BOC purchases rights for innovative heat treatment processes

02-Aug-2002

Guildford, UK, July 29, 2002 - BOC's Controlled Atmospheres Technologies (CAT) group has purchased the overseas intellectual property rights for ferric and austenitic nitrocarburising processes from Huyton Heat Treatments. Huyton Heat Treatments, based in Liverpool, has been developing innovative low temperature processes for the engineering industry for more than twenty-five years.

The purchase provides BOC with the rights to 17 new nitrocarburising processes which offer a number of novel properties for the surface treatment of metals. It also includes existing franchise licences in South Africa, India and Australia. BOC plans to sell further franchise licenses for the processes to contract heat treaters around the world under the trade name Epsilon. Epsilon will become a value-added brand for CAT.

The franchise licences will allow contract heat treaters to offer novel solutions to difficult heat treatment problems presented by their customers. All franchisees will also gain the advantage of being able to call on BOC's worldwide network of technical personnel to support the Epsilon processes.

Nitrocarburising is a low temperature thermochemical treatment carried out at processing temperatures that lie between those of carbo-nitriding and nitriding. The process can be used to produce a wide variety of engineered surfaces tailored to specific requirements. Nitrocarburising can be applied to a broad assortment of products, ranging from crankshafts to windscreen wiper arms.

"Ongoing research and development into low temperature processes will continue to be a priority, and Huyton Heat Treatments will continue to market its trademark specialised processes throughout the UK and Ireland," says Derek Clack, chairman of Huyton Heat Treatments.

"This is an exciting development," says Dave Wardle, BOC’s global business manager of the CAT global market sector. "These processes provide a number of innovative technical solutions. Where customers have unusual technical problems with components, we will now be able to offer good solutions to solve them. As a result, contract heat treaters will be better able to serve their customers, and end users will benefit."

https://www.chemeurope.com/en/news/12695/boc-purchases-rights-for-innovative-heat-treatment-processes.html