February 2006 News Archives

For CURRENT News click here.

Linamar / Tri City Heat Treat Upgrades

(February 28) - Looks like Marathon Sensors (part of the MMI companies) has just finished upgrading the batch furnace lines at Linamar's Tri City heat treating shop up in Ontario, Canada. The job included new DualPro atmosphere and temperature controllers and an "open" SCADA system called "SpecView".

Apparently the system was considerably less expensive than proprietary SCADA packages and allows Tri City to "clone" screens and use them for multiple furnaces without having to pay over and over. It's also vendor independent so that the Marathon folks were able to tie in their legacy controllers from Barber Coleman and their AC20 controllers from ERO with no problems.

AK Steel Workers to Strike Tomorrow Night

(February 27) - An overwhelming percentage of Middletown, Ohio's AK Steel workers are scheduled to strike at the end of the month. Not exactly a heat treat item, but steel is always of interest to us (be sure to check out Steelinks on or right-hand sidebar). The union at AK has never staged a strike but leaders say it is necessary to preserve jobs in the face of cost cuts.

Vacuum and Atmosphere Services Lands Hot Zone Orders

(February 24) - Vacuum & Atmosphere Services (VAS) is a UK-based company of former Ipsen guys headed by Mike Long. Word is that they just landed a couple new hot zone orders from Chromalloy in Alfreton (UK) and that business is booming - especially in fabrications.

VAS is the UK rep for a number of companies including both Avion (stop off coatings) and Marathon Sensors.

Check Out Those Gas Prices

(February 23) - If you haven't checked out our daily updated gas prices chart to the right (just above daily Nickel updates) you should! Gas has dropped nearly $5 in about 1.5 months. Not so good if you're a commodities trader, but great if you're a heat treater!

One of Delphi's Unions Votes on Whether to Strike

(February 23) - While the UAW is being fairly diplomatic with Delphi stating they will only call a strike if Delphi wins a court order to back out of its labor contracts, the IUE-CWA union is already planning a vote to authorize a strike if they cannot come to agreement with Delphi over cost-cutting in the coming weeks.

The International Union of Electrical Workers, a division of the Communications Workers of America represents about 1/4 of Delphi's 33,000 workers. Their move comes as the March 30 deadline for an out-of-court deal on labor costs looms.

The move is seen by many as aggressive posturing to put pressure on Delphi. the IUE-CWA, however, is downplaying that interpretation.

"This is simply part of the process," said Lauren Asplen, IUE spokeswoman. "It's not as if something has changed from one day to the next."

Ford Offering More Buyouts - some that include Tuition - to Workers

(February 22) - For is offering buyouts for workers at former Visteon plants. The interesting thing is that Visteon was spun off, but under UAW agreements the workers remained Ford employees.

Ford had already offered some buyouts but only convince 1,500 workers to take them. This new offer is intended to convince another 3,500 that's it time to move on. In total buyouts or early retirement are being offered to nearly 12,000 employees at the Ypsilanti plant as well at 10 other factories that were transferred to Automotive Components Holdings LLC. ACH is a Ford-run holding company that was set up with Visteon specifically to prepare these plants for closure or sale.

The buyout options on the table are pretty sweet all things considered:

$100,000 for those who agree to leave with no benefits but with any pension accrued.

An "educational opportunity" program that offers employees with at least one year of seniority up to $15,000 per year for tuition for up to four years.

An early retirement program for 55 years and older with 30 years in the company that pays a $35,000 bonus check to start retirement with full benefits.

Another early retirement package for workers 50 and older with 10 years with the company that provides a fixed income for life but at a lower rate than they would have if they retired under normal circumstances.

Finally, there is a "pre-retirement" option for workers between 28 and 30 years with the company that provides 85% of salary on leave until they reach 30 years of service.

Ford and ACH have some special seminars planned to explain the options to employees. It's hard to see plants closing but at least Ford is trying to make it easier on those affected. The tuition option is definitely a plus as it would allow people to update their skills for the next opportunity. With good planning that $100k could be used to help get by for four years of school.

Ipsen Locks Out Striking Workers?

(February 21) - It looks as if Ipsen may be taking a stand in their recent scuffle with the UAW:

More than 50 UAW workers have been on strike since the three-year labor deal at the manufacturer expired Feb. 10. Monday, union members came to work in what local President Dave Teague called a “good faith” gesture, only to be turned away by security guards.

Teague said the guards would not confirm the company was locking out the workers, but to the union, “if they won’t let us in, then that’s a lockout,” Teague said.

