, aerospace, and a variety of other industries.
Check-Mate Industries began the search for a new home for the industry after the owner died in 2014. After visiting Thomasville, his widow, Regina Viewig, though impressed with what she saw, was not prepared to take the big step of moving the company without confirmation. A friend reminded her that the southern Georgia town’s name included the name of her late husband, Thomas. That was the sign Vieweg needed.
Photo credit and caption: WALB.com / Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal speaking to crowd, behind him are Check-Mate Industries representatives as well as local and state economic representatives, including, State Representative Darlene Taylor; Pat Wilson, a commissioner with Georgia Department of Economic Development; Shelly Zorn, Thomasville PDA executive director; Joseph DeBello, Check-Mate president and chief operating officer; Jacquelyn Santoro, Director, Checkmate Industries; and Regina Viewig
A global leader in materials science recently celebrated the grand opening of its new multi-million dollar development center which will pioneer research into carbon materials and technologies.
Neil Sharkey, Vice President for Research at Penn State
Morgan Advanced Materials has opened the doors to its Carbon Science Center of Excellence (CoE) research and development facility at Penn State University. The CoE, which is a collaboration between the manufacturer and the university, will focus on carbon-based materials used in a wide range of industries and engineering applications, including aerospace, healthcare, industrial, power generation and more.
Among many projects, the company is working on electrified rail products including carbon current collectors used at the top of train carriages to connect to overhead wires.
“The work undertaken at our facility with Morgan will be truly revolutionary,” said Neil Sharkey, Vice President for Research at Penn State. “The electrified rail carbon strips that Morgan is already working on, for example, will change how train transport works, making it both safer and more reliable, and decreasing downtime. Our partnership with Morgan places us at the forefront of developing new methodologies, in line with Morgan’s mission and values as well as our own. Their existing expertise and insights will help our researchers and students turn new ideas into commercially viable solutions. The Center itself is a huge attraction for other businesses to join the Innovation Park, furthering job creation and economic development in Pennsylvania.”
Located at the Penn State Innovation Park, Morgan’s CoE is close to the university staff, students and facilities. Penn State’s reputation as a world-renowned institution for carbon and materials science-focused research and its collaborative approach to working with business was key when choosing a partner for the project. The partnership brings together resources, experience, and knowledge from both sides, with researchers and scientists on site, many of whom have existing ties to Penn State.
Despite specializing in carbon science materials, the CoE will be utilized by Morgan’s wider businesses and, to date, has also become the home of research projects for the company’s Thermal Ceramics, Technical Ceramics, and Braze Alloys businesses.
“We’re incredibly proud to have launched this ground-breaking Center of Excellence with Penn State,” said Mike Murray, Chief Technology Officer at Morgan Advanced Materials. “It marks an important milestone in both organizations’ history, as we both strive for excellence and understanding of the properties and uses of carbon. With brilliant science minds on our doorstep, we hope the synergies created between us can accelerate our engineering and solutions for our customers, while benefitting more and more industries going forward.”
“Our Centers of Excellence ensure Morgan remains at the forefront of materials development on a global scale,” said Pete Raby, Chief Executive Officer at Morgan Advanced Materials. “In addition to helping us to create world-leading materials, our partnership with Penn State also allows us to recruit some of the best talent in carbon science and provide unrivaled training to our technologists and engineers.”
Photo credit and caption: INVENT PENN STATE / From left to right: Vern Squier, president and CEO of the Chamber of Business & Industry of Centre County; Andrew Goshe, global technical director at Morgan Advanced Materials; Neil Sharkey, Penn State vice president for research; Pete Raby, CEO at Morgan Advanced Materials; Phil Armstrong, CoE lead at Morgan Advanced Materials; and Nick Jones, Penn State executive vice president and provost, celebrate the opening of the Carbon Science Research Centre for Excellence with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
A Texas-based steel distributor recently restarted its facility in Mingo Junction, Ohio, after being idle for 3,545 days.
The JSW USA plant is now a melt and manufacture mill, the largest Connsteel Tenova EFA in North America. The first slab was cast on December 14, 2018.
John Hritz, President and CEO of JSW USA
“Today, we are making history,” said John Hritz, President and CEO of JSW USA. “I would like to congratulate the entire Ohio team on this great success. Together, we will be making hundreds of new jobs in Mingo Junction.”
