Registration for IHEA’s Fundamentals of Industrial Process Heating Online Learning Course is now open. Scheduled to begin January 17, 2022, the six-week class will run through February 27. The flexible online format and interactive forums are just some of the benefits of this class. The curriculum includes the basics of heat transfer, fuels and combustion, energy use, furnace design, refractories, automatic control, and atmospheres as applied to industrial process heating. Weekly coursework, quizzes and a final-exam project are administered to guide students on their progress and evaluate their knowledge of the material.

Bodycote is expanding its hot isostatic pressing (HIP) capability in Greenville, S.C., by adding two vessels. The new HIP capacity, which will be online in the first half of 2022, will focus on developments in additive manufacturing (AM) and advanced materials. Bodycote’s Greenville site is a Nadcap-accredited and holds several core OEM approvals. The facility includes numerous vacuum furnaces and other capabilities well suited to support AM customers.

This article looks at ways our means of transportation – how we get from here to there – are heat treated. We start with aerospace and then consider vehicular transportation followed by manual propulsion.

German fabricator Edelstahl-Mechanik manufactured what it says is the world’s first hydroformed tensile architectural façade. Bodycote supported the company by providing heat-treatment services. A total of 12,800 steel panels in 14 different profiles were precisely fabricated and sculpted by Edelstahl-Mechanik using hydroforming. Hydroforming uses water pressure to shape thin metal plates against a mold to create custom pieces. Bodycote then annealed the stainless steel panels. Annealing is a heat-treatment process that alters the microstructure of a material to change its mechanical or electrical properties.

Using a Superheat SmartFurnace for heat treating pipe welds right in its own fabrication shop, rather than off-site, Manhattan Mechanical Services saved a large oil-refinery customer up to 40% on labor costs.

SECO/WARWICK will deliver a vacuum furnace to a European manufacturer of heavy equipment. The furnace, which has workspace dimensions of 600 x 600 x 900 mm, will be used for hardening and tempering processes for steel. Its design has been customized in order to meet the demands of a dedicated thermal process used in the production of aircraft landing gear. SECO/WARWICK engineers fitted the furnace with a non-standard system for sub-quenching with liquid nitrogen, which enables the required quick cool-down of landing-gear components.

L&L Special Furnace Co. Inc. delivered a high-uniformity box furnace to Soil Lab, a community-based workshop based in Chicago, as part of the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial. The front-loading, refractory-lined furnace has an effective work zone measuring 34 inches wide x 34 inches high x 32 inches deep. There is a horizontal double pivot door with a safety power cutoff switch. A ceramic hearth and standoffs are provided as a workspace for various ceramics and ceramic-based products. The furnace was delivered with a fast-track shipment of four weeks to be able to be part of the biennial workshop program, where local community groups will experiment and gain knowledge of ceramic production and various processes.

Lucifer Furnaces designed a multi-unit modular pot furnace system for an aerospace manufacturer in the United States. The end user is adding these furnaces to existing pot furnaces in order to increase heat-treating capacity. Each of the four furnaces is connected to a single freestanding NEMA 1 control panel, and each furnace is heated electrically with 18 kW of power to coiled elements in removable holders on all four sidewalls.

Kolene Corp., a Detroit-based provider of molten salt-bath equipment and specialty chemical formulations, acquired Upton Industries of Roseville, Mich. Upton Industries designs and manufactures thermal-processing systems for the heat-treating industry, including box-type, car-bottom and specialty furnaces utilizing electric or gas heating. Kolene will maintain both the Detroit headquarters location and the Roseville location, which will be home to all Kolene’s manufacturing and fabrication. By bringing the two companies together, the new Kolene will house nearly 50,000 square feet of manufacturing, fabrication and commercial processing capabilities.

Tenaris reactivated its plant in Baytown, Texas, bringing additional heat-treatment and threading capacity to its U.S. network to support the company’s increased domestic production. Tenaris started to prepare the mill for the restart in March by installing new equipment, performing commissioning work, testing systems and processes, and hiring and training new employees. The plant will be heat treating and finishing production from Tenaris’ Bay City, Texas, seamless mill, which is nearing full capacity. According to Tenaris, demand for OCTG has been rising amid an improving market.