Induction Heat Treating . . . And Other Services

At Zion Industries,  the most common heat-treating service that we provide is Induction Hardening.  But many of our projects also involve other processes that are not Induction Hardening, but typically an Induction process or some of the many related post Induction process services.

 In addition to Induction Hardening, we also provide Induction Annealing and Induction Brazing services.  Both of these processes, when performed with Induction rather than a traditional furnace or torch process, offer many advantages. For Induction Annealing we are able to selectively “soften” critical areas to improve ductility while maintaining other areas in a hardened sate for strength or wear resistance.  For Induction Brazing operations, it is often a quicker process than a furnace process or flame process;  often times resulting in a part with less distortion as well as not having other key areas heated beyond an acceptable temperature.

Induction processing will often have other secondary operations that we can also provide, and provide them all from the same source and same location.  We are able to reduce transportation costs and improve delivery times for our customers for these services.  Magnetic Particle Inspection and Hardness Testing services are some of the additional quality services that we offer.  We also offer Straightening services for many of the bars and shafts that we process as well as some washing and sand blasting that may be required after the Induction process.

 If you have any needs for any Induction or related services, we would be glad to discuss your needs by phone or in person.

Lou Ghinga

Estimator

Zion Industries, Inc

Induction Training

 At Zion Industries we are asked a lot of questions about Induction Heat Treating. Sometimes our customers and potential customers are very knowledgeable about the process and may even be doing the process in house, but at times may still have some questions or look for some suggestions from us to help with a particular problem. Over the years we have provided many training classes about Induction Heat Treating and other related items.

Recently we offered a class covering the Basic of Induction Heat Treating at our headquarters in Valley City, Ohio. We had offered the same class the previous year and the attendance and positive feedback was overwhelming. As some of our customers had called recently inquiring about some additional training for new staff members, we decided it was time to do it again. Several of our customers and prospects were able to attend the free class and lunch provided by Zion Industries. They also had an opportunity, some for the first time, to see the induction process and tour our plant to learn more about the additional services that we provide along with Induction Heat Treating. Whether it’s Induction Heat Treating, Induction Annealing, Brazing or support services like Mag Particle Inspection or Straightening, we perform them all under one roof.

The event was a tremendous success and most of the attendees said they had learned quite a bit about the Induction process as well as learned more about Zion Industries. If you or any colleagues at your firm have any questions about Induction Heat treat we would be happy to help answer them, or even put on an additional class for a group of people if the interest should arise. Please contact us if you would like to learn more about our classes or additional training that we offer. We look forward to hearing for you soon! 

Lou Ghinga

Estimator

Zion Industries, Inc.

Customer Service and Unheard of Turn Times!

At all Zion Industries facilities, customer service is a very large part of our success.  Recently at the Grand Ledge Michigan plant, a prospective customer contacted us regarding a super urgent part that was in need of Induction Heat Treat.  We had been in contact with this customer for a period of time with the goal of partnering with them on their Induction Heat Treat needs; so when they had an immediate need, they thought of us and made contact with us.

We were able to receive their part, develop the Induction Heat Treat process and complete the part with the parts leaving our facility within a 12 hour period.  This was greatly appreciated by the customer due to the urgency placed upon them by their customer.  This quick turn service started a partnership with this customer due to Zion’s responsiveness and ability to move quickly to take care of their needs.

 Every job cannot be turned around in a twelve-hour period, however this scenario by far is not the only successful quick turn job we have completed within a very short period due to the turn time needed.  Zion Industries’ Grand Ledge plant prides itself on maintaining an above average industry turn time and on our responsiveness to our customer’s needs.  Our knowledge, years of experience and our “can do” attitude gives us a “step up” on our competition and truly creates a partnership with each of our customers.  All of our customers, no mater the size, are afforded the same care and concern regarding their specific needs.  The staff at the Zion Industries’ Grand Ledge Michigan facility truly feels that for them to be successful, they need their customer’s to be successful.

Mark Shoemaker

Zion Industries, Inc.