Read the whole article here. One has to wonder about the recent management changes (Mario Ciampini & Lisa Hill departures) and whether that had something to do with labor relations or vice versa...certainly having the company's finance officer running the business will have an impact on things.

New (used) Lindberg Line at Fenton Heat Treating

(February 16) - It looks like business is picking up at Fenton Heat Treating in West Mifflin, PA. FHT is expected to bring on line next week some recently purchased equipment auctioned off from a Robert Bosch plant in Mexico within the past 12 – 18 months. Word has it that the Lindberg equipment featuring Marathon controls was purchased for around 80k compared to the original purchase price of estimated at 500k just a few years ago.

GM Investing in its Plants - (re)Hiring some workers

(February 16) - This article over at ISA is definitely encouraging. While the turnaround of General Motors will take time, they're starting to show progress and outlining investments to be made in their current operations. All told they're sending about $545 million to their Michigan plants and resisting the urge to use lower-cost labor in Poland.

Al Wain On Board at Furnace Works

(February 15) - Al Wain is a truly first-rate controls guy in the heat treat business. A longtime service guy with MMI before the parent company pulled them out of systems (an area the new owners are back into), Al worked with American Steel Treating, Triadx even a short stint at Super Systems Inc. Al left Super Systems to handle controls at Chrysler's ITP facility in Kokomo. As of last week Al tendered his resignation to move closer to family and is now with Furnace Works (furnace builders and support) in the Cleveland area. Here's to a bright future for both Al and Furnace Works!

Bodycote Acquisitions

(February 13) - Looks like Bodycote is bolstering its testing services group with two new acquisitions. The interesting part is that both acquisitions provide testing for markets outside of heat treat or HIP, etc. One is involved in testing for environmental applications while the other supports pharmeceutical customers. For the full press release click here. Here's the shortened version of the PR:

Bodycote International plc is pleased to announce that its Testing Group has
completed two bolt-on acquisitions.

Bodycote has acquired the entire issued share capital of Norwest Soil Research Limited. Based in Edmonton, Norwest operates from nine laboratories in Western and Central Canada and has joint venture operations in Italy and Turkey.

The acquired business will operate as parts of Bodycote Testing's Environmental and Health Science Divisions. Norwest offers testing services primarily in three categories; Environmental, specialising in wide variety of environmental analytical services such as soil reclamation analysis for the mining and petroleum industries; Agriculture & Food, providing producers, distributors, retailers and the catering industry with analytical testing programmes to ensure the safety, quality and nutritional value of food, agricultural seed and feed products; and Energy Resources, providing a complete range of analytical testing services to the oil and gas industry, including the huge developments in the Canadian tar sands sector.

...

Bodycote has also acquired the entire issued share capital of West Coast
Analytical Services Inc. The acquired business, located in Santa Fe Springs, California, will operate as part of Bodycote Testing Group's Health Science Division.

The company is primarily focused on providing analytical services to the
pharmaceutical, environmental, food and nutraceutical industries, specialising in method development, validation and product testing. The laboratory operates under Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) and is approved by the US Food & Drugs Administration.

Judge Approves Delphi Executive Bonuses - Will the Union Strike?

(February 13) - A judge has approved Delphi's plans to grant its executives up to $21 million in bonuses at a bizarre time when the company is losing tons of money and a threatened strike could force both Delphi and GM into bankruptcy. You can read about it here. Meanwhile we're hearing that the final hours of the wait and see on the strike and GM bankruptcy are upon us. Many insiders are expecting the potential death blow within the next week.

New Multipro Display

(February 9) - As recently as the ASM show we'd heard rumors (not from Marathon) that Marathon was going to discontinue the Multipro controller. I guess our source was a bit mixed up or misinformed as today Marathon's site is talking about a new display for the very same controller:

Cincinnati, OH (09 February 2006) – Marathon Sensors is pleased to announce the availability of an improved LCD display for its Multipro controller line. The new display is included in all new Multipro instruments and is available for drop-in, user replacement on all Multipro models. The new unit uses a high-temperature (158 F operating) LCD as well as an environmentally sealed optical encoder with improved tactile feedback. Click here for a flyer or call today to order.

In a related tidbit, Yvonne from Marathon put some new snazzy photos of the Marathon pups up in our forums here. Here's a shot of her with the dogs:

Solar Manufacturing Lands Hot Zone Orders

(February 2) - Solar Manufacturing lands multiple hot zone orders this week. It looks like Temp-Rite Steel, Iron Bound Heat Treat and an undisclosed customer have all ordered replacement hot zones this week. You can get the full details on Solar's web site by clicking the "about" button and then selecting "press releases." Congratulations Solar!

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