Bodycote will open a new heat-treatment facility in Elgin, Ill. The purpose-built facility, which is scheduled to be operational in June 2020, has been designed as a replacement for Bodycote’s aging plant in Melrose Park, Ill. It will support manufacturing supply chains in the Midwest region. The Melrose Park facility will be closed once the transfer of customers’ work has been completed. According to Bodycote, the investment allows it to expand capacity and improve its ability to deliver high-quality heat-treatment capabilities.

This article reviews the developments that have taken place, particularly for surface treatments, within the heat-treatment processing industry.

Ipsen received an order for two 2-bar vacuum furnaces from a rapidly emerging global automotive component manufacturer with locations in Asia and the U.S. The company awarded Ipsen this order as part of a series of eight furnaces over the last two years. The TITAN H6 was selected because of its inherent process flexibility and ease of installation, as well as the local regional support provided by Ipsen’s sales and service teams in both Asia and the U.S.

SECO/WARWICK received an order from an international tool manufacturer, with branches in 40 countries, for a vacuum furnace that will be used for tempering. The horizontal, front-loading furnace is purpose-built to accommodate the company’s needs with an all-metal hot zone for clean vacuum processing, a convection fan and a pressurized gas quench for quick cooling. This was the third furnace order from the tool manufacturer.

Solar Manufacturing announce that MetalPro Resources will assume the role of sales representative for the states of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. MetalPro Resources consists of Jim Senne, Steve Maus and Bill Andreski, who bring a combination of over 100 years of heat-treating knowledge and experience. The company has offices located in the Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Cleveland areas.

BNP Media has announced the launch of the Process Heating & Cooling Show, an interactive conference and exposition where executives and engineers from various industries – including oil and gas, electronics, pharmaceuticals, food, beverages, packaging and plastics – will learn from thought leaders and discover new technologies and trends exclusively for the process heating and cooling sectors. This new event will be held June 16-17, 2021, at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Ill.

Bodycote completed the acquisition of Mason, Ohio-based Ellison Surface Technologies to create one of the largest providers of thermal-spray and engineered-coating surface technology services in the world. Ellison’s business is an excellent strategic fit with Bodycote’s existing Surface Technology business. The expanded Surface Technology business can offer additional technologies and added resources to consolidate its leadership in surface-coating solutions and specialist processes, including thermal-spray coating, liquid coating, thermal processing and diffusion coating.

SECO/VACUUM Technologies (SVT), a SECO/WARWICK Group company, sold four Vector vacuum furnaces in the first two months of 2020. Two high-pressure gas-quench (HPGQ) furnaces of different sizes were purchased by a Midwest tool-and-die manufacturer. The other two furnaces were purchased by a cutting-tool manufacturer, who will use it for tempering, and an aerospace components manufacturer.

SECO/WARWICK received an order from a machine-tool manufacturer for two vacuum heat-treatment furnaces. The manufacturer purchased a multi-chamber vacuum furnace with oil quench and a high-pressure gas-quench vacuum furnace for its recently created captive heat-treat department. All of the necessary auxiliary equipment, such as chilling water storage and pumping, were included in the package. As part of the sale, SECO/WARWICK will create and deliver process recipes for the company to make the transition to in-house heat treatment as efficient as possible.

Two new online tools have been developed to assist customer’s pump choice and layout of complete vacuum systems: The Pump Finder and calculation tool LEYCALC.