Abbott Furnace Company designed, manufactured and installed a 6,000-SCFH endothermic gas generator at Sintergy Inc. in Reynoldsville, Pa. The generator has an innovative retort design that allows a single retort to produce endo gas at this rate without sacrificing gas quality and maintaining a 6:1 turndown ratio. According to Sintergy, a manufacturer of powder-metal components, it is only seeing ±1°F in dew-point variation from setpoint. Abbott included state-of-the-art controls with an Allen-Bradley PLC, data logging, dew-point and methane sensors, and an updated gas safety system.

The father of the endothermic gas generator was a gentleman by the name of Norbert K. Koebel, who was fond of saying to young engineers such as The Doctor, “Treat ‘em right and they’ll treat you right.”

United Process Controls (UPC) delivered an Atmosphere Engineering EndoFlex endothermic-gas generator to Jomarca, a fastener manufacturer in South America. The generator is intended for carburizing operations at the company’s Brazilian plant, which includes 10 large continuous rotary-retort furnaces that process over 2,200 tons of fasteners a month. The high-capacity generator was integrated into the plant’s existing gas-distribution system in the first quarter of 2018 and is supplying endothermic gas to all carburizing furnaces.

There have been many discussions regarding the economics of operating an endothermic gas generator as opposed to pre-mixed systems.