Plant Manager

Grand Ledge, MI

 

Zion Industries’ Grand Ledge, Michigan Facility

 

As you are probably aware from looking on our website, we have 2 other locations in addition to our plant in Valley City, Ohio– which, by the way, is also our corporate headquarters.  One is in Hildebran, North Carolina between Charlotte and Asheville off of  I-40 and the other is in Grand Ledge, Michigan.  All of our locations are TS-16949 Certified.

Our Grand Ledge, Michigan facility is near Lansing just about 1 mile South of I-96, right next to the local airport. I’ve often thought that it could be a great location for our customer’s out of town clients because they could just fly in to the airport and literally walk across the street to our plant. I’m sure the need to utilize that convenience is rare, but it is a great resource. 

What makes this plant so unique is that it is the newest location for us – opened in 2005.  You’ll notice the pictures on our website indicate that it is a very modern facility, but what you don’t get to see is the high level of cleanliness (unless you visit us).  Also, because of the design of this building, we can easily expand our operations either internally by adding more equipment or externally by adding on to the building.  So if you ever have questions about capacity concerns – that’s never a problem at Zion.

Do you also know that one of the things that make us so different is that we design, engineer and fabricate all of our induction machines, including the induction coils and tooling?  Actually, we are not only self-sufficient, but also our long term sustainability is secured by not having to rely on others for our customer’s needs and by the wide diversity of industries that our customers represent.

Our Grand Ledge plant is run by Mark Shoemaker and he’s backed up by Dave Rattay – our Quality Technician. Both Mark and Dave love a challenge and their depth of expertise is second to none. In fact we’d love for you to challenge them with your biggest induction heat treating problem.  As with all of our plants, Mark and Dave can help you on all levels from prototype and development up to large production runs in the millions of pieces.

All of our plants, including Grand Ledge, are open for you when you need us to be there. 3 shifts a day and Saturdays are normal for us. Remember that old fast food song from that place with the crown that went something like…”special orders don’t upset us”…? Well if that’s your “song”,  Mark and Dave know how to sing your tune…

I know, this is starting to sound a little cornball,  but we want to make it very clear to you;  we are committed to your success at any of our locations.  What can we help you with?  Better quality?  Better pricing?  Better turn around?  All of the above?  Challenge us! We’re here for you.

 John Bode

Sales

Zion Industries, Inc.

Mission Critical

At Zion Industries we hear this phrase quite often, and we understand that all customers parts are “mission critical”, but every once in while the phrase takes on a higher sense of urgency.

We recently worked with a project that involved parts for the oil industry. It was explained that these parts were used to temporarily seal off gas and oil well casings while other work was being done above the seal zone. Thousands of feet underground and able to withstand up to 10,000 PSI of pressure, there was no doubt that they had to work perfectly each time. Hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment and the worker’s safety are on the line. Also the environmental aspects of a failure became quite evident this past summer, as we can all recall the events in the Gulf of Mexico. In addition to performing the heat treat, Zion Industries was also asked to perform secondary inspection services to individually test each part and verify that the heat treat had taken place properly. We are excited to be part of this important project.

We also perform heat treat on parts for the wind turbine industry and a number of parts for the mining industry. Whether hundreds of feet in the air or thousands of feet underground, these parts are mission critical. As many of the components end up in difficult to reach areas, the proper heat treatment is essential to a long service life and up time requirements. On a wind turbine for example, the repair or replacement of component will often involve cranes or helicopters and can result in tens thousands of dollars of lost time and repair expenses. In the mining industry, the components can be located thousands of feet underground; again repairs or replacements can be costly or may not even be possible to do underground, often resulting in lengthy and expensive disassembly and extraction of the equipment.

If you have a “mission critical” component that requires Induction heat treating, we would be honored to be entrusted with the process at Zion Industries.

Lou Ghinga

Estimator

Zion Industries, Inc.

Can I induction harden this part?

This is a question that we hear quite often at Zion Industries. Usually the answer is, Yes! Induction is a very versatile method of heat treat and has many applications, but every once in while we get stumped. 

