Ipsen provides advanced equipment, comprehensive support to industries around the world
April 26, 2017
Source:
Ipsen USA, Cherry Valley, Ill., recently shipped eight vacuum heat-treating systems to customers in Costa Rica, India, Germany, and the United States, where the equipment will be used to support the additive manufacturing, aerospace, medical, MIM, and tooling industries. Several customers also took advantage of Ipsen's full-scale support offerings, including Ipsen U training, spare parts kits, and installation.
The vacuum furnaces shipped included a vertical MetalMaster furnace with a 5000-pound capacity; a custom-built furnace for debinding and sintering; horizontal MetalMaster and TurboTreater furnaces; and a TITAN DS (debinding and sintering) furnace.
Several H2- and H6-sized TITAN vacuum furnaces equipped with the PdMetrics software platform for predictive maintenance were also shipped. This software platform securely connects to a network of integrated sensors on the furnace to gather and analyze data, run algorithms, and provide real-time diagnostic that improve the health and integrity of the equipment.
To best support these industries, Ipsen's global ICS (Ipsen Customer Service) Team facilitates system installations, and provides expert training, startup assistance and 360;degree support throughout the entire life span of the equipment for any brand.
Learn more about the extensive support and training at www.IpsenUSA.com/ICS.
Ipsen USA, Cherry Valley, Ill., recently shipped eight vacuum heat-treating systems to customers in Costa Rica, India, Germany, and the United States, where the equipment will be used to support the additive manufacturing, aerospace, medical, MIM, and tooling industries.
Continue reading
Harper and Ferrite partner to expand solutions for industrial microwave heating
Source:
Harper International, Buffalo, N.Y., announces that it is partnering with Ferrite Microwave Technologies, Nashua, N.H., to utilize FMT's high-power microwave heating technology to complement its product portfolio of traditional gas and electric fired furnaces. Wider choices will enable Harper customers to access a broader range of options and the expertise of two recognized industry leaders.
FMT has several patented microwave technologies that enable advanced microwave field distribution across a wide variety of materials. Harper will integrate FMT's unique heating technology into its furnace systems. Since commercial microwave use requires material-specific equipment, matching the engineering and design capabilities of FMT with Harper's furnace systems will provide customers a distinct advantage for their unique processing requirements.
Charles Miller, President at Harper, commented, "Microwave can be a highly efficient and effective solution for a range of materials including ceramic and metal powders. To provide our customers with an expanded solution set via world class microwave components inside our proven furnace systems is a winning combination."
According to Peter Tibbetts, CEO at Ferrite, "Teaming up with Harper gives us access to material processing capabilities and expertise that will enable us to solve more complex heating problems for our customers. At FMT, we constantly strive to advance the science of industrial microwave processing. Partnerships with industry leaders like Harper open up new avenues of advancement."
www.harperintl.com
www.ferriteinc.com
Harper International, Buffalo, N.Y., announces that it is partnering with Ferrite Microwave Technologies, Nashua, N.H., to utilize FMT’s high-power microwave heating technology to complement its product portfolio of traditional gas and electric fired furnaces.
Continue reading
J.L. Becker IQ heat treating furnace line processes workloads up to 4000 pounds
April 21, 2017
Source: ASM International
J.L. Becker, a Gasbarre Furnace Group Company, Plymouth, Mich., recently manufactured, shipped, and commissioned a complete IQ furnace line at the East Carolina Metal Treating facility in Raleigh, N.C.
Continue reading
ALD SyncroTherm compact heat treating system supports manufacture of aerospace parts
Source:
ALD Vacuum Systems Inc., Wixom, Mich., has received a purchase order from a North American based aerospace manufacturer for a SyncroTherm brand, fully integrated vacuum heat treating system. This system will primarily carry out low pressure carburizing (LPC), and is the direct replacement for two vintage batch IQ atmosphere carburizing furnaces. Other operations of the system will include austenitizing, vacuum brazing, gas quenching, cryogenic treating, and tempering. This fully integrated, compact heat treating cell will be among the first known captive LPC operations west of the Mississippi.
ALD continues to expand the SyncroTherm presence in the heat treating world with applications for the automotive drivetrain, consumer tool, textile, bearing, commercial heat treating, hydraulics, aerospace and fuel systems markets. This will be the third SyncroTherm to support the needs of NADCAP (National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program). It will be comprised of five independently controlled hot zones, each rated for load sizes of 24x20x9 inches and up to 110 pounds.
SyncroTherm systems operate using recipe-selectable high pressure gas quench, and they incorporate support processes such as cryogenic and temper sequences in a fully automated, lights-out fashion. Individual part tracking and complete process history retention are key functions within the system, along with a consistent process cadence.
www.ALDvac.com
ALD Vacuum Systems Inc., Wixom, Mich., has received a purchase order from a North American based aerospace manufacturer for a SyncroTherm brand, fully integrated vacuum heat treating system.
