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.
Adamus, a punch tool manufacturer for the pharmaceutical industry, has enhanced its heat treating operations with a vacuum furnace. The company manufactures punch tools and spare parts for tablet presses, capsule presses, and blister machines, and the new furnace is intended for processing a wide range of punches used in tablet production.
Maciej Korecki Vice President, Vacuum Furnace Segment SECO/WARWICK Source: SECO/WARWICK
“Adamus contacted us for the fourth time,” said Maciej Korecki, vice president of the vacuum furnaces segment at SECO/WARWICK. “This time, the partner wanted to replace an older, inefficient vacuum furnace with oil hardening, with a modern, more ecological and more economical vacuum furnace with gas hardening. Vector will perfectly meet these needs. It is compact, so it will not take up much space, it is efficient and ensures process purity, which is extremely important in the pharmaceutical industry.”
Vector vacuum furnace Source: SECO/WARWICK
The Vector vacuum furnace on order solves Adamus’s challenge to grow production in order to meet their increased demand for the number of punch hardening processes for tablet production. The presses produce components that are integral to the manufacturing process in the pharmaceutical industry, which maintains demanding standards, procedures, and technical parameters.
“The challenge is the constantly growing demand for our punches and spare parts used for units operating in pharmaceutical plants,” said a representative of Adamus, based in Poland. “However, it is important to choose well-thought-out solutions which will be used in many processes when expanding the machine park, ensuring the highest quality of production.”
The press release is available in its original form here.
We’re celebrating getting to the “fringe” of the weekend with a Heat Treat Fringe Friday covering news about a Class A safety batch furnace delivered to a supplier to the medical industry. The components manufacturer needed equipment that would accommodate the doorway dimensions of its facility and found a Pennsylvania-based international industrial and laboratory furnace manufacturer able to design one to fit the specs.
While not exactly heat treat, “Fringe Friday” deals with interesting developments in one of our key markets: aerospace, automotive, medical, energy, or general manufacturing.
A supplier to the medical industry recently purchased a Class A safety oven from an international industrial and laboratory furnace manufacturer. The Pennsylvania-based provider designed the batch furnace for ease of move-in and installation, modified to an overall height of 79 inches and width of 45” to accommodate the ceiling height and doorway dimensions at the client’s facility.
Blue M® manufactured the furnace with a temperature range of 15°C (59°F) above ambient to 316°C (601°F). The temperature is controlled by a Watlow EZ Zone PM controller with advanced PID control algorithm. The controller offers TRU-TUNE™ adaptive control for tight control and auto-tune for a quick, efficient start up.
“Blue M offers customers the flexibility to request engineered-to-order modifications to our standard oven designs,” said Jonathan Young, product manager at Blue M. “This Class A oven features custom exterior dimensions to accommodate the customer’s facility ceiling height and doorways. This is the second unit with these special dimensions that this customer has ordered.”
The interior chamber has dimensions of a 48″ W x 24″ D x 48″ and is constructed with 304 stainless steel. All of the seams and ports of the interior chamber are Heli-Arc welded vapor tight to prevent fume infiltration and buildup of flammable materials between the chamber walls. The unit includes five (5) 304 stainless steel slotted shelves with rolled fronts for ease of product loading. Each shelf is capable of holding a 75lb product load.
Blue M is located in New Columbia, PA, owned by Thermal Product Solutions.
The press release is available in its original form here.
Solar Atmospheres, Inc. announced their most recent acquisition, Certified Metal Craft (CMC) located in El Cajon (an East County suburb of San Diego). With nearly 55 years of serving the Southern California region, CMC and the Wiederkehr Family have established themselves as a source for heat treating and brazing services. With the addition of CMC to the Solar Family of Companies, CMC establishes Solar’s 6th nationwide location and bolsters their West Coast presence.
Derek Dennis President Solar Atmospheres California
CMC has extensive capabilities to include vacuum, aluminum, atmospheric, endothermic, salt bath and cryogenic processing and currently employs 25 dedicated employees. Servicing the aerospace, medical, and commercial markets, CMC is Nadcap-accredited and holds a long list of customer and prime approvals. Tim Wiederkehr will immediately assume the role of V.P. of Operations and report to Derek Dennis, president of Solar Atmospheres of California, Inc.
