The Best Commercial Heat Treater to Work for in North America. Last week we asked for comments about who the best commercial heat treater in North America is in terms of working for them. We’ve got comments, however human nature being what it is individuals would rather complain about a bad employer than rave about a good employer. The most interesting comments we received so far came from an individual by the name of Ray Whitton of Michigan who sent us a rating system mentioning several commercial operations he has worked for over the years. Watch for further comments over the next few days and please send us your votes. July 3/08

“Good Afternoon, OK, I just had to throw my two cents in on this article! I have worked for a few different heat treats in the Detroit – Metro Area since 1979, and I have to say – the best? (and to think, back then, they were all family owned and operated!!). How about a rating system instead?!?! Because from my first days though today the plants and equipment/processes have improved 10 fold, but as our economy has gone up and down like an out of control – control chart, the benefits are going by the wayside or should I say – we pay more!! Each company I’ve worked for has different work conditions, building size, equipment, quality systems, procedures and rules (including owners, managers and other personnel you had to work with) – so a lot of thought had to go into my ratings.

(See attached rating chart). But after doing the chart, I’d have to rate my first heat treat (Sterling and not just because it was family), was the best because it was in a simpler time. Yes the equipment and methods might not work today, but it was a lot hot, dirty work that was fun to learn (from the old timers of course), from the ground up. Sure a lot different than bumping & painting cars for a living. Keep up the good work with the Monty!! Ray Whitton.”

Who Are The Best Commercial Heat Treaters to Work for?

My Rating System:   “5” – Best   and  “1”  Worst 

Used Equipment Available.  We have an excellent condition Inductoheat Lift and Rotate Machine.  Carbottoms are relatively hard to find but we now have two more to offer Tempering Ovens with asking prices now included.  We have a number of new pieces of used equipment including an Abbott Model 6ZSCR-18-432HH6-VC-2150 mesh belt furnace which was used for annealing knife blades but could also be used for sintering and a very unusual item a Batch Austempering Line.  Nothing fancy but on the vacuum page several older, smaller vacuum furnaces are now priced at $10,000 USD each. Several interesting used furnaces have come up in the past few days one of which is a 1bar 1980 Model Vacuum Furnace which certainly looks good.  3 very basic drive-in Aging Ovens have come up and we were able to reduce pricing on two very nice Recirculating Air Belt Tempering Furnaces. The price has just been lowered on a beautiful CI Hayes Vacuum Furnace. Available on the salt page is a Salt Bath System less than 8 years old that was over $600K new. We can assure you that the asking price is now far less than that.  With alloy costs the way they are these days everybody is looking for a way to save. We have some suggestions; first is a number of 24” square alloy trays for Holcroft Pusher furnaces with corrugated boxes to go with them Cast Alloy Trays Second is fixturing for pit furnaces alloy Furnace Components We realize rotary retort furnaces are not in great demand but if you need one we have several incredibly well priced ones AGF Rotary Retort Furnaces Looking at the vacuum side of things we go to a very recent addition, a great condition Abar 3000ºF Vacuum Furnace which joins another two recent additions an Ipsen VFC-321 Vacuum Furnace and Ipsen VFC-321R Vacuum Furnace  Three recent pieces of equipment that just today saw a price reduction are an Ipsen Tempering Furnace, an Ipsen 3000 CFH Endo Generator and a Precision Quincy Tempering Oven  We will stress that not all of the used equipment we are aware of is listed on our site so if you don’t see what you are looking for just ask. July 3/08

Solar Atmospheres. The largest vacuum commercial heat treater just keeps on growing. Not that long along a go a news item we had told you about their very ambitious plans to expand into California with a "Greenfield site". With the press release below it is clear that this plan is moving along as they have hired a President for the California operation. July 3/08

"Souderton, Pa. — Roger Jones, Corporate President, announces the hiring of Derek Dennis as President of Solar’s new California heat treating company: “Derek comes to Solar with a wealth of heat treating and management experience, primarily from the aircraft and petrochemical business as former Director of Operations for Valley Metals and Manufacturing Manager for Jet Products (Senior Aerospace) both of San Diego, California. He also served in the US Marine Corps as an Aerial Navigator and Crew Chief.”
According to William R. Jones, CEO: “Derek was carefully selected to head the new company after reviewing numerous applicants”. His strong points are his life long ties to California, his managerial experience, and knowledge of the metals business. Derek’s first assignment will be to select a plant site with a primary focus on the Inland Empire, just east of Los Angeles, where an experienced labor pool is available and several potential plant sites exist. According to Bob Hill, Solar’s President of Western, Pennsylvania operations, who did advance marketing research for the project: “Our aim is to install large, high tech furnaces and provide high quality operations not currently available on the West Coast.”

