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.

A pioneer in vacuum heat treating since 1959, VAC AERO is one of the world's largest subcontractors for processing landing gear components. Other metallurgical services include specialized applications in vacuum heat treating, brazing and oil quenching as well as coating services. VAC AERO operates production facilities in Canada, Poland and India and has world-wide sales representation.

VAC AERO Designs and Builds Standard and Custom Vacuum Furnaces.

From small horizontal laboratory units to large vertical models, VAC AERO vacuum furnace systems and controls operate worldwide in diverse applications in the aerospace, power generation, medical, nuclear, tool & die, research and other high-tech industries.

Service Excellence Is the Backbone of Our Reputation.

With seven plants on three continents, VAC AERO's global high-response service and support teams are always on call to provide direct assistance and expert advice to our clients around the world.

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.

VAC AERO’s Kalisz, Poland Operation Receives EU Grant to Expand Services.

VAC AERO Kalisz Sp. z o.o. recently received a grant equivalent to approximately $400K CDN from the European Union Sectoral Operational Program for the Improvement of the Competitiveness of Enterprises. The grant application was based on expanding special process capabilities for the heat treating and coating of shafts for gas turbine engines.

As part of the expansion, VAC AERO Kalisz has installed a new vertical vacuum furnace, activation and coating equipment for coating internal and external surfaces, custom tooling for applying inorganic and plasma coatings, and special testing equipment for inspection of coating quality. The company has also added eighteen new personnel to handle an anticipated 30% increase in production volumes resulting from the expansion in capabilities.

Established in 2003, VAC AERO Kalisz provides heat treating and brazing, plasma spray and lab services to the burgeoning aerospace industry in Poland and other parts of Europe.

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.

The EOS is designed to reduce the Oakville plant’s total peak electrical demand. In many jurisdictions peak demand is the highest average demand in any fifteen minute time span during the billing period. In Ontario, Canada, peak demand is used to calculate the delivery charge at Oakville Hydro. (Consumption is independent of the peak demand and is billed as a different line item on the bill). Therefore, since a significant portion of the plant’s electrical energy costs are determined by its peak demand, electrical energy costs can be significantly reduced by lowering this peak demand value...read more.

Case Study to be published in Industrial Heating Magazine. In June, a case study based on first-year results of the dibalog EOS implementation at VAC AERO will be published in Industrial Heating Magazine's “Energy-Conservation Focus” issue.