LEAX Group, a Swedish manufacturer of advanced components and subsystems for automotive, commercial vehicles, mining, construction, and general industry sectors, has installed a low pressure carburizing (LPC) furnace at their Brinkmann, Germany, facility (LEAX Brinkmann GmbH) to boost the company’s heat treatment processing capabilities. The extensive installation takes about two months and the first hot load is scheduled for December. Along with the addition of a new induction machine at their Falköping, Sweden, facility, this new LPC furnace serves as the centerpiece of the massive MBS project.
LEAX, which is based in Köping, Sweden, operates heat treatment shops in seven of their twelve production sites, including Latvia, Germany, Hungary, Brazil, and China, and focuses on induction hardening and processing and refining approximately 300,000 parts per year. This added LPC hardening furnace brings a process to LEAX’s manufacturing process that has been a mainstay in the automotive industry. The full transition to the MBS project will take up to two years, but “we [will] switch hardening from the older oven to the new,” said Anders G. Larsson, COO/Heat Treatment for LEAX Brinkmann GmbH.