The Challenge:
As a leading global technology provider, this customer decided to move their existing facility to a new location so they could continue to grow and advance. At their new, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, they often received an assortment of part types and quantities. This meant any new equipment they chose needed to be able to handle the everyday range of requests, from different processes and part geometries to different load sizes.
They were also bringing the majority of heat treatment in-house to handle the increase they had seen in production demands and volume of parts. So it was also important that any company they chose to purchase furnaces from could help get the equipment up and running in a short period of time, as well as make sure operators were properly trained on using the new equipment.
Winning Outcome:
After much consideration, it was Ipsen’s ability to provide modular platforms for both vacuum and atmosphere furnaces in the form of the TITAN® and ATLAS, as well as the training and support, that interested them. These heat-treating systems were not only cost effective for them to purchase, but they also provided the desired level of flexibility since they didn’t plan on processing the same part type and load size day-after-day, year-after-year.
This manufacturer also relied on Ipsen’s well-trained ICS (Ipsen Customer Service) Team for installation of all equipment, including two integral quench batch furnaces and the ancillary equipment – washer, temper, endo generator, loader/unloader and a feed-in/feed-out station.
“Initially, what appealed to us about this Ipsen equipment was its general purposefulness. We run a very large variety of parts and batch quantities at our facility. A custom solution designed to run tens of thousands of the same parts was not going to work for us. We wanted a low-cost, off-the-shelf-type solution that would allow us the flexibility we required – which is what the ATLAS and TITAN delivered. Now after having performed some pre-training, I would say what stands out the most for both are the ease of use and control of the equipment.”
Continuous Improvement Manager
From supervising the installation to providing operator training, the Ipsen Field Service Engineers took the pressure off the customer and had the equipment up and running in no time. The customer also took advantage of Ipsen U, a three-day training that gave them a deeper understanding of how to effectively operate and maintain their new investments.
Today, the customer uses these heat-treating systems for carburizing, carbonitriding, brazing and annealing, and they are able to process in-house a wide variety of parts. They have also started to notice some of the advantages the atmosphere furnaces provide, including:
- Reduced natural gas expenses thanks to patented burners that use it more efficiently, increasing the thermal efficiency up to 75 percent
- Achieved high part quality with the oil quenching system’s ability to reduce distortion and consistently achieve uniform surface and core hardening
Since installing their new systems, they have found that they are capable of processing the range of parts they encounter each day with minimal costs. As a result, they are seeing increased profits and response times. Their conclusion: choosing Ipsen was definitely the right decision.