Continue reading
QuesTek CEO & ASM Fellow Aziz Asphahani elected to National Academy of Engineering
April 20, 2017
Source:
QuesTek Innovations LLC, Evanston, Ill., announces that Dr. Aziz Asphahani, Questek President & Chief Executive Officer and a Fellow of ASM International, has been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. This is in recognition of his distinguished contributions to engineering: "for executive leadership in STEM education, integrated computer design of materials, and innovation and production of corrosion-resistant alloys." He will be honored at a formal induction into the Academy in October, hosted by the President and Council in Washington, D.C.
Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions given to an engineer. It offers the opportunity to serve the nation through participation in National Research Council workshops and report generation on engineering issues of importance (e.g., national security, energy distribution, and education of the engineers of the future).
Dr. Asphahani received his Engineering Diploma in Physics from Ecole Centrale de Paris, and a Ph.D. in Materials Science from MIT. He began his career at Haynes International, where he held positions of increasing responsibility as Corrosion Engineer, Director of Research & Development, Haynes Vice President, and CABVAL President. Afterwards, he served as President & CEO of CARUS Chemical Co. prior to retiring.
His work led to the granting of eight patents, one notable example being the patent for a corrosion resistant, high performance nickel-chromium-molybdenum alloy, Hastelloy C-22 (US Patent #4,533,414). Alloy C-22 alloy was extensively evaluated as the outer canister material to contain the nuclear waste for storage in the Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Furthermore, Hastelloy C-22 alloy was used in the restoration of the Statue of Liberty in the 1980's as flat-beams to support the seven spokes of Lady Liberty, ensuring durability and resistance to corrosion.
Dr. Asphahani is the recipient of numerous prestigious honors and awards, including the ASM Medal for the Advancement of Research, the French SF2M Gold Medal, the NACE Education Foundation Founders Award, the ASM Education Foundation Roberts Award, and election as a Fellow in ASM, NACE, and NCER/University of Akron.
His active participation in the ASM Materials Camp initiative, engaged in getting students interested in science and engineering careers, has impacted over 11,000 students and 9,000 school science teachers.
Dr. Asphahani came out of retirement in 2013 to join QuesTek, where he has ensured sustained profitable growth through leveraging core competencies in novel Materials by Design methodologies and Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) technologies. Under his leadership, QuesTek more than doubled its business and expanded into the European market through the establishment of QuesTek Europe AB (a joint company with ThermoCalc Software AB, based in Stockholm, Sweden).
www.questek.com
QuesTek Innovations LLC, Evanston, Ill., announces that Dr. Aziz Asphahani, Questek President & Chief Executive Officer and a Fellow of ASM International, has been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.
Continue reading
One Minute Mentor: Low-Temperature Surface Hardening of Stainless Steel
April 18, 2017
Source:
The graph shows a schematic time-temperature-transformation (TTT) diagram of austenite with a high nitrogen or carbon content. In order to prevent the development of chromium nitrides/carbides, a long-time low-temperature treatment could be applied. Alternatively, a high-temperature treatment (above 1050 °C, or 1920 °F) combined with fast cooling can be chosen.
The corrosion-resistant nature of stainless steels is due to the presence of a very stable passive layer, mainly formed by the alloying element chromium and oxygen from the environment. Unfortunately, many stainless steels are susceptible to galling, which often leads to expensive materials solutions in applications where stainless steel would otherwise have been the preferred material choice for its combination of strength and anticorrosion properties.
Surface engineering is common practice for improvement of wear performance. The improvement of hardness and wear properties relies on the development of a surface-adjacent case consisting of either a compound layer and an underlying diffusion layer, as for nitriding/nitrocarburizing; or a martensitic transformation, as for carburizing.
Stainless steel poses two challenges in this respect. First, the native passive layer is impenetrable by nitrogen and carbon atoms. Second, nitrogen and carbon react with chromium to form nitrides/carbides, thus withdrawing chromium from solid solution, with the result that corrosion protection is lost.
A remedy for dissolving nitrogen or carbon into stainless steel without the formation of chromium nitrides or carbides would be choosing a high temperature at which nitrides/carbides are no longer stable; or a low temperature at which the incubation time for nitrides/carbides is longer than the treatment time to achieve a sufficiently thick case.
Volume 4D, Heat Treating of Irons and Steels ⇒ Heat Treated High-Alloy Steels ⇒ Low-Temperature Surface Hardening of Stainless Steel
The graph shows a schematic time-temperature-transformation (TTT) diagram of austenite with a high nitrogen or carbon content. In order to prevent the development of chromium nitrides/carbides, a long-time low-temperature treatment could be applied.
Continue reading
Wisconsin Oven purchases 130,000 square feet of manufacturing space from Plymouth Tube
April 12, 2017
Source:
Wisconsin Oven, East Troy, announces that the company has closed on a property purchase from Plymouth Tube. The property is located on Young Street in East Troy, between two other Wisconsin Oven factories. This facility offers over 130,000 square feet of manufacturing space. Wisconsin Oven's total investment in the community will exceed $2.5 million after purchase and renovation.
Wisconsin Oven President and CEO Dave Strand commented, "We are very excited to secure this facility. Over the next year we will be doing some extensive renovation, and plan on hiring 80 to 90 employees between 2017 and 2019."
