MTI MEMBER PROFILES

Precision Manufacturing Insurance Services

/ FEATURED NEWS, MTI MEMBER PROFILES

Over the last few months, the Metal Treating Institute requested comments from members on how their current business insurance programs have been progressing with property, liability, errors-omissions, commercial auto, and workers compensation. What we learned is this is a huge pain point for most heat treaters of any size.

Contact us with your Reader Feedback!

Many are experiencing cancellation of coverage, refusal to be offered a quote, or large rate increases. The insurance industry is really backing away from writing policies for heat treating companies.

To help heat treaters deal with this huge challenge, the board of trustees of MTI is excited to announce that they have partnered with Precision Manufacturing Insurance Services out of California as the official insurance agency partner for business insurance coverages. They have already written several MTI members’ policies and provided quality coverage with significant savings averaging 35% to 50%.

Precision Manufacturing Insurance Services (PMIS) provides heat treating companies with comprehensive competitive insurance and risk management solutions. They are dedicated to protecting the future of this vital industry. They offer their knowledge, experience, and service to many types of metalworks that put people to work, contribute significantly to the U.S. national GDP, and deliver quality products worldwide.

They know there is nothing cookie-cutter about what a heat treating company does when altering the physical properties of material. That work is precise and custom. With PMIS, your company will get the same type of focused approach with your insurance and risk management plan. Recognized nationwide for their specialization in working with metalworking manufacturers, they’ll provide you with tailored solutions based on your unique risks. Their professional staff is available to support your industry and business.

Source: Precision Manufacturing Insurance

When prospective clients ask why they should partner with PMIS for their insurance and risk management needs, the answer is simple: They are metalworking manufacturing insurance specialists. This is who they are and the only thing they do. They are not a generalist broker who happens to write a few manufacturing accounts. PMIS has written over 1,000 policies for metalworkers — all attributed to their expertise, experience, and longstanding relationships with insurance markets. This enables them to deliver affordable solutions to MTI members that protect property, assets, employees, and reputation, while reducing risk and costs. The following are the types of coverages PMIS can create for you:

  • Custom Manufacturing Insurance
  • General Liability Insurance
  • Property Insurance
  • Workers’ Compensation
  • Manufacturers’ Errors and Omissions
  • Equipment Breakdown
  • Commercial Auto

To see more details on Precision Manufacturing Insurance Services and the MTI Insurance Program, including a link to request speaking to a PMIS team member about getting a free quote for your company, visit HeatTreat.net and click on the Business Insurance link under the Benefits tab at the top.

If you have any questions or would like more information, feel free to contact Tom Morrison at tom@heattreat.net

Find heat treating products and services when you search on Heat Treat Buyers Guide.com

 

Precision Manufacturing Insurance Services Read More »

MTI Technical Standards Committee

/ FEATURED NEWS, MTI MEMBER PROFILES

Within any heat treating operation, quality drives everything, including quotes, contract review, and overall production. The #1 influences on quality are the technical specifications: the ones designed by the AMEC Committee in aerospace; the Nadcap checklist heat treaters must audit; and CQI-9 specifications in the automotive industry, which are overseen by AIAG. There are also major influences from ASTM in hardness testing and ISO 9000 and AS 9100 in quality department operations.

Contact us with your Reader Feedback!

Needless to say, there are a plethora of specifications, data, and information required in the quality department to operate a heat treat plant. Sometimes it can seem impossible to keep up with all of the changes.

This is where the Metal Treating Institute’s Technical Standards Committee becomes so valuable to any heat treat plant. The MTI Technical Standards Committee was established during the MTI’s Winter Strategic Planning Committee meeting in 2015. After plentiful discussion on challenges facing heat treaters, the leadership felt heat treaters needed to be involved in the specification groups, giving them a voice in the design of the specifications and keeping them updated as specifications were being reviewed or changed.

The committee is now made up of 25 people from commercial heat treaters and suppliers. The committee meets three to four times a year to discuss all the specifications and audit checklists under review or issues needing improved. The committee thus determines any actions steps needed to make sure specifications maintain high levels of quality and safety without becoming onerous or cost prohibitive.