www.heatbath.com

Business Opportunities. Phoenix Heat Treating Inc is looking for Sales/Marketing Individual.  Thermal Processing located in Clintonville, WI is looking for a Business Unit Manager.  Experienced Fastener Professional Engineer with 35 years of experience is looking for employment.  Klein Tools is looking for a Heat Treating Supervisor with at least 5 years of experience.  A commercial metal heat-treating company located at Pomona, California is looking for an Maintenance Engineer.  A Heat Treating Salesman is looking for employment.  Heat Treatment Australia is looking for Heat Treatment Supervisors & Operators to work in their Brisbane, Australia plant. Fancy moving to Australia mate? Are you a NADCAP approved commercial heat treater in the Michigan, USA area that can harden and oil quench large diameter rings? Then we have an opportunity for you!  A Heat Treat Company located in the Midwest is looking for a Quality Manager and Specialty Heat Treating is looking for Various Heat Treat Positions.  Nabertherm Inc. is looking for a Technical Sales Engineer for their Delaware location, and we have an Experienced Heat Treat Consultant. 2 companies looking for people: wanted a Degreed Metallurgist & a Process Metallurgist. We have an Experienced Engineer primarily in the field of vacuum technology & a Metallurgical Engineer with over 18 year experience. Ever have the hankering to be President of a large new furnace builder? This is your chance. A global provider of furnace process technology and equipment is searching for a President to head up their North American Division. AFC-Holcroft has the following positions available - they are looking for Experienced Engineers for Sales Opportunities and individuals for Industrial controls engineer/software development.  July 3/08

What are the factors that influence the hardenability of steel? One of the best heat treat consultants in the business continues to give us his words of wisdom, David Pye, Pye Metallurgical davidpye@pyemet.com July 3/08

Answer: The hardenability of a steel is its ability to respond to heat treatment and depth of hardening. The depth of hardening is usually the distance below the surface of the steel at which a level of 50 HRC has been reached. It can further be defined as the distance below the surface at which martensite has reached a minimum percentage. This of course will depend on the alloy analysis and the carbon content. The factors which will influence the steels hardenability are:

· Cross sectional area

· Austenitizing temperature

· Quench medium

· Rate of cooling

· Steel chemistry

Peter Minarski/ALD. It is with great regret and genuine sadness that we mention today the passing of Peter Minarski, President of ALD, North America. Peter passed away at Hanau hospital on Sunday, June 22, 2008 at the age of 51 after contacting a very rare nerve/muscle disease. Peter achieved his PhD at the University of Aachen, Germany before joining Degussa Heat Treatment in 1990. In the mid 1990’s he was transferred to ALD (New Vacuum Carburizing furnaces and commercial heat treating) when Degussa changed names and ownership in the mid 1990’s. Over the next almost 20 years he was involved in R & D developing special nitriding technologies and plasma carburizing processes as well as being VP of Sales for vacuum carburizing and high pressure gas quenching in North America. He was one of the pioneers at ALD in developing their “Own & Operate” strategy (commercial heat treating). As such he built ALD’s first location Vacuheat at Limbach, Germany (a photo of which is below) and then continued on to develop the locations in Blythewood / SC and Port Huron / MI, USA as well as the operation in Ramos Arizpe which started production just a few weeks ago. As well he was managing director of ALD’s “Own & Operate” group, President of the US and Mexican subsidiaries and member of the board of ALD-Holcroft.

His background shows a long time experienced heat treater, having met Peter personally many times I can give him my highest compliment-a good man! The photo below was taken at Vacuheat in Limbach, Germany January of 2005. Peter is on the right, Gord Montgomery (themonty.com) on the left and Luis Martinez (ALD) in the centre. As a footnote to this story we understand that a good personal friend of ours, Robert Peters of ALD will be named the new Vice President of ALD, North America.  July 2/08

Total Trac Systems, Ltd. Our newest advertiser is a company by the name of Total Trac Systems and this is how they describe what they do. July 2/08 

Total Trac Systems, Ltd is a software development company specializing in software for metal working industries. The company was created in 1989 by William Richard, Jack Richard, and Dr. Z. Ordanic. Mr. William Richard and Dr. Z. Ordanic hired from IBM where they had developed the first supermarket barcode system. In creating the Total Trac Systems, Ltd they have decided to apply their special skills to produce the barcode process tracking system especially suited to heat treating and similar metal processing industries. Jack Richard, as the owner of Albany Metal Treating company, had provided detailed requirements, participated in testing the product and went on line in 1991. Along with the input from its early customers, Total Trac Systems has succeeded in providing a comprehensive management system, possibly the only total software package you will need in your plant, and assured the satisfaction of the loyal customer base.

The Total Trac Systems keeps all collected data in an SQL database, including the data read from the controllers and various sensors, as well as all production records. With the barcode system the production tracking can be done almost effortlessly. As it turned out such system is well suited for meeting the requirements of CQI-9, ISO-9001, and other quality systems."

