ECM USA celebrated its 20th Anniversary this year with an open house and technical conference geared towards the history and innovations of the LPC (Low Pressure Carburizing) market. The event kicked off, in the evening of September 12th, with an open house at the ECM USA Headquarters in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin.
Here they unveiled the new ICBP® (Infracarb®) Nano installation and in-house Synergy Center, encouraged networking and distributed awards to key players in their 20 years of operation.
Award recipients included: Susan Otto from Midwest Thermal Vac for the Key Partner Award (who was the initial ECM USA office manager) and Greg Cook from GKN for the Equipment Uptime Award (who operates the third ever ECM furnace in North America). Additional Pioneer Awards were bestowed to individuals who signed on to the ECM USA process from the beginning including an automotive customer who changed their entire 6 speed front and rear wheel drive installations system with ECM vacuum carburizing furnaces (they currently have 8 systems with 54 cells).
Awards were then followed by a ribbon cutting ceremony for the Synergy Center which was designed and implemented to allow customers to come and use equipment, understand the technology, analyze metallurgical testing, and provide training for operating, servicing and recipe development.
The next day heated up with a full day of technical sessions. Session topics ranged from the History of Vacuum Carburizing, ECM USA’s Synergy Center Development Lab Distortion Studies, Advantages of LPC & Gas Quenching over Traditional Atmosphere Carburizing, and Innovations in Temperature Profiling. Presenters included, but are not limited to: The Herring Group, TimkenSteel, Dry Coolers, FCA, GKN, PhoenixTM, and Midwest Thermal Vac.
Dennis Beauchesne, and the entire ECM team, would like to thank everyone, from customers & suppliers alike, for their dedication to SYNERGY over the last two decades with ECM USA. Synergy is an important foundation to success, and ECM looks forward to maintaining and expanding their support and services to the heat treat market.