Derek Dennis states “Solar is excited to welcome the dedicated CMC team into the growing nation of Solar companies.” He adds, “Together, we will continue to grow our west coast footprint while solidifying our industry leading approach of being the ‘go-to’ choice for all heat treating & brazing needs with an unwavering commitment to honesty and integrity in all relationships.”
This press release is available in its original form here.
Kittyhawk, Inc., backed by the Dallas-based private equity firm Trive Capital, has acquired Stack HIP, LLC from Stack Metallurgical Group (SMG). The acquisition represents a significant expansion of capacity and capabilities in hot isostatic pressing (HIP) for aerospace, space, defense, and medical applications.
Operating from its facility in Albany, OR, Stack HIP provides HIP services to aerospace, defense, and medical clients by operating the largest high-pressure HIP vessels in North America. This enables them to process large, complex castings and additively manufactured metallic parts. Post-closing, SMG will continue to operate its classical heat treatment and aluminum special processing facilities in Portland, OR, Spokane, WA, and Salt Lake City, UT.
Brandon Creason President Kittyhawk
“We’re excited to welcome Stack HIP customers, employees, and suppliers into the Kittyhawk family,” said BrandonCreason, president of Kittyhawk. “Stack HIP will allow Kittyhawk to service mission critical parts up to 63” in diameter, enabling us to process the full array of components for our customers. At Kittyhawk, we commit every day to providing the best service and quality to our customers, and we’re thrilled to now do that with the added capabilities and dedicated employees of Stack HIP.”
Doug Puerta CEO Stack Metallurgical Group
Doug Puerta, CEO of SMG commented, “We look forward to continued collaboration with Kittyhawk to deliver a differentiated level of service, quality, and value to our shared customers. This transaction will allow both companies to further drive capacity, quality, and capabilities in our respective services to best serve the PNW market.”
“This is an important step in growing the platform specialized in this highly-differentiated HIP capability. [Kittyhawk] continues to benefit from strong industry tailwinds, and we are excited to support our customers by investing in capacity,” said David Stinnett, partner at Trive.
This press release is available in its original form upon request.
Stephen Harris
Group Chief Executive
Bodycote
Source: LinkedIn
Bodycote has announced its acquisition of Lake City Heat Treating, based in Warsaw, Indiana, which was successfully completed on January 19, 2024. The midwestern heat treater is a leading medical market provider of hot isostatic pressing (HIP) and vacuum heat treatment services, primarily supplying the orthopedic implant market as well as civil aerospace.
Stephen Harris, group chief executive of Bodycote plc, commented: "This acquisition is an excellent fit, and it allows us to better address the growth opportunities in the medical and aerospace markets." With this acquisition, the heat treater will increase their range of specialist thermal processing and heat treatment solutions available to these industries.
Lake City Heat Treating is forecast to have achieved 2023 full year revenues of around $14m (£11m). The business revenue grew 30% in 2023 and looking ahead is expected to continue to deliver good progress.
Their constant growth reflects the high-quality business that has successfully gained share among distinguished medical and aerospace OEMs. The acquisition fits with Bodycote’s strategy to grow its Specialist Technologies businesses.
This Bodycote press release can be found in its original form here.
Find Heat Treating Products And Services When You Search On Heat Treat Buyers Guide.Com
Roger Jones, FASM–CEO Emeritus, Solar Atmospheres (source: Solar Atmospheres)
Heat Treat Today’s Medical and Heat Treating December 2019 issue featured an article on medical alloys.Heat Treat Today asked Roger Jones, CEO Emeritus of Solar Atmospheres, Inc., to comment on how specialty medical metals are heat treated. These include titanium, niobium, tantalum, nitinol, and copper, to name a few, which in turn are used to create such standard medical devices and equipment as diagnostic guide wires, miniscule screws for implants, complex surgical tools that are operated robotically, and more. Read to see how Roger describes the hot zone and conditions under which medical device alloys are heat treated.
Vacuum furnace chambers processing titanium, niobium, chrome cobalt, and other medical device alloys are typically constructed from stainless steel. The hot zones are comprised entirely of metal (moly); graphite materials are never used in the construction of the hot zone or in fixturing parts. These furnaces process medical device alloys exclusively to avoid cross-contamination of the hot zone or the medical parts being treated.