When are asked this question we will first have questions of our own. Is this material that be can be hardened? Is there proper carbon content? The material will only hardened to its maximum hardness based on the carbon content, this is mostly true regardless of the heat treat method used. Is this material suitable for induction hardening? This can be a bit tricky as the material may have plenty of carbon, but the structure is not a suitable structure for induction hardening. Because the induction heat treat happens so quickly some materials will not go into “solution” quickly enough, and the heat treat ends up being spotty or just too soft. 

Is the depth of hardness appropriate? Induction is best suited for shallower depths, it is by definition a “case hardening” process. We at Zion have processed parts with of up to ½” of case depth if the hardenability of the material is suitable. As a general rule of thumb most of the higher alloy steels will allow a deeper case depth than regular carbon steel. 

Ok let’s assume that the steel chosen is appropriate, what now? We’ll probably have a few more things that we’ll ask questions about or need to consider. We will review part geometry and factors that may cause concerns regarding cracking or distortion. Induction is a very controllable process and usually the resultant distortion can be controlled much better than with other heat treat methods. 

What about bores, can I induction harden this bore? Usually the answer is, Yes! But some bores due to small size or geometry may prove to be difficult. 

Can Zion Industries induction harden a long shaft? Well that depends, we routinely induction harden parts up to 5 feet of heat treat length, and depending on geometry and weight can handle parts that are even longer. 

What about the weight, this part weighs over 100 lbs? That’s usually not a problem, we heat treat parts that weigh several hundred pounds and parts that weigh just a few grams, and everything in between. 

Ok, I think I understand but what if I have some more questions? We would be happy to help answer your questions and better explain if the piece you are looking to have heat treated is a suitable candidate for induction hardening. At Zion Industries our staff will assist you with questions you may have and at times we are even asked to get involved with our customer’s customer, to help them better understand the induction process. We would love to hear from you with any question you may have! 

Lou Ghinga

Estimator

Zion Industries, Inc.

Success Stories: Backup Supplier

At Zion Industries we work with our customers on many different levels. We supply regular production to many of our customers as well as prototype and emergency services. We also work with some customers as backup suppliers.

By having the opportunity to PPAP the products ahead of time, it helps us to be prepared when the need to run the products in an emergency situation arises. We would like to share with you one example of such an event.

We received a phone call from one of our customers who we had done some business with in the past. The customer is a large manufacturer of spindles that are used in the truck industry, both in tractors and trailers. This particular customer had brought all induction work in house in the past few years, but kept Zion current on all PPAP products and provided some overflow work to keep the products current within our system.

The customer was concerned that their Induction Heat Treating system was down. They had no idea how long the repairs would take and were concerned with missing customer deliveries. We were notified that the parts were on their way. As we had all paperwork ready and had processed the parts in house before, we were able to start setting up the equipment in anticipation of the parts arriving. By the next morning the parts had arrived. We setup and did all of the quality checks using the recently arrived parts, we were up and running by noon.

After all the product had been run, the customer was notified that the parts would be in temper that evening and ready for pickup the next morning. They were quite pleased and notified us that more parts were on their way. We processed parts for several more days while the equipment was repaired and validated.

We look forward to seeing if we can help you by being your backup supplier. Today’s fast paced, just-in-time systems demand good contingency planning and backup sources. By developing Zion Industries as a ready back-up supplier, you can properly support your customers in the event of equipment or other failures at your facility. We look forward to discussing your particular needs to see if Zion Industries can be your backup Induction Heat Treating source.

Lou Ghinga

Estimator

Zion Industries, Inc.

OPEN HOUSE !!

Grand Ledge, Mi. – August 19^th

Valley City, Oh. – August 26^th

Hildebran, NC – September 16^th

This August and September we will be hosting an open house at all 3 of our locations. Best of all – it’s free ! 

However we do have a challenge for you – share your biggest induction heat treating headache with us – confidentially or openly – and we’ll help you in a one on one format after the open houses – at no obligation. It could cover any area from quality, pricing or turn around times for current projects or something that’s looming on your horizon – we like to be challenged. Got a print ? Email it in advance to me at JBode@ZScan.com .

I do have a word of caution though – we might hand out one of those “HELLO” stickers for you to wear.  But, who knows, you might make some new business contacts too.