JSW USA also announced that it is in the design process to install another EAF in Ohio and is beefing up its Baytown, Texas, mill with additional melt and manufacture equipment. Once the company completes both of the EAFs in Ohio and a third in Texas, JSW USA will become a 3-million-ton fflat-rolledmill, a 1-million-ton plate mill, and a 500,000-ton pipe mill.
“When all is said and done, JSW USA will be producing the highest quality, lowest cost steel products in the country, whether they’re made in Texas or here in Ohio,” said Hritz. “This is all about installing the best technology in the world here in the US and creating secure jobs for decades to come in our industry.”
A Texas-based steel products manufacturer with EAF capacity that produces a diverse line of high-quality value-added steel products was recently acquired by a global industrial alliance and added to the latter’s resources, energy, transportation, and infrastructure group.
Liberty Steel USA’s acquisition of Keystone Consolidated Industries, Inc. (KCI) from Contran Corporation, creates one of the country’s largest producers of wire rod. Liberty Steel USA is part of the GFG Alliance; a global group of energy, mining, metals, engineering, logistics, and financial services businesses, headquartered in London. Sanjeev Gupta is the Executive Chairman.
GFG North American CIO Grant Quasha
Keystone Steel and Wire, a division of KCI, has a 100+ year history in the steel and steel products business. The deal includes Keystone’s top-producing wire rod facility, which houses a 1.1mt capacity electric arc furnace (EAF), and an MBQ/SBQ bar mill.
Liberty Steel USA will have up to 1.8mtpa of EAF melting capacity, 2mtpa of wire rod rolling capacity, significant value-added downstream businesses and over 1,300 employees. The combined company will have operations in Illinois, Ohio, South Carolina, New Mexico, Texas, and Georgia.
“KCI and its businesses offer Liberty the chance to merge our existing U.S. steel business with one of the country’s most productive wire rod operations,” said GFG North American CIO Grant Quasha. “Combined with Liberty Steel Georgetown, KCI will increase our downstream capabilities, create critical synergies, add strong management and provide better value and products for customers as we advance our U.S. steel business to our 5mt pa goal.”
Main photo caption: GFG North American Chief Investment Officer Grant Quasha and Executive Chairman Sanjeev Gupta
Induction Hardening Tips: Equipment Selection for Scan Hardening, Part 3
This is the third installment of a multi-part column on equipment selection for induction heat treatment. Part 1, Dr. Valery Rudnev On . . . Induction Hardening Tips: Equipment Selection for Scan Hardening, covered types of scanners, scan hardening system setup, quenching challenges, maximizing process flexibility, and computer modeling. In Part 2, Dr. Valery Rudnev discussed another critical aspect of induction scan hardening: inductor design subtleties and a comparison of different fabrication techniques (brazing vs. CNC
machining vs. 3D printing).
In this installation, Dr. Rudnev focuses on Moveable Inductor versus Moveable Part.
Moveable Inductor versus Moveable Part
As stated in one of the previous installments of this column, when a scan processing mode is chosen, either the inductor or the part or both may be moved during the heating and quenching. This installment discusses the applicability of those approaches (movable inductor vs. movable part), as well as pros and cons associated with both techniques.
Figure 1. An example of scan hardening of track shoes for earth-moving machines that often specify deep hardness case depths (up to the 24 mm).
The choice to move the inductor or to move the part is primarily based on required production rate as well as on the size, weight, and geometry of the component compared to the size, weight, and geometry of the inductor: in other words, it depends on which of the two is easier to move.