Your Worst Nightmare or a Very Competent Heat Treater?  The answer of course is the latter. Phil Terry, Divisional Metallurgist for Lufkin Industries in Lufkin, Texas, USA http://www.lufkin.com/ is a top notch guy and a top notch heat treater for Lufkin Industries in Texas. Blatantly stealing from their website this is a very brief description of what the company does “Founded in 1902, Lufkin Industries Inc. is a vertically integrated company that designs, engineers, manufactures, sells, installs and services high quality and high value-added oil field equipment and power transmission products across the globe.” In the photo below you see Phil at the USPSA Arkansas Championships where he finished High Senior for the division he shot in-very impressive! July 1/08  

United Process Controls (UPC for short). UPC was formed some time ago and is a collection of several furnace controls companies. While we are still not sure of what direction the companies will take it is an interesting press release below.  July 1/08 

"Bodycote Thermal Processing (Huntington Park, CA) has acquired three gas nitriding installations based on the UPC Protherm 500 programmable controller and the H2Smart hydrogen analyzer from United Process Controls. These include two pit-type NP-1020 turnkey systems complete with furnaces and one upgrade for an existing furnace. All three systems will be primarily used for nitriding stainless steels. In addition, an IN-500 exhaust gas neutralizer will assure the furnaces’ environmental friendliness. Installation and startup are scheduled for the second quarter of 2008. United Process Controls is a new alliance of five recognized companies within the heat treating industry (Furnace Controls, Marathon Monitors, Nitrex Metal, Process-Electronic and Waukee Engineering) that share a common vision: first, to fill the needs of customers for industry-leading control solutions, and second to enable customers to get easy-to-access support through our worldwide sales and services network."

Bluewater Thermal Changes. Lots of changes going on at Bluewater Thermal, one of the largest commercial heat treaters in North America. While we have heard of a few equipment changes the main focus that we are hearing about so far is new hiring's. Below you can read about two more changes in personnel. At the risk of offending Jim Hedman that name is very familiar but we can’t quite place it. July 1/08 

"Bluewater Thermal Services has named Jeff Hemmer to the position of Director - Operations.  “Jeff brings more than twenty five years of experience in heat treating, but more importantly, he is a widely respected leader in the industry for his commitment to superior customer service, his energy level, and his problem-solving expertise” commented Bluewater C.E.O Jeff Gwinnell.  “Jeff will be working across the company to further improve our overall capabilities to service our customer’s most challenging programs.” Bluewater has also named Jim Hedman to the new company-wide position of Engineering Manager.  “Amongst the heat treat technical community, Jim Hedman is renowned for his very broad and deep experience base, and Bluewater will benefit from his skills in multiple technical areas right across the company” commented Gwinnell “Bluewater’s new tag-line is Dedicated. Professional. Expertise.  Jim Hedman’s career and capabilities can be summed up in those three words.”

Who Are The Best Commercial Heat Treaters to Work for? We are going to do a very informal poll about which commercial heat treaters in North America are the best to work for. What we are looking for are comments, either anonymous or much preferably with names attached about what companies treat their employees the best. Who are the most flexible, offer the best benefits, working conditions and overall work environment? While it would be interesting to hear which companies are the worst to work for we will not print comments talking about the “XYZ” company being a bunch of SOB’s to work for. So if you’re pleased with the company you are working for just let us know, we will gladly print your thoughts and at the end of the day we will see which companies come out on top.  June 27/08 

John Deere/Greenhouse Gas Emissions. John Deere is another very large manufacturer who has jumped upon the “Greenhouse Gas Emissions” bandwagon. This has become a very large issue amongst manufacturers and heat treaters and we personally have run across this a number of times in the past little while, most recently at Pratt & Whitney. While we think that the whole story about greenhouse gas emissions is a bunch of crap we will also say that it is to their credit these large companies taking an interest in environmental issues. Like it or not greenhouse gas emission issues and carbon taxes are with us in one form or another.  June 27/08 

"Deere & Company today announced plans to further reduce its total global greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent per dollar of revenue from 2005 to 2014. The company has committed to the reduction goal in conjunction with its participation in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Leaders program, which Deere joined in 2007. Deere's direct greenhouse gas emissions come from operations such as foundry, heat-treat, painting, powerhouse, and testing. Indirect emissions result from demand for electricity or steam."

What is Martensite and how is it formed? From David Pye comes these words of wisdom about how Martensite is created.  June 27/08 

"Answer: The transformation to Martensite has to be created. The transformation is not a 'natural' transformation. The transformation will occur when heat is applied to steel containing sufficient carbon in solution and its temperature raised to a selected point above the A1 line on The Iron Carbon Equilibrium diagram. Once this has been accomplished, then the steel is forcibly cooled (water, air, or even gas). In this diffusive precipitation of austenite into the two phases of ferrite and carbides is suppressed. The carbon content of martensite will correspond to that carbon in austenite. The formation of the martensite phase is a progressive transformation, and occurs as the steel is cooled rapidly past the left hand side of the nose of the curve on the Time Temperature Transformation diagram. The transformation will commence at the Ms point on the TTT diagram. It will progressively transform to martensite depending on the rate of cooling and the carbon content of the steel. (Martensite Transformation) Once below the Ms line, then the transformation to martensite is rapid. As the carbon content of steel is raised, and then the Ms transformation temperature will be reduced."

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