From each of the committee meetings, five to six key leaders on the committee provide a full report on each technical standard group’s activity via a virtual Zoom meeting. The volunteer work and member reports on committee activities have become very valuable to quality departments by giving real time information on potential changes in specifications that could have a big impact on equipment purchases or overall quality process for audits.

Many of the specifications the MTI Technical Standards Committee has covered over the last seven years include AMS2759 (and all the slash specs), pyrometry with AMS2750, CQI-9 in the automotive industry, and hardness testing specs with ASTM.

In the MTI Technical Standards Committee, heat treaters have the power to fi nd out the full details of specifications as they are reviewed prior to approval — not when the auditor shows up at audit time. Volunteering for one of these committee groups like AMEC, Nadcap, ASTM or CQI-9 includes getting to be part of the spec writing process and influencing what the final specification requires.

MTI would like to say thank you to the co-chairs of the MTI Technical Standards Committee: Ed Engelhard from Solar Atmospheres and Bob Ferry from FPM Heat Treating for providing to the industry their leadership of this very important committee. MTI would also like to thank the following companies for supporting their quality team’s involvement in the committee:

• Applied Thermal Technologies, Inc.
• Aremac Heat Treating East, LLC
• Cincinnati Steel Treating
• Continental Heat Treating, Inc.
• Euclid Heat Treating, Co.
• Gasbarre Thermal Processing Systems
• Ipsen
• King Tester
• Midwest Thermal-Vac
• Pacifi c Metallurgical, Inc.
• Paulo Products
• Peters’ Heat Treating, Inc.
• Pinson Valley Heat Treating
• Southwest Metal Treating Corp.
• Super Systems Inc.
• ThermTech
• Throughput | Bluestreak
• Winston Heat Treating

If you have any questions or would like more information on MTI's Technical Standards Committee, feel free to contact Tom Morrison at tom@heattreat.net

Find heat treating products and services when you search on Heat Treat Buyers Guide.com

 

MTI Technical Standards Committee Read More »

ThermTech

/ FEATURED NEWS, MTI MEMBER PROFILES

If ThermTech was a person, they would make it into Heat Treat Today's 40 Under 40 Class of 2022 as a notable company at 40 years old. In May, ThermTech of Waukesha, Wisconsin celebrated 40 years, having been founded in 1982 by Charles E. Wiberg. Wiberg’s previous company, Midland Metal, was sold in 1980 and he used his industry knowledge to start ThermTech and in turn worked with his son and daughter, Steven Wiberg and Mary Wiberg Springer, who now own and run the company.

Contact us with your Reader Feedback!

The company specializes in everything except induction hardening, and they have three operating business units: carburizing/bath unit, vacuum/tool steel unit, and the austemper/foundry products unit. ThermTech believes in investing in their people, so that they will invest in the company. This has proven to be true as over 70 of their 137 employees have over 10 years of experience.

ThermTech has grown significantly since the beginning when they had only a couple of used furnaces, including two Ipsen T11s from the 60s. Mary and Steve’s father always told them to “Witness the turtle: he moves forward slowly with his neck fully extended.” Though it may be slow movement, their goal is to never stop moving forward. Every couple of years they take on equipment and physical expansion projects. Current projects include a new office facility and a new austemper line for the austempering facility.

This Waukesha company serves the automotive and aerospace industries as well as military, mining, agriculture (heavy equipment), and construction (housing). Processes include hardening, tempering, vacuum treatments, annealing, and surface treatments such as flame hardening, carburizing, and
more. They can also perform blast cleaning, cryogenic treatments, normalizing, straightening, and stress relieving.

ThermTech Waukesha, WI 
Source: ThermTech

The company focuses on partnering with customers on the front end of projects to help them understand complex specifications. Their job launch team is composed of metallurgical engineers, quality experts, and people with excellent practical knowledge. The internal maintenance department is headed by an engineer with 30 years in the industry.

