OAKVILLE, Ontario, (January 8, 2010) - VAC AERO’s Boucherville, Quebec, Canada-based Coatings division recently received two new approvals for coatings and chemical processing. The facility was qualified to the stringent SAE Aerospace Standard AS70003 for Coatings and for Chemical Processing. These two new approvals have now been added to the many other heat treating and coating accreditations that VAC AERO has acquired throughout the years. VAC AERO’s facilities in Quebec and Poland offer thermal spray coatings (plasma and HVOF), grinding and inorganic coating services to international Aerospace and other high-tech companies.

OAKVILLE, Ontario, (January 11, 2010) – VAC AERO’s Kalisz, Poland-based operation recently installed a fully integrated High Velocity Oxygen Fuel (HVOF) system based on a new generation Carbide Jet System (CJS) produced by Dortmund, Germany-based Thermico.

The system’s specially designed combustion chamber is fed by hydrogen, kerosene and oxygen fuel and optimized for spraying MCrAlY coatings on turbine engine components, tungsten carbide coatings on landing gear components and can perform many other coating applications. Precise combustion and fuel configuration settings control particle temperature and velocity to achieve optimal coating efficiency in less time and lower fuel consumption than other HVOF systems. The system was installed in a 13’X13’X 10’ high (4X4X3 meters) soundproof booth. READ MORE

OAKVILLE, Ontario, (December 9, 2009) - VAC AERO's Oakville Thermal Processing Division recently completed an extensive plant re-organization based on lean and green manufacturing concepts. The project included building renovations to create more production space, the addition of new work-handling and production capacity, safety enhancements and energy efficiency improvements in lighting and power consumption. Lean manufacturing techniques that were implemented in the re-organization included Kanban systems, 5S and visual signals. The company has also been working in close partnership with customers on value stream mapping and smoothing production flow. The effort is already paying benefits. For example, distances travelled for orders within the shop have been reduced on average by 50%. On-time deliveries have improved dramatically, now in many cases being maintained at 100%. VAC AERO invested more than $400,000 in the re-organization, a portion of which was subsidized by a provincial government grant. The completion of the re-organization was timed to coincide with the commissioning of VAC AERO's fourth large vacuum oil quench furnace, designed and built by the company's Furnace Manufacturing Division. The new furnace will add significant capacity to the Oakville vacuum oil-quench operation, already one of the largest in the world.

OAKVILLE, Ontario, (October 26, 2009) - VAC AERO International's Polish subsidiary, VAC AERO Kalisz Sp. z o.o, has been awarded grants totaling 6.4 million PLN (approximately 2.4 million CDN dollars) through the European Union's New Innovative Investments Program. The grants will support 60% of the company's investment to establish a new special processes facility in the Aviation Valley region of southeast Poland, specifically in the Free Economic Zone (FEZ) near Rzeszow. The Rzeszow-area FEZ is a burgeoning center for aerospace manufacturing. In March 2010, VAC AERO Kalisz will begin construction of a 2,000 m2 (20,000 ft2) building and expects to be in operation at the new site by January 2011. Services offered will include vacuum and atmosphere brazing and heat treating, robotically controlled thermal spray, inorganic paint coatings and a recently developed cold spray process. Within two years, the new facility expects to employ a workforce of 35 people.

The new grants are in addition to the 1.7 million PLN (approximately 660,000 CDN dollars) in EU grants awarded earlier this year to VAC AERO's Kalisz, Poland facility to support the purchase of new heat treating and coating equipment.

For immediate release

Oakville, Ontario, September 9, 2009 – VAC AERO International launched its newly redesigned website and a new French version today as part of its 50th anniversary online and print campaign. In addition to featuring concise overviews on its vacuum furnace systems and metallurgical services, VAC AERO offers a host of technical articles relating to the practice and application of thermal processing and surface engineering in its Resources section.

“Vacuum heat treating is highly specialized and we understand how crucial research is in our industry,” says Alan Charky, VAC AERO’s director of marketing. “That’s why we’re constantly updating our website with heat treating and brazing articles that help our customers and their employees keep pace with the development of new processes and technologies,” continues Alan.

The website offers vacuum heat treating and brazing articles by industry experts Dan Herring ( new series on vacuum heat treating) and Dan Kay as a regular monthly feature, as well as authorized Industrial Heating Magazine articles. These articles also appear in VAC AERO’s monthly What’s HOT! Newsletter, which is now celebrating its 2nd year and continues to be emailed every month. Our website and newsletter efforts are intended to provide our customers and industry peers with a wealth of relevant information in their search for the metallurgical solutions they are constantly seeking, and to educate and encourage promising young individuals," concludes Alan.

OAKVILLE, Ontario, (June 29, 2009)

VAC AERO has relocated its Corporate Head Office to 5420 North Service Road, Suite 205 in Burlington, Ontario. An integral part of our Thermal Processing Division’s Lean Manufacturing inspired re-organization plan requires moving our accounting, administration and executive management offices out of our production facility to free up needed plant space. The new offices are located 9 kms (5.5 miles) away from the Thermal Processing and Furnace Manufacturing facilities. The move does not involve any changes to our telephone numbers, mailing address or other contact coordinates.

We are pleased to announce the launch of a New Vacuum Brazing column in the April 2009 issue of VAC AERO’s What’s HOT! NEWSLETTER

The new column, written by brazing expert Dan Kay will be published monthly and will offer helpful vacuum brazing applications, tips and techniques to commercial and captive heat treaters alike. Dan Kay is an independent brazing consultant, who has consented to write articles on brazing for VAC AERO since many of our vacuum furnaces are used for brazing. However, his willingness to provide this service to VAC AERO readers does not imply his specific endorsement of our furnaces, but rather his desire to help VAC AERO furnace users to understand brazing better.