Sintering/Powder Metallurgy

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Retech, a U.S.-based subsidiary of SECO/WARWICK Group, established a cooperation with GeniCore, a Poland-based composite materials engineering company. Thanks to the cooperation, Retech will expand its offering in powder-metal processes with spark plasma sintering (SPS). The SPS process bonds materials using a combination of pressure and thermal energy applied to materials in a mold. It resembles hot pressing, but the SPS process consumes far less energy and, more importantly, can bond a broader range of materials into novel composites unachievable by other processes, according to GeniCore and Retech.

Lindberg/MPH built and shipped an electrically heated, full muffle, mesh-belt conveyor furnace that will be used for treating pressed powdered material. The furnace is designed for applications with a maximum process temperature of 1832°F (1000°C) that utilize a nitrogen or clean, dry filtered-air process atmosphere. The unit is configured with nine temperature control zones and includes a water-cooling section. The conveyor system features a 14-inch-wide mesh belt with belt stop alarm to provide an audible and visual indication in case of a conveyor stoppage.

From June 12-16, the fairgrounds in Düsseldorf, Germany, will become the center for the international casting and metallurgical industries. Trade fairs GIFA, Metec, Thermprocess and Newcast (GMTN) will cover the complete spectrum of foundry technology, castings, metallurgy and thermal-processing technology.

According to the Reshoring Initiative’s 2022 data report, reshoring and foreign direct investment (FDI) job announcements in 2022 were at the highest rate ever recorded. There was 364,000 reshoring and FDI jobs announced for 2022, which was up 53% from 2021’s record number. Fourth-quarter announcements accelerated even more than anticipated due to the Chips and Infrastructure Acts and deglobalization trends. In addition, 2022 brought the total number of job announcements since 2010 to nearly 1.6 million.

If you’re at all like me, you wonder which articles get the most attention on our website. Every year we publish over 40 feature articles, and at the end of the year we gather statistics to see which ones get the most page views. So, without further ado, here are the five most-viewed articles on www.industrialheating.com based on page views in 2022. This ranking applies only to articles published in 2022.

“The Bright World of Metals,” the slogan for the joint staging of four technology trade fairs – GIFA (15th International Foundry Trade Fair with Technical Forum), Metec (11th International Metallurgical Trade Fair), Thermprocess (13th International Trade Fair and Symposium for Thermal-Processing Technology) and Newcast (6th International Trade Fair for Castings) – will be held June 12-16 at the fairgrounds in Düsseldorf, Germany. Every four years, these trade fairs are the meeting place for companies from around the world. The exhibits will be complemented by a versatile ancillary program consisting of seminars, international congresses, symposia and lecture series.  

High-temperature sintering has been proven to provide achievable increases in material properties when applied to conventional powder-metallurgy (PM) applications. As material properties and strength requirements increase, some thermal processors are transitioning from traditional sintering furnaces to high-temperature models. However, not all high-temperature sintering furnaces are created equal.

This article considers the production deficits, logistics turmoil and demand surges that contributed to supply-chain disruptions that were brought into focus with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced that Gasbarre, an industrial furnace manufacturer, will create and retain 172 total jobs in Pennsylvania as part of a planned expansion at the company’s facility in St. Marys, Elk County. The company is investing $5.8 million into the project and has leased a 150,000-square-foot facility in St. Marys, which will triple the size of its current location. Gasbarre also plans to relocate operations from their site in Plymouth, Mich., to this new facility.

Challenges facing annealing operations include rising energy and raw material costs, operations crew turnover and supply-chain constraints. How can the virtual world of the IIoT help operators cope with these real-world challenges? This webinar, hosted by Industrial Heating September 15 at 2:00 p.m. (EDT), will discuss how a cloud-based data management and advisory system conserves resources by moving away from a set-it-and-forget-it mode. See how real-time correction of abnormal furnace conditions with algorithms processing furnace data in the cloud optimizes furnace economics.