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The SECO/WARWICK Group will deliver two universal batch CAB furnaces and a CAB continuous line to Australia’s PWR Advanced Cooling Technology. The furnaces will be used for brazing aluminum heat exchangers. The three solutions on order will go to two continents, Australia and North America, both owned and operated by PWR Advanced Cooling Technology, which specializes in the production of heat exchangers. The current contract is the third purchase of technologies from SECO/WARWICK designed to meet the production challenges related to the brazing process.

Cummins is investing more than $1 billion across its U.S. engine manufacturing network in Indiana, North Carolina and New York. The investment will provide upgrades to those facilities to support the industry’s first fuel-agnostic engine platforms that will run on low-carbon fuels, including natural gas, diesel and eventually hydrogen. Over half of all medium- and heavy-duty trucks on the road in the U.S. today use Cummins engines. This investment is intended to retain the thousands of current engineering and manufacturing jobs and support the creation of hundreds of new jobs across the company’s New York, North Carolina and Indiana footprint.

ABB is accelerating its growth strategy in the United States by investing approximately $170 million and creating highly skilled jobs in manufacturing, innovation and distribution operations. The highlight is a $100 million investment in New Berlin, Wis. The location will serve as the U.S. headquarters, manufacturing facility and distribution center for ABB’s Drives and Motion Services businesses. The business manufactures a range of AC variable frequency drives and controls that reduce energy consumption industrial applications. The new facility, which includes 220,000 square feet of manufacturing space, is scheduled to open in late 2024 and will accommodate 720 ABB employees. The project is expected to create 100 new jobs over the next three years.

L&L Special Furnace designed and built a heated-oil quench tank that will be used by a company for quenching various styles of heat-treated tools used in the forging industry. The tools are heat treated in a furnace to required hardness and then quenched in oil to set hardness. The quench tank holds 65 gallons of oil and is ideal for quenching parts 50-75 pounds. The quench-tank oil is agitated by an impeller with an explosion-proof motor and is heated with a 4.5-kW immersion heater to maintain the oil at a slightly elevated temperature to help eliminate oil flashing and fire potential. There is also a safety lid with fusible links that closes automatically if the fusible links melt, dropping the lid and blocking exposure of the surface of the oil to air to prevent a potential fire.

Nucor Steel Berkeley, a sheet-mill division of Nucor, placed an order with Primetals Technologies for an automotive-grade continuous galvanizing line that will be installed at its facility in Huger, S.C. With an annual capacity of approximately 500,000 tons, the line will increase the company’s galvanized production capacity and enable the site to produce advanced high-strength steel (AHSS) and other automotive products. Nucor Steel Berkeley expects to produce the first coil by mid-2025.

Nitrex delivered a pit nitriding furnace to Arslan Aluminyum, a Turkish aluminum producer. The company recently added three new extrusion presses, which increased the demand for nitriding dies and necessitated a large-capacity nitriding system for the biggest press. The Nitrex furnace is designed to treat workloads up to 4,400 pounds (2,000 kg) that are 39 inches (1,000 mm) in diameter and 59 inches (1,500 mm) high. The heavy-duty furnace incorporates multiple controlled heating zones for optimal temperature uniformity inside the retort. It is made to quickly heat up and maintain consistent temperatures throughout the load. Arslan uses the system to nitride H11 and H13 dies that extrude aluminum profiles.

EFD Induction and IPT Technology merged to become ENRX. The new company is an international supplier of industrial induction heating equipment, as well as solutions for wireless induction charging and contactless induction power supply. EFD Induction manufactures a range of induction heating and induction hardening systems, tube welders and induction heating coils for industries including automotive and renewable energy. IPT Technology provides a range of wireless charging solutions for e-mobility applications and contactless power supply systems for industrial rail applications. The combined company is represented in more than 80 countries and holds over 1,200 patents for induction technology.

Visser Precision, a Denver-based contract manufacturer serving industries including aerospace, purchased and received two metal 3D printers from Velo3D to expand its 3D-printing capabilities. One of the printers delivered is the first Sapphire printer calibrated for Haynes 214, a nickel-based superalloy that is now available as a powder option. The other Sapphire printer is calibrated for Inconel 718, which is commonly used in many aerospace and industrial applications for its high strength and corrosion resistance. Visser Precision purchased the metal 3D printers after a mutual aerospace customer sought to leverage Velo3D’s additive-manufacturing technology for components in its rocket engines.

A single-strand caster supplied by SMS group for ultra-wide and thick slabs has successfully started production at Nucor’s plate mill in Brandenburg, Ky. Designed for an annual capacity of 1.45 million tons, it is a core element of the production chain for the new facility. This makes Nucor Steel Brandenburg one of a few mills in the United States capable of manufacturing at scale the heavy-gauge plate used in monopile foundations for offshore wind towers. According to Nucor, the mill will be able to produce 97% of the plate products that are bought and used on the domestic market.

BHP and global engineering firm Hatch signed an agreement to design an electric smelting furnace (ESF) pilot plant in Australia. The facility will aim to demonstrate a pathway to lower CO₂ intensity in steel production using iron ore from BHP’s Pilbara mines. The small-scale demonstration plant would be used to collaborate with steel producers and technology providers with the aim of accelerating scale-up of ESF plant designs. The ESF allows for greater flexibility in input raw materials, addressing a key barrier to wider adoption of other lower-CO₂ emissions production routes, such as use of electric-arc furnaces (EAFs), which are designed for scrap steel and high-grade DRI only. The ESF also has the potential to be integrated into a steel plant’s existing downstream production units.