Many different things can pass through a heat treatment facility, whether that be parts up to 6,000 lbs., parts that have come from all over the world, or a robot! Right now, the company is most excited about their first robot which they will receive in September. They are eager to see how robotic technology can help during this labor shortage, hopefully gaining efficiency and decreasing costs.

ThermTech wants to be known as a company that does not live in the past, but moves forward in innovation, vitality, and creativity driven by a core of younger employees in the management group, always striving for quality, fair pricing, excellent service, and technical partnership.

As they look to the future, the team plans to continue taking on new customer challenges and serving them into the next century as the hands of the third generation and many dedicated staff guide the company forward with innovation and efficiency.

Find heat treating products and services when you search on Heat Treat Buyers Guide.com

 

ThermTech Read More »

Kowalski Heat Treating

/ FEATURED NEWS, MTI MEMBER PROFILES

A company that does tough jobs no one else wants to and has a big personality? That’s Kowalski Heat Treating (KHT). They specialize in PIA (pain in the @%$) jobs. The company was started in 1975 by Robert S. Kowalski in a 3,000 sq. ft. facility to service the needs of tool and die industries in northern Ohio using salt bath technology. Since its inception, KHT has grown to encompass over 80,000 sq. ft. of processing capacity on nine campuses with 48 employees.

Today the company is led by next generation President Stephen Kowalski, who is supported by family members and specialists in sales, manufacturing, procurement, logistics, delivery, warehousing, lab technicians, and supply chain management. It is a family business that works to have fun dealing with customers’ never-ending stream of problem jobs. They can fixture/clamp over one million pieces of various sizes up to 60” per week.

Over the years, based on customer demand, KHT has consistently invested in service capacity in its specialty divisions which include K-Vac (high pressure quench vacuum processing), K-Salt (rack salt to salt — austempering and marquenching), K-Flat (high volume fixture flattening up to 60” in diameter), K-Life (deep cryogenic processing),
K-Glow (pulsed plasma ION nitriding), and K-Labs (specialty on-site laboratory for performance testing). Also included is K-Solve: prototype development of processes, equipment, and tooling for the heat treating industry with 3D development of tooling to optimize processing. Together these divisions are serving a vast array of industries like
automotive, military, agriculture, power transmission, oil and gas, transportation, construction equipment, heavy industrial, and outdoor power equipment.

These services ensure consistent processing of distortion sensitive, highly engineered components. The most important process for KHT is rack salt to salt which enables unique flexibility to solve marquenching and austempering problems.

There are the usual parts a heat treat company can work on, and then there are. . . swords! They may seem like a thing of the past but are still being made. Hand-made, period-specific broad swords are the most interesting parts the company has worked on. The customer had put 2,000 hours into the blade, and asked KHT to manage the blade and edge hardening. Now that was downright scary!

As far as future planning goes, the company will continue investing in both technology and people to service their markets, while providing the training, tools, and opportunities for the next generation of KHT problem solvers to grow both professionally and personally.

Find heat treating products and services when you search on Heat Treat Buyers Guide.com

 

Kowalski Heat Treating Read More »

Service Heat Treating

/ FEATURED NEWS, MTI MEMBER PROFILES

In 1974, Richard Armitage saw an opportunity for a quality and service focused commercial heat treater in southeastern Wisconsin and that’s how the story of Service Heat Treating began. They started small with two batch furnaces and have grown over the years to have 18 furnaces total. The company began servicing agricultural and construction equipment suppliers and have diversified over the years to include automotive, consumer products, mining equipment, and other available markets. Included in their staff of 35 employees, Service Heat Treating has top metallurgical and QA experts to support engineering and process design and help solve metallurgical problems.

The company provides nitriding and nitrocarburizing processes in seven state-of-the-art Nitrex nitride furnaces, which are 1 meter diameter by 2 meters deep and have a 4400lb capacity. Austenitic nitrocarburizing for specialized applications is also available. Their six 36” x 72”, 5000lb capacity batch furnaces are capable of austenitic nitrocarburizing, neutral hardening, carbonitriding, carburizing, and a wide variety of specialized annealing processes. Their 36” x 48”, 4000lb capacity vacuum furnaces have 15-bar quench capabilities with services including hardening and annealing stainless steel and high-volume tool steels, and specialty annealing processes.

