Page 14 - MetalForming September 2015

News Fronts
installation, startup and train- ing for the lines.
facility, according to company officials.
U.S.-patented loading cars will load/unload from both ends of the furnace. The vacuum chamber, manufactured by Youngberg Industries, Inc., Rockford, IL, will incorporate three 48-in.-dia. vacuum ports as well as six 24-in.-dia. ports for gas cooling inlet and outlet. Autoclave-type locking doors are included at both ends of the furnace. Installation and testing is scheduled to com- plete in the first quarter of 2016.
replacements and aftermar- ket spare parts and service.
Fronius USA Begins Making Solar Inverters in the United States
Huge Horizontal Vacuum Furnace
for Solar Atmospheres inPA
Schmalz Breaks Ground for New Facility in NC Having outgrown its cur- rent 20,000-sq.-ft. home in
Fronius USA recently has invested more than $1.5 mil- lion in the development and integration of a full solar- inverter manufacturing and testing facility in its Portage, IN, 400,000-sq.-ft. headquar- ters. The company is part of Fronius International, a world- wide supplier of welding tech- nology, solar inverters and other power electronics.
Solar Atmospheres of Western Pennsylvania, Her- mitage, PA, announced that it will be installing a 48-ft. hori- zontal high-vacuum furnace, with the furnace engineered and manufactured by its sister company, Solar Manufactur- ing, Inc. The $8 million project includes furnace cost as well as a 20,000-sq.-ft. building addition and needed utility services.
Solar Atmospheres, with four facilities located in East- ern and Western Pennsylva- nia, South Carolina and Cali- fornia, provides commercial heattreating and brazing serv- ices to an array of industries. Solar Manufacturing special- izes in the manufacture of new vacuum furnaces and also provides hot-zone
Raleigh, NC, where it has resided for the past 16 years, Schmalz Inc. is breaking ground at a new 6-acre site, also in Raleigh. Schmalz pro- vides vacuum technology for material handling and clamp- ing, as well as related auto- mated products.
The manufacturing line in Portage produces and tests more than 200 Fronius Primo solar inverters per day, and the company has hired 30 employees to staff it. Fronius USA plans to manufacture additional products at this
This car-bottom-type fur- nace, model HCB-84576-2EQ, will have a work zone measur- ing 7 ft. dia. by 48 ft. long and be capable of handling loads to 150,000 lb. at 2400 F. Dual
“This will be one of the largest company-owned facili- ties outside of Germany,” says Wolfgang Schmalz, Managing Director and co-owner of J. Schmalz GmbH, parent com- pany of Schmalz Inc.
The new, $7-million facility will provide more room for testing and assembly of
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12 MetalForming/September 2015
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