It’s not just a “hi how are ya – thanks for stopping in” kind of event. Our format is designed to help you understand induction heat treating better. We’ll combine classroom discussion including question and answer time with a plant walk through afterwards. Plus don’t forget everybody’s favorite – PowerPoint !

Included will be informational training on induction heat treating – what it is, how it’s done, the kinds of equipment we use,  we’ll analyze common non-conformances and other “ins and outs” of induction heat treating. Did you know that we design, engineer and fabricate our own induction heat treating equipment ?

I know you probably have an idea of what induction heat treating is but even if you don’t know very much about it at all – this is a great format to learn.

You probably know that we serve a lot of different industries including powdered metals, military suppliers, automotive, leisure products, lawn & garden, heavy truck, off highway, mining equipment, aerospace, appliances, material handling equipment and food processing to name a few – and that we can work on every level from prototype development to large production runs.

Believe me, this will not be a sales show. If you ever looked at our website – you’ll see that we strive for “Service that Delights the Customer” and this is one of the ways that we’re trying to do just that.

Oh yeah, this fall watch for our webinar on one of the most popularly asked questions that we get all the time – yet one of the most widely misunderstood aspects of heat treating…curious ?

John Bode

Sales

Zion Industries, Inc.

How deep can we induction harden this part?

This is a question that is often asked of Zion Industries. Often times as a customer is reviewing a drawing, there may be incomplete or even incorrect information regarding the heat treat characteristic. As an engineer is designing a part to be used for a purpose, they must take many things into consideration, one of which may the properties of hardness desired. As they design a piece the may realize that there is surface that will be subject to wear or abrasion, but may not be 100% certain of the heat treat properties they desire, so it may be called out as a higher surface hardness but with few other details. Or perhaps it is wear surface but also important for strength. This requires additional consideration beyond just the surface hardness, the depth is also important. With some of the information potentially missing or perhaps incomplete, a customer will often ask us “how deep can we go?” 

The depth of hardness is most dependant on material chemistry, with a few other factors also that need to be considered. The depth of hardness or hardenability of the material is determined for different material using the Jominy Test. For example certain alloys of material are ideal for shallower depths but harder surfaces. Typically low alloy but high carbon materials will be suitable for such applications. Other material will allow much deeper case depth to be achieved and will typically have both higher carbon content as well as other alloying agents. 

The hardness of the depth can also be affected by part geometry. Features such as shoulder or holes that result in thin wall areas will be affected differently than straight wall shafts for example. A hollow tube may harden deeper or even through harden compared to solid shaft of the same dimensions. 

At Zion we can help answer the questions “How deep can we go?”. Using published data for hundreds of different types of steel as well as our team’s many years of experience, we can help determine what would be possible or appropriate. We can also offer advise on what might not work so well, to prevent a detrimental experience. We look forward to evaluating your application!

Lou Ghinga

Estimator

Zion Industries, Inc.

Induction Heat Treating Equipment Technology

Induction heating is like all industries, there is always new improvement in equipment and upgrades being introduced everyday. For one, the size of the new Power Inverters has been reduced to the size of refrigerators or smaller. The reduction in size is the results of better electronics. The electronics that are used now are PLC controls and computers which are controlling the power levels, allowing the unit to have tunable power and frequency.  The power level can now be adjusted and monitored to achieve closer tolerance in power output. This type of control allows the pharmaceutical companies to use induction heating to seal tamper resistance bottles.

 New electronics have allowed the variables in induction heat treating to be controlled with greater accuracy. These new electronics include quench flow rates, quench pressures and temperature control to name a few of the sensors that are controlled by the use of computers and PLC controls.

 As new electronics are being developed they are being used to improve the repeatability of the process. This alone can and will improve the way materials are heat treated. At Zion Industries we are working with the PLC control and computer industries to create a new and improved scanner for the Induction Heat Treating Industry.

In closing as the electronics improve the Induction Heat Treating field will become more important in metal processing because the process will become more controlled. This allows for greater accuracy in all aspects of the heat treatment. 

Ed Wichmann

Engineer

Zion Industries, Inc.