Wisconsin Oven was founded in 1973, and has grown to be a world leading manufacturer of industrial ovens and heat treating equipment.
www.wisoven.com
Wisconsin Oven, East Troy, announces that the company has closed on a property purchase from Plymouth Tube.
Continue reading
Arconic Very Thick Plate Stretcher enables larger aluminum and Al-Li wing ribs and frames
Source:
Arconic, New York, announces that the installation of the Very Thick Plate Stretcher has been completed at the company's facility in Davenport, Iowa. The Stretcher improves the performance of thick aluminum and aluminum-lithium plate in aerospace and industrial applications. The stretching process reduces stress introduced into the plate as part of the manufacturing process, resulting in a part that is more easily machined and processed.
The project was completed on time with an investment of approximately $150 million, approximately $40 million under budget. The investment in the Stretcher is backed by customer contracts, including one with Airbus, valued at approximately $1 billion.
In aerospace, the Stretcher will not only enable Arconic to service the existing plate market, but also will allow airframe builders to make large wing ribs, fuselage frames, and bulkheads in new sizes and thickness. For example, one of the challenges of composite wings as they get larger is strength and stiffness, and the aluminum plate from this Stretcher will allow aircraft manufacturers to make aluminum wing ribs to address that issue. In the industrial market, plate from the Stretcher can be used in manufacturing molds and chambers for applications such as semiconductors.
"This investment was made to expand Arconic's leadership in the aerospace market and create profitable growth in attractive industrial markets," said Arconic Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Klaus Kleinfeld. "The Stretcher allows Arconic to offer a variety of new products: in aerospace, we can now help aircraft engineers push the boundaries of design and performance. In other industrial applications, such as semiconductors and consumer electronics, Stretcher material helps increase productivity and reduce cost. In both cases, Arconic will help create demand that we are uniquely positioned to meet. And making all of this possible is our team in Davenport, who delivered this massive project on time and $40 million under budget."
Arconic's Davenport facility is currently commissioning the Stretcher, and has begun qualifying material for its customers.
www.arconic.com
Arconic, New York, announces that the installation of the Very Thick Plate Stretcher has been completed at the company’s facility in Davenport, Iowa.
Continue reading
AFC-Holcroft provides roller hearth annealing furnace to automotive systems producer
Source:
AFC-Holcroft, Wixom, Mich., announces that a leading global supplier of automotive systems and components has purchased a new roller hearth annealing furnace to be installed at a plant in the Southeast region of the United States. The same plant has been running production operating two Holcroft roller hearth annealers since the late 1990's.The new roller hearth furnace will be similar to the existing installation in design, but updated with modern control systems and features.
The roller hearth design offers more flexibility than other types of thermal processing technology such as induction. A roller hearth furnace can produce a larger volume of parts, change recipes easily, provide long cycle times, and offer the flexibility of batch-style processing in a continuous type design.
"The customer's team recognized and acknowledged the strength and flexibility of the original roller hearth design for its application," said Ron Graham, Sales Engineer at AFC-Holcroft. "Engineers provided vital feedback to us on areas of potential improvement, which allowed us to provide the optimal solution by combining the known functionality of the existing design with identified areas of improvement based on decades of in-plant experience."
www.afc-holcroft.com
AFC-Holcroft, Wixom, Mich., announces that a leading global supplier of automotive systems and components has purchased a new roller hearth annealing furnace to be installed in a plant in the Southeast region of the United States.
Continue reading
Seco-Warwick supplies PTE muffle belt furnace for heat treating fasteners
Source:
Seco-Warwick, Meadville, Pa., reports that it will supply a type ATE technology line consisting of a PTE muffle belt furnace designed primarily for carbonitriding, washing, and annealing, to a Polish manufacturer of screws for wood, metal, and plastic. The ATE technology line is adapted to work with endothermic gas from natural gas produced by an external generator.
Gaweł Screw Production Plant (GSPP), is a well-known fasteners manufacturer of screws for wood, metal and plastic. "Since the very beginning, the GSPP company has paid great attention to the professionalism and production of high quality products, and the key area of competence of the company is the technologically advanced production of fasteners," says Mariusz Skóra, Director of the Research and Development Center in Gaweł Screw Production Plant.
"Our partner's heat treatment solutions provide us with the highest quality materials. We constantly improve the quality of our products, therefore, we have chosen Seco-Warwick systems as our technology line supplier," adds Tomasz Gaweł, President of Gaweł Screw Production Plant
"The installation at Gaweł is planned for the fourth quarter of 2017," commented Jarosław Talerzak, Vice President of Thermal Segment at Seco. "We constantly strive to provide our partners with technologies that meet the needs, requirements and expectations of the most demanding industries."
www.secowarwick.com
Seco-Warwick, Meadville, Pa., reports that it will supply a type ATE technology line consisting of a PTE muffle belt furnace designed primarily for carbonitriding, washing, and annealing, to a Polish manufacturer of screws for wood, metal, and plastic.
Continue reading 