Solar Atmospheres announces it has established a method of controlling the amount and depth of  White layer resulting from Gas Nitriding.  This procedure was accomplished following extensive testing using AISI 4140 Steel in a Solar Atmospheres Gas Nitriding Vacuum furnace. Various applications requiring Nitriding often require specific White layer limits which can now be provided by this process.

Following an initial rapid pump down to produce an Oxygen free,  vacuum environment, the Nitriding cycle consisted of a pre-heat at a partial pressure of Nitrogen followed by Nitriding at a slightly positive pressure using  an Ammonia/Nitrogen mixture.  Many cycles were performed varying the time and gas flow parameters at temperature and the resulting White layer composition and thickness determined. The key to controlling the White layer formation was the introduction of a Boost-Diffusion technique during the Nitriding phase.   Surface hardness and depth of nitride zone were then recorded from microhardness measurements and metallography .   All this data was compiled to establish Nitriding procedures that provide the final desired structure in the minimum cycle time. This includes processes that produce the minimum depth or complete absence of White layer as dictated by the final application of the parts.

Download the complete technical paper outlining the entire program

William R. Jones, CEO of the Solar Atmosphere Companies,  has announced the addition to the corporate staff of Real J. Fradette in the position of Senior Technical Consultant.  Mr. Fradette brings an extensive background in the field of Vacuum Furnace Technology and Sales having spent more than 30 years in the industry.

Mr. Fradette previously held several senior positions in Sales, Marketing, and Engineering with Abar Corporation, Ipsen Industries, and Vacuum Furnace Systems.  This vast experience will allow Mr. Fradette to  provide valuable guidance and assistance on various projects for both Solar Atmospheres  and the Solar Manufacturing Group.

Educationally, Mr. Fradette holds BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Material Science from the University of Connecticut and Villanova University.  In addition he has an extensive  business background having concluded many MBA courses at Temple University.

Mr. Fradette resides in Montgomeryville, Pa. with his wife Rose and keeps his mind very active pursuing the world of Duplicate Bridge where he has achieved the rank of Gold Life Master.

Solar Atmospheres of Western PA  ( SAWPA ) strategically located a state-of-the-art facility within the epicenter of the US titanium producers. SAWPA also partnered with its sister company, Solar Manufacturing, to build the largest capacity vacuum furnaces (both in volume and weight).

Therefore, it is no surprise that over 50% of SAWPA's annual sales is attributed to processing the "wonder metal" titanium. Due to their extensive capabilities, SAWPA has processed over 80 million pounds of titanium over the last 10 years,  a true accomplishment when one considers 80 million pounds of titanium is equivalent to the annual production of titanium worldwide.

The plant, located in Hermitage, PA,  is the home of the world's largest commercial vacuum furnaces. Processing work loads of up to 150,000 lbs., SAWPA operates a 36-foot long car-bottom vacuum furnace and three 24-foot vacuum furnaces. These furnaces, as well as the many other capabilities of the facility, enable titanium producers and manufacturers an unparalleled production capability.

The most unique factor of this facility is the vast knowledge of the team. Bob Hill, President (Western PA), was awarded the prestigious ITA 2009 Titanium Achievement Award for his many contributions to thermal processing in the titanium industry. His team, comprised of metallurgists, quality technicians and heat treating specialists have become well known for their expertise in thermally processing titanium. These capabilities along with many other factors keep Solar Atmospheres of Western PA the titanium heat treater of choice. 

Solar Atmospheres of California (SACA) is one step closer to the establishment of its state-of-the-art Vacuum Heat Treating facility in Southern California with the hiring of Charles (Chuck) Miller as Manager of Maintenance and Facilities Engineer.

Chuck comes to Solar after many years of supervisory experience in the heat treating industry.  Some of Chuck’s areas of expertise are vacuum furnace maintenance, pyrometry, instrumentation, hot zone fabrication and repair, among many other areas of proficiency.  Chuck’s prior employment duties included Regional Maintenance Engineer for Body Cote Thermal Processing and prior to that, Maintenance Supervisor for Hitech Metallurgical, both located in the Southern California region.

Derek Dennis, SACA President states: “We are very fortunate to have somebody with Chuck’s in-depth knowledge and experience on the SACA Team.  I’m looking forward to working with Chuck in facility engineering and start up, along with the continuing day to day operations of the heat treating plant.”

Chuck’s first assignment will be to jump into the already “full steam ahead” establishment of Solar’s new 22,000 sq. ft. building, engineering and installation of Solar’s support equipment and installation of Solar’s first (3) furnaces to include the west coast’s largest commercial vacuum furnace, at 24’, with a double car bottom loading system.  All furnaces are engineered and manufactured by Solar Atmospheres sister company, Solar Manufacturing of Souderton, PA.

