Heat Treating Business Gains Competitive Edge with Polymer Quenchants
One job that took two weeks at Complete Heat Treating due to reworks is now done in two days by using a polymer quenchant from Tenaxol with anti-foaming agent and greater concentration consistency.
Posted: November 6, 2012
As a result, Quench 2500 Ultra polymer quenchant with a non-nitrite corrosion inhibitor, defoamer and biocide was purchased from the new supplier and, according to the Dolhun brothers, the results have been outstanding. “We no longer have consistency issues, the percentages stay in line, plus we can vary the temperatures in the tanks without compromising performance. That opens more opportunities for new business and it’s been working very well.”
Complete Heat Treating is currently on a record sales pace, with more customers and much faster throughput, boasting a 25 percent increase in sales and working capacity. On that spun metal part that was causing problems, for example, TJ notes, “We went from two weeks with a lot of rework to two days on a typical batch.” Jacob adds, “The savings in staged deliveries alone run to thousands of dollars, each time.”
According to the brothers, Complete is now able to process a wider range of materials as a result of using the new quenchants. They credit Jim Harrison, the chief executive officer at Tenaxol, and his team of chemists and metallurgists with much of the significant improvement in their processing scenario.
Describing the situation with the spun metal part that used the process of the previous quenchant vendor, “Our stacker crane would come out of the tank, full of foam. It looked like a bubble bath,” joked Jacob. TJ further noted that the drain-off of the new polymer quenchant allowed the parts to enter the tempering furnace much faster, avoiding excess cooling of the surface area.
The customer for this job, Rich Prescott of Glenn Metalcraft (Princeton, MN), echoes the same thing, saying, “The turnaround time has been super. They made great improvement in their deliveries to us over the last year and that’s helped us satisfy our customers faster.”
“This anti-foaming agent in the new quenchant has literally changed our shop,” concludes TJ. Jacob also cited the supplier’s customer service. “We get help from their lab on a regular basis, including water testing and support documentation, which is necessary for the PPAP requirements of several of our customers.”
Harrison and his team did a lot of testing before making their final recommendations and they continue to help Complete fine tune thier operation. Jacob further noted Tenaxol’s involvement with MTI was important. “This supplier supports our industry and that means a lot to us. The supplier also provided a solution to problems Complete was experiencing in their cooling tower water by conducting lab testing, automated equipment and cost-effective chemical treatments, according to Dolhun.
As a result of this initial relationship with Tenaxol, Complete Heat Treating has expanded its purchases of supplies to include various greases and lubricants from this vendor, which is part of the Chemtool (Rockton, IL) family of companies, a wide-ranging industry supplier of myriad lubricant, cleaning and metalcutting fluid products.
Complete Heat Treating, 125 E. Greenfield Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53204-2937, 414-643-5161, Fax: 414-383-8766, info@completeht.com, www.CompleteHT.com.
Tenaxol Technologies, Inc., 1001 E. Centralia Street, Elkhorn, WI 53121, 414-476-1400, Fax: 414-476-4297, tenaxol@aol.com, www.tenaxol.com.
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