Penna Flame Industries owes its existence to the steel industry … and the vision of a foundry sales rep.

Nitrex, a global provider of fully integrated heat-treating solutions and technologies, acquired G-M Enterprises, a manufacturer of vacuum furnaces. The acquisition is in line with Nitrex’s strategy to further expand its heat-treatment solutions while strengthening its products portfolio. For the past 30 years, Corona, Calif.-based G-M Enterprises has earned a reputation as a leading technological supplier of vacuum furnaces for customers in the aerospace, power-generation, energy, MIM and commercial heat-treating industries. According to Montreal-based Nitrex, the acquisition represents a great fit because both companies share the same goal of providing technologies that improve customer workflow and efficiency while maximizing the life span and quality of engineered parts and components.

Now the heat-treat world is seeing another groundbreaking technological advancement, the introduction of the next generation of integral-quench furnaces.

The dates for the next staging of Thermprocess, GIFA, METEC and Newcast have been set. The international leading trade fairs for metallurgy and foundry technology will he held June 12-16, 2023, at the fairgrounds in Düsseldorf, Germany. The trade fair’s duration of five days remains the same, but the weekdays have changed. The trade-fair quartet will start on a Monday and end on Friday.

We continue to review important materials in heat treatment and metallurgy.  

Bodycote entered into an agreement to acquire Ellison Surface Technologies to create one of the world’s largest providers of thermal-spray and engineered-coating surface technology services to the aerospace industry. Ellison, which is headquartered in Mason, Ohio, will be integrated into Bodycote’s surface technology and aerospace business. The synergies between the companies will enhance the combined organization’s ability to deliver solutions that address aerospace customers’ heat-treatment and specialist thermal-processing requirements.

Lindberg/MPH shipped two electrically heated pit furnaces to the automotive industry. The nitrogen atmosphere furnaces, which will be used to heat treat automotive parts, utilize high-velocity forced convection heating systems inside an atmosphere-tight retort chamber and have a maximum operating temperature of 1250°F. The work chamber is approximately 50 inches in diameter and 60 inches deep. The units’ overall dimensions are 101 inches wide x 90 inches long x 148 inches high with a working height of 110 inches and a maximum load gross weight of 10,000 pounds.

Stack Metallurgical Group, after installing a hot isostatic press (HIP) earlier this year, is redoubling its commitment to the technology with the addition of a second HIP from Quintus Technologies. The unit has a work zone of 26 inches (660 mm) in diameter and 68.9 inches (1,750 mm) in height. It follows the installation in January of a high-capacity Mega-HIP, which has a work zone of 63 inches (1,600 mm) in diameter and 102 inches (2,591 mm) in height. The new press, which operates at a maximum temperature of 2552°F (1400°C) and a maximum pressure of 30,000 psi (2,070 bar), will be installed at Stack’s recently completed facility in Albany, Ore. Both systems are equipped with the Quintus proprietary uniform rapid cooling (URC) feature, which combines HIP and heat treatment in a single process.

We continue to review some of the most important materials in heat treatment and metallurgy.  

This series on trends and developments in heat-treatment technology continues.