Bodycote Finland opened a new heat-treatment center in Tampere’s Vehmainen quarter on May 19. The 3,500-square-meter facility is intended primarily for the case hardening and austempering of large machine parts, gear wheels and axles. The furnaces can accommodate parts up to 2 meters in diameter, 2.5 meters in length and weighing up to 10 metric tons. The plant, which also has vacuum and nitriding lines, is highly automated. Its metallographic laboratory was designed with ISO quality certification systems in mind.

The heat-treatment center replaces the former Suomen Bofors plant, which had become unable to address the demands of machinery manufacturers. According to Bodycote, the facility’s furnaces are big enough to allow its local customers’ products to be treated in Finland and also afford them greater competitive flexibility to produce new products for international markets. The combination of increased capacity and automation means that the new venture facilitates more precise, faster deliveries, which is vital to the competitiveness of Finland’s machinery manufacturers.