With their wide variety of processes, this commercial heat treater can engineer specialized processes to meet demanding strength, wear, and corrosion requirements. Their quality system is certified to ISO 9001 by BSI under certificate number FM522321 which ensures consistency and high quality. Inspection procedures exceed the MTI-2000 industry standard and can be tailored to your unique requirements.

Though some of the most interesting projects can’t be discussed due to trade secrets, industrial clients throughout the area know Service as a top metallurgical solutions provider with a record of achievement in case hardening medium and large production runs. That reputation doesn’t come without hard work. Every load is scrutinized: the vacuum department delivers standard stainless steel and tool steel processing quickly and cost effectively; the company develops boutique annealing cycles for making difficult bends; and they other vacuum carburizing capabilities for the most distortion critical applications.

Service Heat Treating is a company based on the principles of the founder: principles like service, as their name suggests, but also a focus on quality and reinvesting in the company to persistently improve services. As a greener future in the heat treat industry edges nearer, the company will continue to pursue cleaner, environmentally friendly technologies and improved process control while looking to new technologies to continually improve growth.

Find heat treating products and services when you search on Heat Treat Buyers Guide.com

 

Service Heat Treating Read More »

Erie Steel Ltd.

/ FEATURED NEWS, MTI MEMBER PROFILES

In 1961 in an old building that formerly housed the Chevrolet Toledo Transmission power plant, Phil Flynn, chief metallurgist of Buick Motor, and Bill Durako, the tool steel metallurgist of Crucible Steel, founded Erie Steel Ltd.

As with many entrepreneurs of the era, they started with small (used) atmosphere batch furnaces of limited capability. But what they lacked in equipment was more than made up for with engineering know-how and a heavy dose of “can-do attitude.” The improvement of heat treat practices and a desire for customer satisfaction drove the company. Today that can-do culture, along with expanding engineering capabilities, a professionally educated management team, 50 employees, and a modern 70,000 sq. ft facility continues to drive Erie Steel to excellence.

The company works to understand all aspects of a client’s product material type, procurement, and manufacturing methods, and then Erie optimizes the heat treat process to provide the requisite metallurgical, dimensional, and cosmetic properties.

The major industries served include aerospace, automotive, mining, agriculture, construction, and others. A few services provided to these industries include precision atmosphere carburizing; atmosphere neutral hardening; atmosphere normalizing/annealing; vacuum hardening, normalizing, and annealing. A somewhat unique capability is the mesh belt polymer quench, which affords the possibility of both case hardening and neutral hardening in combination with a polymer quench.

Heat treat processes are part-specific and incorporate the necessary considerations including material hardenability, prior condition, distortion control, and post heat-treat cosmetic requirements and finishing operations. One heat treat process specific to Erie Steel is distortion critical carburizing, in which part fixturing is developed specific to the part, and thermal cleaning may be employed. The process may include preheat cycles leading up to the carburizing temperature. The carburizing process may incorporate a boost/diffuse strategy to control surface carbon content, and that process may incorporate a reduction in temperature from the carburizing temperature for quenching. Quenching may involve regular or modified mar-quenching, and lastly, agitation is controlled to assure distortion is controlled and consistent.

Photo Credit: Erie Steel Ltd.

One project of distinct importance was the heat treatment of crankshafts for the natural gas compressor industry. These cranks are manufactured from a 4140 forging 38” OD X 82” OAL that is rough machined into a 3-pin crankshaft that has 36” OD counterweights, and 10 bearing journals. After rough machining, the cranks are indicated for run-out with the high point marked on the companion counterweight and sent for heat treating. This very specific process was duplicated for more than 200 crankshafts from three different forging sources, without a single noncompliance.

