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Solar Atmospheres of Western Pennsylvania Awarded Nadcap Merit Status for Vacuum Heat Treating

HERMITAGE, Pa.—Solar Atmospheres of Western Pennsylvania (SAWPA; www.solaratm.com/plants/hermitage-western-pa) recently announced that the company has been awarded Nadcap Merit status for the vacuum heat treating and brazing of metals. For SAWPA, the successful audit marks ten years of doing business as a Nadcap supplier. The Nadcap Task group determined that SAWPA, having demonstrated an ongoing commitment to quality by satisfying customer requirements and industry specifications, has earned the prestigious honor of being a Merit status supplier.

With a variety of furnaces processing smaller parts, Solar Atmospheres serves 18 different industries with state-of-the-art services that include carburizing, nitriding, and R&D. Additional plants are located in Fontana, Calif., and Souderton, Pennsylvania.

Among other benefits, Merit status means that SAWPA has been granted an accreditation that lasts two years, through January 2016, instead of the standard one-year accreditation.

"Achieving Nadcap accreditation with Merit could not have been accomplished without the help and understanding of each and every Solar employee," said Susan Generalovich, SAWPA quality manager, in a release from the company. "I would especially like to recognize Bob Hill, SAWPA president, for his unwavering support. Upper management support is a key to a smartly run organization. Top down encouragement and drive for excellence, achieves excellence."

"Achieving Nadcap accreditation is not easy; it is one of the ways which the aerospace industry identifies those who excel at manufacturing quality products through superior special processes," said Joe Pinto, vice president and chief operating officer at the Performance Review Institute, in the release. "Companies such as Solar Atmospheres of Western Pennsylvania go above and beyond achieving Nadcap accreditation to obtain Merit status and they should be justifiably proud of it."

The vacuum heat treating and brazing services provided by Solar Atmospheres are reported to produce bright, scale-free parts with minimal distortion. The Hermitage, Pa., plant specializes in vacuum thermal processing of large, mainly titanium parts. This plant reportedly houses the world's largest commercial vacuum furnace (80 inches wide x 60 inches high x 432 inches long work zone, and a 150,000 lb. workload capacity), which is said to benefit the aerospace industry.

Created in 1990 by SAE Inc., Nadcap is administered by the not-for-profit Performance Review Institute (www.pri-network.org), which works to advance the interests of the mobility and related industries through development of performance standards and administration of quality assurance, accreditation, and certification programs.