Super Systems Inc. completed major upgrades to the heat-treating assets at Milacron LLC in Mt. Orab, Ohio. Included in the scope of work were new control cabinets, atmosphere flow panels, SCADA software and a new ammonia dissociator. Equipment addressed as part of the upgrade included two pit nitriders, two pit tempers, one pit carburizer, one integral-quench furnace, one batch temper and one oil quench.

Delta H Technologies delivered a dual-chamber aerospace heat-treating furnace system to the United States Air Force’s Kunsan Air Base in South Korea. The highly specialized furnaces will provide heat-treating capacity for military aircraft while adhering to the strict calibration and record standards of the Armed Forces. The furnace is designed exclusively to comply with aerospace and military pyrometry standards AMS 2750E and USAF/NAVAIR Technical Order 1-1A-9. With this technology, all aviation-grade metals such as aluminum, stainless steel, titanium and ferrous alloys can be rapidly heat treated in a single system. This minimizes downtime for mission-critical aircraft.

Mueller Water Products Inc. plans to build a new, state-of-the-art foundry in Decatur, Ill. The facility will be one of the largest finished-goods brass foundries in the world. It will increase Mueller’s production capacity to meet current and future demands. Construction of the foundry, which is expected to employ up to 250, will begin in fall 2019. According to Mueller, the Decatur foundry is part of a multi-year project that will provide operational efficiencies that will directly benefit its customers, employees and the local community.

United Process Controls (UPC) upgraded the vacuum furnace controls and automation platform for Woodward Inc., a U.S.-based provider of fuel and control systems for aircraft engines. The new-generation controls provide streamlined reporting for Nadcap compliance as well as seamless integration with the company’s enterprise planning (ERP) system. UPC also equipped a number of new air drying ovens with Protherm 470 programmable controllers with onboard input and output capabilities.

HarbisonWalker International (HWI), a supplier of refractory products and services, completed the first phase of a $9 million expansion at its manufacturing operations in White Cloud, Mich. The project will significantly increase warehousing space and add advanced-manufacturing and hydraulic press technologies. HWI’s 110,000-square-foot White Cloud facility currently employs approximately 140 people and produces brick and monolithic refractories utilized by the steel industry.

Solar Atmospheres, in conjunction with the William and Myrtle Jones Foundation, donated and installed a laboratory furnace for Lehigh University’s Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science. The furnace was designed and built by Solar Manufacturing. With SolarVac Polaris control system, a hot zone capable of holding up to 250 pounds and a maximum temperature of 2800°F, the furnace was installed in Lehigh University’s Whitaker Lab, along with the necessary Solar-built transformer and water cooling system.

Zekelman Industries will build what it says will be the world’s largest continuous electric-resistance-welded (ERW) tube mill in Blytheville, Ark., on property adjacent to its existing Atlas Tube mill. The $150 million facility will be capable of producing sections as large as 28-inch OD x 1-inch wall. The company projects an additional 75 new employees will be hired to work in the mill, with start-up scheduled for September 2021. The mill will be capable of producing hollow structural sections (HSS) in square, rectangular and round shapes and in sizes ranging from 8 inches square x 0.750-inch wall to 22 inches square x 1-inch wall.

Lindberg/MPH shipped a four-chamber hot-stamping furnace to the Gestamp Research and Development facility in Auburn Hills, Mich. Gestamp is an international corporation that designs, develops and manufactures metal automotive components. The electrically heated furnace has one stack of three high-heat chambers and one low-heat chamber. The maximum temperature rating of the high-heat chambers is 1922°F (1050°C), and the low heat chamber has a maximum temperature rating of 1004°F (540°C). Each furnace chamber has load space dimensions of 36 inches wide x 30 inches deep x 8 inches high.

Centorr Vacuum Industries announced shipped a Sintervac AM furnace for the debind and sintering of additively manufactured parts to a leading firm in the 3D printing/additive-manufacturing industry. The 2-cubic-foot furnace is rated for operation to 2912°F (1600°C). The graphite furnace design includes robust graphite tube and block elements designed for long service life with a four-sided hot zone and integral graphite retort for excellent temperature uniformity. The retort also compartmentalizes the residual off-gassing from binder-jet materials used during part production, allowing them to be caught in the dual trapping system. The Sweepgas debind system allows for effective sweeping away of the process contaminants. Furnace control is via PLC with Centorr's custom-designed HMI visualization interface.

Registration is now open for IHEA’s Fundamentals of Industrial Process Heating Online Learning Course, which begins Oct. 7. Students will learn the basics of heat transfer, fuels and combustion, energy use, furnace design, refractories, automatic control and atmospheres as applied to industrial process heating.