In the next five years, Erie Steel Ltd. plans to maintain their emphasis on a comprehensive approach to engineered heat treat processing, as well as continue to improve their customer service and automation. The next 10 years will bring new projects such as the transition from ICE to EV, which will involve different manufacturing processes and requirements. Gas quenching will assist in this effort as well as low temperature thermal treatments such as nitriding and nitrocarburizing. These are processes the company has historically performed well, and the future will be no exception to their commitment to excellence in both processes and services.

Erie Steel Ltd. Read More »

Complete Heat Treating

/ MTI MEMBER PROFILES

A company which has served construction, mining, and earth moving, but which is now involved in gas, power generation, military, aerospace, and more is Complete Heat Treating — this month’s MTI Member Profile company. They have many value-added operations under one roof combined with knowledgeable technical staff helping to select the optimum process to meet customer expectations.

Complete Heat Treating was established in 2007 and has since acquired an additional two companies, increasing the company’s capabilities and markets. In 2011, they acquired Wisconsin Steel Industries, which was in operation since 1939. In 2018, they then acquired Commercial Heat Treat. After the acquisition in 2011, major rigging projects were undertaken to move furnaces, presses, and
other equipment to the present-day site in Milwaukee. One of the largest items moved was a large 53-foot car-bottom furnace.

A few of the company’s services include those in heat treating, blasting, coating,
straightening, and hardening. Heat treating capabilities encompass a wide variety of applications and part sizes. They offer stress relieving, annealing, quenching, tempering, and normalizing of parts up to 53’ long x 18’ wide x 15’ high and weighing up to 100,000 lbs. Open fire furnaces are available in multiple sizes and can reach up to 2200°F with heat outputs of 40,000,000 BTUs. In addition to having metallurgists on staff, other services offered are abrasive grit blasting, oil preserve coating, close tolerance straightening, and portable hardness testers.

Although all processes are important, control of the furnaces with properly calibrated pyrometry is critical to achieving quality specifications. The ability to successfully process the extreme size, shape, complexity, alloys, and quantity of parts is a unique feature of the company. They commonly heat treat large, heavy-section (10–20 ton) plates; 5,000+ tiny stampings weighing ounces; and finish machined precision parts with close tolerances. They can anneal, carburize, flame harden, straighten, blast—all to one part!

An interesting heat treat project is Complete’s involvement with large castings for the Space Launch System (SLS) for booster rockets. These were highly complex parts with a book of quality requirements.
They achieved the large heavy section mechanical property requirements and multiple hardness measurements to encompass the extremities of parts because of their procedural development that reviewed quenchant agitation direction and severity. Another interesting project involvement is the first
high-speed train in the U.S. It is a highly complex part consisting of castings, forgings, and plates with challenging quality requirements. The success of the lengthy procedural development made it memorable.

The company looks ahead to more memorable projects as new developments emerge, which include the commissioning of an integral-quench carburizing furnace and heat-treating aluminum components, and further expansion of flame hardening capability. Complete is best known for its diverse capabilities in both process and size of parts, but the quality of the 24-person workforce, their experience, technical competence, and honesty are the traits of which the company is proudest.

Complete Heat Treating Read More »

Thermal-Vac Technology

/ MTI MEMBER PROFILES

Thermal-Vac Technology, Inc, based in Orange County, CA, is a southern California brazing, heat-treating, and finishing facility offering services to a wide customer base. Founded in 1985 by Steve Driscol, the 60-employee company is family-owned with second generation family members leading the business since 2012.

With an original facility of 5,500 square feet and 11 active customers, the company transformed into a multiple-location company across two states with over 80,000 square feet of campus footprint. By the end of the 2020 fiscal year, they had over 600 active customers with total sales of just under $12 million.

Vacuum furnace brazing is what the company was founded on, and additional services now include: aluminum dip brazing, induction and torch brazing and heat treating, atmosphere brazing and heat treating, copper and electrolytic nickel plating, specialized aluminide and silicide coatings, quench and temper, and much more.

Main industries served include aerospace, military, and medical. Thermal-Vac maintains strict quality regulations, with Nadcap and AS9100 accreditations. They specialize in highly technical, high-profile projects including missile defense, deep space exploration, medical devices, and others.