Solar Atmospheres, Souderton, Pa, announces it has successfully vacuum carburized a large gear required for a defense application that had previously not been successfully processed using atmospheric type equipment. 

Recently, Solar modified one of its large 10 Bar Quenching Furnaces to be able to vacuum carburize larger and more extensive loads.  By adding new instrumentation, carburizing nozzles, and an improved backfill system, this furnace, with a work zone that measures 48” wide x 72” long x 38” high and load capacity of 10,000 pounds, is capable of performing carburizing cycles on large parts and loads not previously thought possible in vacuum.

The above referenced successful application was a large gear of 9310 Steel material with dimensions of 60” diameter x 13” high and a weight of 1900 pounds.  The part was Low Pressure Vacuum Carburized to achieve an effective case depth of .070” followed by a temper, a minus 225°F freeze, and a second temper operation. Quenching was accomplished using a mixture of nitrogen and helium gasses.  Flatness was within .100” and roundness within .050”, well within acceptable tolerances. 

Solar Atmospheres anticipates that these types of results will further expand the applications for Low Pressure vacuum Carburizing. For more information, please contact Don Jordan, Corporate Metallurgist, at 215-721-1502 x 206 or email  dfj@solaratm.com Or contact Trevor Jones, Project Engineer at 215-721-1502 x 351 or email  tmj@solaratm.com.

Solar Atmospheres, Inc. develops a new and innovative website for their company.

Over the past year, Solar Atmospheres has developed a brand new website (www.solaratm.com) focused on reinforcing our leadership position in the vacuum heat treating industry and further demonstrating our unique capabilities and services in vacuum heat treating, vacuum brazing, vacuum carburizing, ion nitriding, gas nitriding, annealing, sintering and many other areas.

With the changes in the current economy, technology and the company expansion, Solar was proactive in improving the current website, adding many new features to assist our existing and new customers and providing significant information about how we can address their heat treating needs.
Our goals for the website centered around three areas: 1) to offer greater access to information about our capabilities and services for companies needing heat treating. 2) to facilitate greater interactivity with our existing and new customers in order to further improve our level of service and 3) to provide greater insight into the performance and quality standards we adhere to and believe in.

Our heat treating capabilities and service pages highlight the wide range of expertise we can offer companies and the customized approach Solar Atmospheres takes for every project. We take pride in finding solutions for our customers that not only fit their needs, but surpass their expectations. You’ll see on the Testimonials of our new site how companies think of us and how we have helped them succeed.

Among the new features, the new website will offer a live chat capability to allow a person to communicate quickly with any of our customer service or technical support personnel. This enables Solar staff to get to know you better and answer any questions that you have. This feature makes Solar Atmospheres one of the only vacuum heat treating companies with this capability.

Another feature is our new media section where technical videos, white papers, industry articles and news are available for viewing or downloading. Our staff has been published in many magazines, newspapers and associated journals and continue to prove Solar is one of the most experienced and innovative heat treating companies in the industry.
For our quality and performance standards, please visit our Quality section where you can peruse the quality programs, certifications and policies that help make Solar Atmospheres a leader in the heat treating industry.

Solar Atmospheres was founded in 1983 by our CEO, William R. Jones, and has decades of experience in the vacuum heat treating industry. We are constantly striving to develop new services and processes and innovate technically to help our customers. Solar has a metallurgical testing laboratory, a fulltime corporate metallurgist with 30 years of experience and a comprehensive R & D engineering department to coordinate with our heat treating capabilities. We look forward to working with you.

To contact us for more information, please call Tim Williams at 215-721-1502 x 548 or email Tim at timw@solaratm.com.

Solar Atmospheres, Inc. (http://www.solaratm.com), Souderton PA announces that they broke ground on May 3, 2010, for their new plant site in Fontana, California. Attending this significant occasion were Paul Biane, San Bernardino 2nd District County Supervisor, Scott Vanhorne, Field Representative to the Supervisor, Olin Lord, President and Gregg Lord, Vice President, Stewart Development/Lord Construction and Derek Dennis, President of Solar Atmospheres of California.

This new addition to the Solar Group of Companies will bring a “Green Field” vacuum heat treating and brazing facility to the west coast. According to William R. Jones, CEO, Solar Atmospheres, Inc., “this was a major and serious decision considering the current market conditions, but the project will definitely be worth it in the long run.” The Solar Atmospheres of California new site is located in San Bernardino County, slightly northeast of where Interstate 15 and 10 intersect and is approximately 40 miles east of downtown Los Angeles in the area known as the “Inland Empire” 

The building itself will be a total of 25,000 square feet with a two-story office building included. The plant will be equipped with roof skylights, a poured cement foundation and insulated frame work. All of the vacuum furnaces will be powered by an electric, 3-mega watt, power entrance from Edison Electric. Required process gases will be supplied by Air Products. Water cooling for the furnaces will be a single-close loop, air cooled heat exchanger that will be providing 1500 gal/minute. Also, the building will include two 10-ton, full span bridge cranes that will service the entire facility.