Ultimate vacuum levels should be 1 X 10-6 Torr or better, with leak rates no greater than 2 microns Hg per hour. Gas system isolation valves aid in achieving tight vacuum, as they eliminate constant pumping on the quench system. Vacuum furnace leak up procedures are performed weekly, as well as a bake out at 2400 °F for one hour.
Horizontal, front-loading vacuum furnace with all-metal hot zone in a cleanroom setting typically used for heat treatment of medical alloys and devices (source: Solar Atmosphere)
Because of the alloys processed, cooling gases are mainly high purity argon from a liquid source. Very seldom is nitrogen used for cooling. Either type K or type N Inconel clad work thermocouples are imbedded in the loads for precise temperature readouts at +/- 10 °F or better. Processes include vacuum annealing, aging, stress relieving, solution treating, hardening, tempering, and other special processing. All furnaces are approved to the MedAccred quality standard, are surveyed to AMS 2750E, and comply with AS9100D in their processing parameters. Because the alloys are thermally treated, the vacuum furnaces operate in an air conditioned clean room with controlled temperatures and humidity levels.
Three batch steam treaters were recently shipped to the medical and automotive industries. Gasbarre Thermal Processing Systems recently received three separate orders for batch steam treating equipment. The batch steam treaters produce an oxide layer that promotes corrosion and wear resistance properties and provides an attractive surface finish. The three unique orders range in size from 18” to 30” in diameter and 12” to 48” deep. The gross load weight capacity ranges from 300lbs to 1800lbs with Gasbarre supplying the production tooling. The equipment is electrically heated and has a maximum operating temperature rating of 1400℉.
Steam treating processes are used in many different industries. As such, these orders will be shipped to companies that provide products to the medical, additive manufacturing, automotive and consumer products industries.
Stryker Hero JR Hip Replacement Source: Stryker.com
A furnace manufacturer based in Pennsylvania, USA, has shipped a floor standing forging furnace for use in hot forming of medical implant parts along with a floor standing tempering furnace to a manufacturer of medical implant components located in the Northeastern United States.
The FWE422 forging furnace
The forging furnace is a L&L Special Furnace Co., Inc. model FWE422 with working dimensions of 48” wide by 24” high by 24” deep and heats to a temperature of 1,800°F. The furnace features a vertical door with adjustable stops. These stops allow the door to be stopped at a predetermined location during the heating process for minimal heat loss.
The tempering furnace is model XLE3636 with a vertical door and 12” diameter, air-cooled convection fan and roller hearth. It has an effective work zone of 34” wide by 30” high by 32” deep. The furnace is used to temper hot formed parts and other thermal processing duties.
A small magnetic rose sitting between two copper coils in an Ohio State laboratory gives a demonstration of a new shape-shifting magnetic material developed by Ohio State researchers that will be used in biomedical devices, antennas, artificial muscles and robotics. The material can squeeze and grab objects and change its shape and temperature when electromagnetic fields are applied, according to the research paper published in December in the journal Advanced Materials.
Ruike Zhao, an author of the paper and assistant professor in the mechanical and aerospace engineering department, said the researchers embedded two types of magnetic particles into a soft material called a shape-memory polymer. At room temperature, the soft material is rigid, like acrylic. But when it comes within a magnetic field, the iron oxide particles heat up, softening the material so it’s like rubber, through a process called induction heating — the same technology used in some home cooktops.
Riuke Zhao, Assistant Professor in Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The Ohio State University
Previous generations of soft materials needed a constant supply of energy, Zhao said.
“Once we deformed the [earlier] material, if we wanted to lock its deformed shape, we have to keep the external stimulation, which is not energy efficient.” She added that Ohio State’s new material is more efficient and can lift an object 1,000 times its own weight.
Liang Guo, Assistant Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, The Ohio State University
According to Liang Guo, an assistant professor in the electrical and computer engineering department, soft materials have existed for several decades. However, this new type of soft material with embedded magnetic particles is the first to be controlled wirelessly by magnetic fields. Guo stated that soft devices cause less stress on the surrounding skin and muscle tissues than similar mechanical devices. They also require less energy than similar mechanical devices.
Guo and Zhao previously worked together to create an insulin pump using soft materials that is one-third the size of current battery-powered pumps. The Ohio State team worked with researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology to develop the polymer material.
