MASTER OF HEAT
PROCESSING
SECO/WARWICK GROUP, headquartered in Swiebodzin, Poland, is a leading global manufacturer of heat processing furnaces and equipment. This year the company celebrates its 25th anniversary. Dariusz Balcerzyk reports.
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ECO/WARWICK belongs to the ‘Big Five’ global companies, which supply around 50 per cent of the world’s heat processing furnaces. It focuses on the most sophisticated technologies and its range covers five main product groups: vacuum heat treatment; atmosphere heat treatment; controlled atmosphere brazing of aluminum heat exchangers; melting, holding, and thermal processing of aluminum; and vacuum metallurgy. Currently the group consists of seven manufacturing companies, with SECO/WARWICK SA, in Swiebodzin, Poland operating as its head company. The other main companies within the group are: SECO/WARWICK Corporation (US), SECO/WARWICK Europe SA (Poland,), Retech Systems LLC (US), SECO/WARWICK Retech Thermal Equipment Manufacturing Tianjin Co., Ltd (China), SECO/ WARWICK GmbH (Germany), SECO/WARWICK Allied Pvt. Ltd (India), SECO/WARWICK do Brasil Ind. de Fornos Ltda. (Brazil), SECO/WARWICK Service (Poland), SECO/WARWICK France SAS (France) and SECO/WARWICK RUS (Russia). “The group provides standard or customised state-of-the-art heat processing equipment to forward-thinking companies in various industries including automotive, aerospace, powder metallurgy, electronics, energy, machinery, tooling, medical, steel, titanium, general industrial as well as aluminum and aluminum recycling. We have customers in nearly 70 countries. Among them are such industrial giants as Bosch, Siemens, Valeo, General Electric, Honeywell, Ford, Volkswagen and Rolls-Royce,” says Mr Pawel Wyrzykowski, chief executive officer of SECO/WARWICK Group. The company employs around 1000 people worldwide. Half of them are engineers, 25 per cent are workers and the remaining 25 per cent is administration. The group’s annual sales are estimated at PLN 500 million (around €113 million). The first quarter 2016 net revenues from sales of products, goods and materials amounted to almost PLN 136 million (around €31 million). 116 Industry Europe
Where science meets business In the field of heat treatment SECO/WARWICK has a reputation for its innovative approach. “Innovation along with the group’s global position in the world are the two main factors that define our strategy of operation. Thanks to a state-of-the-art R&D division equipped with a metallography laboratory, and cooperation with the leading academic centres in Poland and abroad, we can provide the kind of innovative solutions that other companies are unable to offer,” says Mr Wyrzykowski. SECO/WARWICK cooperates closely with technical universities, research centres and research institutes around the world. It is actively pursuing cooperation programmes with the technical universities in Lodz and Poznan, with the Institute of Electronic Materials Technology in Warsaw, Institut für Metallformung TU Bergakademie in Freiberg, Germany, Technical University in Warsaw, Central South University in China and the National Research Saratov State University in Russia. This intensive cooperation brings new technologies and solutions used in the heat treatment processes around the world. These innovations include the entire production process, advanced control systems and machines that ensure the continuity of maintenance, reliability and the ability to change the configuration depending on the needs and expectations of a user.
Ecotitanium and graphene SECO/WARWICK’s high standard of innovation and its ability to transfer scientific theories into industrial production processes enable it to work on projects to the highest level of technical sophistication. Recently SECO/WARWICK Europe, together with RETECH Systems (USA) signed a contract for the delivery of a comprehensive melt shop equipment package to the first European aviation-grade titanium recycling plant, Ecotitanium, Saint-Georges-de-Mons in France. The full scope of delivery will comprise three metallurgical units: one plasma arc melting furnace (PAM), two vacuum arc remelting furnaces (VAR) and accompanying equipment. This project will provide the aerospace indus-