The furnaces for the new plant are now being constructed by Solar’s sister company, Solar Manufacturing. The new plant will start out with four production furnaces of varying sizes. The first is a 24 foot deep, high performance, car bottom type vacuum furnace with a load capacity of 50,000 lbs. The second is a six foot deep, 10 bar quenching capability, high vacuum furnace that can process up to 3,000 lbs. loads. This furnace will allow us to process many types of parts, including those requiring our patented low pressure vacuum carburizing service. The third furnace is a five foot deep, 2 bar cooling, high vacuum furnace. The new site will also have a five foot deep re-circulating air temper furnace. It is anticipated that these furnaces will serve many industries within the greater Southern California area. Included in these industries would be aerospace, high end metallurgy, such as titanium, tantalum and columbium, alloys of stainless steel, and the heat treatment of tool steels.

Solar Atmospheres of California is expected to have about 30 employees within the first two years of operation. Although the primary employment will be from the local area, selected specialists will be relocating from the Solar east coast plants to assist in the initial plant start-up. Sales are projected to be $12 million in two years. The official opening date of this new state-of-the-art facility is expected to be the first week of September, 2010.

For more information, please contact the President of Solar Atmospheres of California, Derek Dennis, at 951-304-3790.

PHILADELPHIA, PA—The SBA’s Philadelphia District Office announced that the winner of the 2010 “Eastern Pennsylvania and Region 3 Small Business Exporter of the Year” awards is William R. Jones, Chief Executive Officer, of Solar Manufacturing, Inc.  In honor of these achievements, Dave Dickson, SBA’s Philadelphia District Director, appeared at Solar Manufacturing, Inc., 1969 Clearview Road, Souderton, PA 18964 on May 4, 2010.

Solar Manufacturing, Inc. manufactures vacuum furnace systems that heat treat, braze, carburize, and nitride metal parts.  The systems are used in various industries/markets, including aerospace, medical, automotive, petro chemical, power generation and commercial and captive heat treating.  Solar has established a market internationally for the vacuum furnace systems and its customer list includes many industry giants. 

“Every year, the SBA’s Philadelphia District Office awards the ‘Small Business Exporter of the Year’ award to an individual who uses creative overseas marketing strategies and effective solutions to export-related problems to grow their business,” said Dickson.  “As this year’s award winner, William Jones more than appropriately joins the roster of award winners from previous years and across the country whose enterprising initiative has benefited not only their own business and employees, but the community at large.  With this award, the SBA applauds Mr. Jones for his exemplary contributions to this Nation’s business community and economy.”

The “Small Business Exporter of the Year” award is presented on a district, regional—Region 3 consisting of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C. —and national level.

William R. Jones of Solar Manufacturing, Inc., was nominated for the “Small Business Exporter of the Year” award by Patricia J. Kratz, Vice President, Univest National Bank and Trust Co.

SBA Philadelphia District Director David Dickson presented the Agency’s 2010 “Eastern Pennsylvania and Region 3 Small Business Exporter of the Year” awards to William R. Jones at the annual “SBA Day at the Ballpark” event on May 6, 2010.

This SBA Philadelphia District Office’s May 6, 2010 event is a local observance of the Presidentially-designated National Small Business Week.  National Small Business Week is observed in Washington, D.C., annually in recognition of the small business community’s contribution to the American economy.  In 2010, National Small Business Week will be observed in Washington, D.C., on May 23-25, honoring many outstanding small business owners from around the country and culminating in the announcement of the National Small Business Person of the Year.

Contact Jennifer Pilcher, the SBA’s Public Information Officer in the Philadelphia District Office, at 610-382-3084 or Jennifer.pilcher@sba.gov.

This press release does not constitute or imply an endorsement by SBA of any opinions, products or services of any private individual or entity.

The SBA is an independent federal agency, created in 1953, to assist small businesses to start, grow, and prosper.  The SBA provides financial assistance by: (1) making loans to help families and businesses recover from national disasters and (2) providing loan guarantees to commercial financial institutions for working capital (7(a) loans), buildings/land/equipment (504 loans through the Certified Development Corporations), and for exports.  Through our resource partners, the SBA also offers a variety of business development programs and services such as training, government contracting and export assistance.  SBA resource partners include Small Businesses Development Centers, Women’s Business Centers, and SCORE (Counselors to America’s Small Businesses).  For information on all of SBA’s programs and services, visit the Philadelphia District web site at www.sba.gov/pa/phil or call (610)382-3062.

