IHEA’s Fundamentals of Industrial Process Heating online learning course is scheduled to begin April 13, 2020. Students benefit from the flexible online format that includes interactive forums with other students and scheduled office hours with the instructor. It’s an affordable alternative to campus-based classes and allows students to go at their own pace. 

L&L Special Furnace Co. Inc. shipped five box furnaces to a manufacturer of chemicals and chemical coating products located in the Midwest. These products are primarily used in the medical field as a coating and must be cured at 800°F. The furnaces can also be used for sintering of chemical powders up to 2200°F. The furnaces have an effective work zone of 10 inches high x 15 inches wide x 13 inches deep. They are designed to be placed on a benchtop or with an optional furnace stand.

Ipsen USA installed a vacuum furnace at Stack Metallurgical Group’s site in Spokane Valley, Wash. Formerly known as Inland NW Metallurgical Services, Stack Spokane is one of the company’s four locations offering a range of metal-processing services. Installation of the 2-bar vacuum furnace, which will be used to process critical aerospace components, was completed in late 2019. Stack operates four Ipsen furnaces in Spokane and 12 more at its site in Portland, Ore.

Quintus Technologies received an order for a hot isostatic press (HIP) from HT-MX, a heat-treatment specialist based in Chihuahua, Mexico. The press includes Quintus’ proprietary uniform rapid cooling (URC) feature, which combines HIP and heat treatment in a single process. The HIP has a hot zone measuring 14.8 inches (375 mm) in diameter and 47.2 inches (1,200 mm) in height. It operates at a temperature of 2550°F (1400°C) and a pressure of up to 2,070 bar (30,000 psi).

Sheffield Forgemasters will lead a consortium of partners in a research-and-development project to explore the industrialization of electron-beam welding (EBW) in civil nuclear assemblies, with the potential to integrate welding into the manufacturing process. The Sheffield, U.K., company will install an electron-beam welder capable of welding 3-meter-diameter cylinders under localized vacuum and without traditional welding preparation, offering narrower welds than traditional methods plus the ability to weld as part of the manufacturing process, prior to quality heat treatment. It will then manufacture a civil nuclear component to demonstrate a full-sized (4.3 meters high x 3 meters diameter) small modular reactor pressure vessel and also produce several grades of steel alloys suitable for civil fission and fusion nuclear applications within the project's research element.

Arlington Capital Partners, a Washington, D.C.-based private-equity firm, acquired Firth Rixson Forgings Ltd. from Arconic. Going forward, the business will operate as part of Forged Solutions Group, which was formed in November 2019 by Arlington Capital as its aerospace forging platform. Located in Sheffield, United Kingdom, Firth Rixson provides complex closed-die forgings and forged discs and proprietary forward-and-backward extrusion-produced shafts and cylinders primarily for OEM and Tier 1 aerospace and defense engine customers.

Onejoon Thermal Solutions acquired Eisenmann Thermal Solutions, which specializes in the development, manufacture and sale of industrial furnaces for the production of various materials. Onejoon Thermal Solutions is a subsidiary of Korea’s Onejoon Co. Ltd., which is a mechanical engineering company that special­izes in the manufacture of furnaces for processing cathode and anode materials in the lithium-ion battery industry. The transfer of business operations will take place on Jan. 15. Both of Eisenmann’s sites in Germany (Böblingen and Bovenden) and all 200 jobs will be retained. Onejoon Thermal Solutions GmbH will be based in Bovenden.

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.

Ametek Inc. signed a definitive agreement for the sale of its Reading Alloys business to Kymera International, a specialty materials company owned by affiliates of Palladium Equity Partners. Founded in 1953, Reading Alloys provides highly engineered materials for mission-critical applications in the aerospace, defense, medical and industrial markets. The company’s products include master alloys, thermal-barrier coatings and titanium powders.

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.