Vacuum Heat Treating: What’s New At JMP

We recently sat down with Dan Erb, President and CEO of Jones Metal Products, to discuss Vacuum Heat Treating.

How does vacuum heat treating differ from other forms of heat treating?

A vacuum furnace is used to heat treat metals (typically steel, brass, bronze, titanium alloys) with high consistency and low contamination.  In this type of environment, metal parts are placed in a furnace that creates a vacuum as the name suggests.  The absence of air and other gases prevents heat transfer through convection, removing the possibility of contamination.  Vacuum heat treating burns a fine layer of material off the part’s surface. Our drop bottom heat treat furnaces do not share this controlled atmosphere and any parts that are not aluminum will come out discolored, or contaminated due to oxidation. The controlled atmosphere created by the vacuum heat treating furnace prevents this from happening.  Parts come out of the furnace bright and shiny.

Why did Jones buy the vacuum heat treating furnace?

In the aerospace business when you anneal anything other than aluminum, it is required to run in a controlled atmosphere and we do a lot of business with outside heat treat sources. We wanted to move a lot of this heat treating in house and to speed up our development time.

What kinds of parts do you run in a vacuum heat treating furnace?

We will run anything from commercial parts to aerospace parts, but most will be nickel alloys.  In the future we would like to specialize also in Titanium heat treating and brazing services.  Those are both high growth areas that require dedicated furnaces for processing.

Do you vacuum heat treat certain parts made on your presses, or are most of these parts for other customers?

Most all parts will be parts that we form here on our presses for other customers.  Our goal is grow the heat treat business by serving outside customers.  We have become very good at servicing customers.   We can easily handle a wide range of parts in large and small volumes.  We provide organization and quick turn around which is in high demand in this market.

What is your typical turn around time, and how many parts, on average can be run in a given week?

We should on average be able to run around 1000 to 1500 parts a week and turn around would be about a week.  We can turn those around in the same day.  We pride ourselves on being responsive to customer needs, so when we receive rush orders, our heat treating department expedites handling of their parts and the furnace is waiting for when those parts hit the receiving dock.

What should a potential customer do if they want to learn more about your vacuum heat treating services?

We have the quality and capacity to get the job done right.  Interested parties can send us an RFQ or visit our heat treating page to learn more.

Jones Metal Products- Based in West Lafayette, Ohio, JMP is an ISO 9001 certified, ITAR Registered company, providing world class hydroforming, deep draw stamping, and vacuum heat treating services for the aerospace, commercial lighting, automotive, cookware, health-care and defense markets.

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