Solar Atmospheres of Western PA, located in Hermitage, announced today that it has signed a long term agreement with RTI International Metals, Inc (NYSE:RTI).  Solar will provide the services of Vacuum Heat Treating, Vacuum Creep Forming, and Fluorescent Liquid Penetrant Inspection (NDT) of structural titanium components, manufactured by RTI, for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.  Solar is the exclusive vacuum heat treater for the 787 PAX Floor Pi-Box Seat Track Program.  RTI, as the lead integrator among the multiple supply chain partners, will extrude, machine, and assemble the finished titanium components used for the seat tracks in the floor structure of the 787.  This requirement based contract extends Solars role as a strategic supplier to RTI.

Solar Atmospheres of Western PA President, Bob Hill, states “Solar has been under long term contracts for aerospace products that are supplied to The Boeing Company since 2000 and this contract continues to strengthen our position in the aerospace market. Once again Solar has proven itself as a leader in vacuum technology while displaying our dedication to hurdling any technical issue which is inherent within any new program involving an airplane.”

What are the most critical factors in your thought process when deciding who to award a heat treating or brazing job to?  Is it element price, location, capabilities, quality system, or customer service?  Maybe the most important factor for you is the overall relationship with a particular outside processor.  At Solar Atmospheres, we believe in a client to vendor relationship.  The only way to achieve this relationship is to be honest, communicate freely, and always maintain a tone of professionalism.

Solar Atmospheres of Western PA lives by the credo “a customer is the most important visitor on our premises.”  We always welcome customers to visit our state-of-the-art facility in Western PA.  After touring our 65,000 square foot plant, which houses the largest vacuum equipment in the world, we will continue the tour by meeting in our conference room, where we are capable of showing examples of how we meet and exceed customers’ expectations on similar parts and materials.  Webinar and other teleconferencing events, using surround sound, are also offered.  We invite you to bring your customers to Solar Atmospheres to discuss any future projects.

We encourage you to begin a relationship with Solar Atmospheres.  Visit us any time or day of the week by calling Mike Johnson, Sales Manager, at 724-982-0660 ext. 223.

Long Beach Convention Center
Long Beach, CA

Attending: Mike Drakeley, Derek Dennis

The Design-2-Part Show is the region’s largest event for buyers of custom parts, components, services, and design. The show maximizes your time by gathering the leading contract manufacturers and allowing you an immediate hands-on comparison of quality, technology, price, and service.

Gaylord Palms Convention Center
Kissimmee, FL 

Attending: Mike Johnson, Bob Hill, Derek Dennis (Booth # 101),

Network With Producers, Suppliers, and Users of Titanium.   See the Latest Equipment, Services and Technologies in the Titanium Industry.

The exhibition is an excellent opportunity to: Network with suppliers, competitors, and customers related to the titanium field, increase your titanium market intelligence, have technical questions answered by a representative from the titanium industry who works in the field every day, view demonstrations in present industry and much more.

Attending: Mike Johnson & Tim Steber & Mike Drakeley

More than 92,000 industrial decision-makers, including many of your competitors, attend the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) to get ideas and find answers to their manufacturing problems. They will see new solutions demonstrated … and choose the best for their needs.

At IMTS they find ways to cut costs and get more work. They know that to survive and succeed, they must keep up with technology … and stay ahead of their competitors!

2010 Blade Show

Atlanta, GA | June 4-6

Michael Johnson and Tim Steber Attending

More than 700 exhibitors and thousands of knife collectors from around the world will come to the BLADE Show for a three-day frenzy of buying, selling and learning more about knives. See more than 108,000 square feet of knife exhibits!

National groups, including the American Bladesmith Society and Knifemaker Guild, choose the BLADE Show as their meeting place. Local groups will also be on hand.

  Events such as BLADE Magazine's 2010 Knives of the Year® and Custom Knife Awards celebrate the year’s best designs and honor one influential industry member with induction into the BLADE Hall of Fame.

For More information on The 2010 Blade Show go to  www.blademag.com/bladeshow

West Springfield, MA | May 25-27 | Booth # 1256

Mike Breit and Tim Steber Attending

What's the prescription for manufacturing success? Advanced technology? Management savvy? Working lean? New markets? Most likely all of the above.

Since 1979, EASTEC has been East Coast manufacturing's "go-to" event for breakthrough technologies, cost-conscious methods, and forward-thinking ideas.

Future economic revival promises renewed demand for manufacturing, but only manufacturers that upgrade their equipment and capabilities can expect to get a call. If you want to be part of new supply chains, EASTEC should be your first stop. Only EASTEC delivers technology and know-how from more than 500 industry-leading exhibitors.

More information at easteconline.com