Customers have brought interesting projects over the years—everything from the space shuttle main engine to entirely new types of metal for the additive industry, to new types of coatings and oxidation resistance measures.

Partnering with NASA and aerospace leaders, the company works as a supplier on the critical SLS-Orion project to return Americans (including the first woman) to the moon and send astronauts to Mars in the early 2030s.

The company is proud of “The Thermal-Vac Advantage”: A commitment to being not only a one-stop provider of brazing, heat-treating, and finishing services, but also a fully committed and fully engaged partner.

With a focus on being straightforward, putting customers first by truly caring about them, and never giving up, they have maintained a team with less than 10 percent voluntary turnover for the past decade and was acknowledged as a 2018 Top Workplace by the Orange County Register.

Some of the company’s 2020/2021 accomplishments include being named as an Orange County Business Journal Companies That Care Nominee and an Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Business, among others. Three Thermal-Vac employees have also been recognized in Heat Treat Today’s 40 Under 40. The company has given over $25,000 to scholarship funds and non-profits, like Chrysalis.

The company plans to grow continually through a commitment to excellence and service and include new offerings via capacity increases in all major service lines. Focus on their passion helps to keep the right priorities in mind for customers: “We build good parts here; at a profit if we can, a loss if we must, but always good parts.” In the next five to 10 years, Thermal-Vac will be ushering in a new generation of heat treaters and will remain committed to bettering the industry through education, training, and providing expertise.

Thermal-Vac Technology Read More »

Metlab

/ MTI MEMBER PROFILES

“A heat of drill rods, each piece measuring 1 1/2 O.D. x 12’ long made from H-11 air hardening tool steel. Parts were carburized, and are being forced air cooled, and then will be tempered and straightened Parts are used in the mining industry and case hardening provides the surface hardness and toughness for superior performance in the application.”

Metlab was founded by Horace Knerr in 1928 in Philadelphia to service the airplane manufacturing business. Knerr introduced the first drop bottom gantry furnace for solution treating aluminum spars. In 1936, the company expanded its heat treating activities and moved from Philadelphia to the northern suburbs into a 125,000 square foot facility. As a strong contributor to the support of American manufacturing for the war effort, they had a staff of about 350 people and heat treated numerous components for airplanes, tanks, armaments, and other parts. In 2001, Metlab acquired the John V. Potero Company in Philadelphia, an 18-person heat treat company specializing in heat treating small parts and black oxide.

Today the company offers a full complement of thermal processes, heat treating both small and large parts, and also providing a local pickup and delivery service. They have a full range of capabilities, processing parts that weigh from a few ounces to up to 50,000 pounds. With the largest atmosphere-controlled pit furnaces in North America (measuring up to 15’ in diameter by 12’ deep or the two long furnaces, 6’ in diameter by 16’ deep), Metlab offers deep case carburizing of large gears, pinion shafts, bearings, and other components.

In addition, they have a complement of atmosphere controlled integral oil quench furnaces and a vertical furnace for nitriding parts up to 20’ long. An inhouse metallurgical laboratory is used for documenting hardness, microstructure, and mechanical properties to certify heat treatments and processes.

Nitriding is a core competency, with large submarine and destroyer gears weighing up to 25,000 pounds routinely heat treated. Other processes offered are hardening, tempering, annealing, spheroidize annealing, induction/flame hardening, protective atmosphere normalizing, nitriding, vacuum heat treating, cryogenic processing, stress relieving, and black oxide finishing. Major industries served with these capabilities include:

  • Aerospace
  • Agriculture: Heavy Equipment
  • Medical
  • Military
  • Mining

All of the processes offered by the company are aimed at changing the mechanical properties of the parts treated. Whether increasing the hardness (either on the surface or core to make the parts functional), softening the parts to allow them to be further processed, or black oxide finishing for decorative and corrosion resistance, the thermal treatments and/or finishing treatments are critical to the performance of the treated products.

A large gear, 10’ O.D. x 3’ F.W. used on a stand in a rolling mill line. The gear, made from 18CrNiMo6-7 was carburized to 0.250” case depth and hardened to HRC 58 – 62."