Weight is an important factor because the movement can occur several hundred times each day and, in some cases of high production, even several thousand times per day. For example, during induction surface hardening of track shoes for earth-moving machines that often specify deep hardness case depths (up to 24 mm), it is much easier to move the inductor around the workpiece instead of moving the track shoes, the weight of which can exceed several thousand pounds. (Figure 1)
When moving the inductor, both flexible cables and hoses are used or the inductor is hard-bused to the transformer and the transformer or heat station moves with the inductor. In some cases, the power supply itself may be moved at a moderate rate to scan a stationary workpiece [1]. Another example of moving the inductor is surface hardening of trailer axles. (Figure 2)
Figure 2. (Left image) Horizontal scanner to induction harden both ends of a trailer axle. A walking beam system was incorporated into the machine for part transfer. At the heating station, the axle is lifted off the beam and the power supply and inductor are indexed to position for scan hardening. After the completion of surface hardening of one end, the axle is then lifted off the transfer mechanism and rotated 180° to induction harden the opposite end. Heavy-duty precision shafting and bearings are used for stability and consistency. (Right image) shows a close-up of a movable inductor to scan harden trailer axle ends. Heating time is less than 8 s per axle end.
The length of the part to be heated is also an important consideration When a component is of moderate weight, it is obviously preferable to move the part rather than the inductor. For example, it is much easier and more cost-effective to design a hardening system that anticipates moving a workpiece that weighs less than 0.25 kg (<0.5 lb) rather than moving an entire power supply, as it is shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3. Horizontal scanner that provides a maximum scan rate up to 200 mm/s (8 in./s). (Courtesy of Inductoheat Inc., an Inductotherm Group company.)
In other cases, it may not be practical to move very large and elongated components. It would consume too much floor space to move the part through a stationary inductor. In the case of low production rates, the best choice might be to move the inductor, but the length of the high-frequency power leads could become a problem with respect to voltage drop and power loss. In this case, it is preferable to move the inductor with the power supply attached. Then, the moving cables are operating at a low frequency (50–60 Hz) with lower voltage drop and power loss. In the case of high production, continuous horizontal systems may be more suitable.
The consideration of the length of the leads (e.g., cables or buses) from the power source to the inductor is important. They should be as short as possible to conserve energy and to allow the power source to operate properly without reaching any limits (for example, voltage limit). If these leads are too long, the inductance increase can be so significant that it may result in a substantial power loss and voltage drop. The voltage drop in the leads may even exceed the voltage at inductor’s terminals. Long leads could net an excessive total needed power, a measurable reduction in energy efficiency, and potential concerns regarding the process repeatability owing to the possibility of an appreciable inductance change of the flexible leads during their motion, that in some cases may negatively impact process repeatability.
Whether moving the inductor or moving the part, the induction system can be designed to be efficient and robust in order to ensure smooth and consistent operation and the production of quality parts.
I recommend Reference #1 to readers interested in further reading on this subject.
References
V. Rudnev, D. Loveless, R. Cook, Handbook of Induction Heating, 2nd Edition, CRC Press, 2017.
Dr. Valery Rudnev, FASM, IFHTSE Fellow, is the Director of Science & Technology, Inductoheat Inc., and a co-author of Handbook of Induction Heating (2nd ed.), along with Don Loveless and Raymond L. Cook. The Handbook of Induction Heating, 2nd ed., is published by CRC Press. For more information click here.
A thermal processing equipment manufacturer based in Maumee, Ohio, recently supplied a batch integral quench furnace for a metal treating company in Raleigh, North Carolina, that services the automotive, aerospace and defense sectors, as well as general manufacturing.
East Carolina Metal Treating’s (ECMT) purchase of the Allcase® Batch Integral Quench Furnace from Surface® Combustion Inc. is a repeat order. Identical to the previously commissioned Allcase furnace, the new equipment is configured to process 36” wide by 48” long by 36” high workloads that weigh up to 4,000 lbs. In addition, Surface has supplied two air cool stations, a scissors lift table, and two stationary load tables that integrate with an existing IQ line.
The new Allcase works seamlessly with ECMT’s existing charge car, tempers, and washer, following the incorporation of a purchaser specified controls system to match the existing UPC controls on the initial order, and features a Vertical Radiant Tube Heating System with direct spark ignition and flame monitoring, recuperated burners and plunge cooling. A maintenance platform with access stairs allows for fast and easy maintenance. An integrated Top Cool Chamber was provided to further expand process applications, a hallmark of the Allcase furnace which was invented for the greatest range of thermal processing; all case-hardening and non-case hardening applications under controlled atmospheres.
“As always our team did a great job but a special shout out to the Surface Combustion and UPC Teams involved in this project. This was our first project with Surface and their reputation holds true as expected,” said Jamie Ramm, president of ECMT.