Metlab is a job shop, and the parts processed as well as each application addressed is unique. As an example, the company can carburize a 40,000-pound gear to 0.200” case depth and a surface hardness of HRC 58-60 for a steel plant mill stand and not see the same gear for heat treating for another 10 years. Each day brings new challenges. With three metallurgists on staff, they partner with their customers, acting as consultative heat treaters providing the company with the best solutions for any application.

Heat treating can take some interesting turns off the expected path. A few of those projects include working with students on SAE automotive racing teams at local universities. The teams build cars for competition, and Metlab provides, at no charge to the colleges, heat treating for their projects, enabling students to economically obtain heat treat services. Another fun venture was the heat treating of antique car and airplane parts: one-off pieces needed for a restoration. And the black oxide finishing of a suit of armor for a renaissance fair “Black Knight” reenactor was another unique opportunity.

Quality, service, and competitive pricing are Metlab’s stock-in-trade. While they work in accordance with ISO and Nadcap, obtaining accreditation in the short term is a key goal. The addition of a second, larger capacity black oxide line is also underway. The company will continue to evaluate new processes and equipment and add to its arsenal of process and capabilities as markets evolve and applications demand change.

Metlab Read More »

Penna Flame Industries

/ HEAT TREAT NEWS INDUSTRIES, MTI MEMBER PROFILES

Penna Flame Industries (PFI) was founded in 1968 by Garrett D. Orr, Sr. and his wife Mary Patricia (Pat) Orr to provide flame hardening services to the growing steel industry. Orr chose the Zelienople, PA site because it was centrally located between Pittsburgh, PA, and Cleveland, Ohio, which was then heavily into steel manufacturing. Garrett was employed as a sales representative for a foundry and was involved in other steel-related industries. Through this experience, he recognized the need for flame hardening in the steel industry. In 1968, at the age of 39, he founded Pennsylvania Flame Hardening. The groundbreaking took place on April 1, 1968.

Bert demonstrates the benefits of working with a collaborative robot to induction harden steel parts. The robot gives the operator the ability to work directly next to it, as opposed to conventional robot arms where fencing and distance is required.

In 1990, James P. Orr was named president of the company, continuing his father’s commitment to the industry by adding new technology and innovations in surface hardening and roll manufacturing.

In 1995 the company added a roll manufacturing and machining facility to meet the needs of customers who wanted highly polished rolls used in the automotive and other industries. Today, PFI also serves the military, mining, and agriculture (heavy equipment) sectors.

In 2008, the company added the industry’s first robotic cell that replaced manual scanning and reduced the amount of setup required for tooling, thereby increasing precision and repeatability. The company has since added three additional robotic cells.

The computerized robotic surface hardening systems have revolutionized the surface hardening industry. These advanced robots, coupled with programmable index tables, provide an automation system that helps decrease production time while maintaining the highest quality in precision surface hardening.

A few benefits of this service are:

  • Increased wear resistance
  • Higher hardness and longer life
  • Less processing time
  • Higher efficiency and productivity
  • Maintain tensile strength
  • Quick turnaround of the project
  • Consistent, repeatable process
  • Less distortion when compared to furnace treatment

A crane wheel, in the process of being flame hardened, glowing red hot about to submerged in a quench bath.

Additional services include flame hardening, robotic flame hardening, robotic induction hardening, roll hardening, roll manufacturing, roll straightening, hardness testing, wheel and axle assembly, deep cryogenics, stress relieving, and tempering.

In 2017, the company expanded its facility to incorporate the world’s largest spin flame hardening tank (80-inch diameter) and added a collaborative robotic cell that induction hardens and allows the operator to work right next to the robot without having safety fences.

Here’s a fun fact: while PFI doesn’t know the final destination of many of the parts they heat treat, they have flame hardened wheels that are in the roofs of professional sports stadiums and fields that roll out.

As they look to the future, James P. Orr, together with his sons Michael (Vice President) and Andrew (Vice President) are poised to lead the 28 employee-strong company into the next generation of products and services.

Penna Flame Industries Read More »