Press Releases

May 27, 2025 - ECM USA proudly announces the upcoming retirement of William (Bill) Gornicki, effective June 2025. After an exceptional 35-year career in the heat treat industry, Bill will be stepping into a well-earned retirement. The entire ECM team extends our deepest gratitude and warmest wishes to Bill as he embarks on this exciting new chapter. Bill joined ECM USA in 2020, bringing with him a wealth of experience and leadership in vacuum furnace technology and low-pressure carburizing (LPC).

April 21, 2025 – Congratulations to the SEW-EURODRIVE heat treatment team for the completion of their fully automated in-house vacuum furnace system integrated with their patented MOVI-TRANS® inductive energy power transfer system (pictured parallel with ECM’s transfer system rails). SEW-EURODRIVE, prominent global manufacturer, partnered with ECM USA to commission a modular NANO vacuum furnace system completely integrated with advanced automation for their Lyman, South Carolina facility in JUNE 2023.

Pleasant Prairie, WI – April 1, 2025 – The Mexico heat treatment industry has a new vacuum furnace supplier entity – ECM Mexico, doing business as MEXVAC ECM, S.A. DE C.V., a subsidiary of ECM USA, Inc.

Pleasant Prairie, WI – 1 de abril de 2025 – La industria mexicana de tratamiento térmico cuenta con un nuevo proveedor de hornos de vacío: ECM México, que opera como MEXVAC ECM, S.A. DE C.V., subsidiaria de ECM USA.

November 14, 2024 - On November 7th, ECM USA’s Vincent Lelong presented low pressure carburizing with vacuum furnace technology at Purdue University's School of Materials Engineering undergraduate seminar. This seminar regularly features industry speakers, some of whom are members of the Purdue Heat Treating Consortium.

Pleasant Prairie, WI – October 28, 2024 ECM USA is excited to announce the addition of Dustin Decker to our Wisconsin-based team as Sales Engineer. Dustin brings valuable knowledge to ECM USA with experience in the medical laboratory sales and service industry. For the past decade, Dustin owned and operated a laboratory sales and service business, honing skills and developing a deep understanding of customer needs and industry dynamics in a very detailed and challenging market.

August 26, 2024 – PAI Industries, renowned manufacturer and distributor of high-quality parts to the heavy-duty truck industry, has partnered with ECM to bring heat treatment in-house with a NANO vacuum furnace system. Adding to the already impressive 112,000ft2 manufacturing facility with state-of-the-art machinery in Suwanee, GA, and exemplary outsourced heat treating, this in-house system expands PAI’s capabilities to expedite production and increase capacity.

February 1, 2024 – ECM USA is excited to announce the addition of Dave Wolfe to our team as a Senior Sales Engineer. Formerly serving as an East Coast representative based in Pennsylvania, Dave brings a wealth of experience to our organization. His extensive sales background encompasses not only ECM vacuum furnaces but also spans 30 years of technical sales expertise, demonstrating a consistent track record in delivering customer-focused solutions for a diverse range of thermal processing equipment, including Photovoltaic/PV applications.

June 5, 2023 - ECM USA has partnered with prominent global manufacturer, SEW-EURODRIVE, to commission a modular NANO vacuum furnace system completely integrated with advanced automation for their Lyman, South Carolina facility. It is the third ECM NANO system with integrated robotics and advanced capabilities for the US heat treat market within the last two years. The system was specifically designed to run multiple materials (including carburized grades and tool steels) and has the modular flexibility to adapt to an increase in production for various load scenarios and processes. SEW-EURODRIVE MOVITRANS® (SEW-EURODRIVE’s patented inductive energy power transfer supply system) will also be incorporated within ECM’s vacuum furnace transfer system.

July 11, 2022 - AddUp, a major player in the field of metal additive manufacturing and the ECM Group, creator of innovative thermal solutions, have signed a partnership to develop high value-added solutions for the thermal treatment of 3D printed metal parts. The ECM Group and AddUp will create and develop solutions that will help current and prospective customers reduce their manufacturing costs and lead times, while improving the performance of their parts produced using additive technology. The two groups will work jointly on a development program to define the appropriate specifications for a heat treatment solution adapted to additive manufacturing applications. Next, the ECM Group will design and industrialize a suitable vacuum furnace system according to the specifications defined during this joint development program.

November 8, 2021 – ECM USA Director of Sales, Bill Gornicki, announces the purchase of a NANO system for deployment into the North American aerospace manufacturing market. The NANO flexibility provides a variety of processes including LPC (Low Pressure Carburizing), hardening, brazing and annealing. ECM’s advanced automation capabilities also integrate the NANO with cryogenics, tempering and pre-washing. As more aerospace manufacturers migrate to streamlined manufacturing techniques, the value rises for predictive production with defined takt time. This system is equipped with 3 treatment cells (upgradable to 6) for multi-process operation, all within the same vacuum chamber. The multi-process zones share a common high pressure gas quenching chamber rated up to 20 bar absolute pressure. The consistency of automation and unmanned operation integrate hybrid pre-cleaning capabilities. As per aerospace requirements, all system controls are designed and manufactured to UL requirements.

October 25, 2021 – ECM’s product expansion with research & development and laboratory furnace systems, brand name JIPELEC, has proven highly successful within the academic and semiconductor industries. With the recent increased interest in US semiconductor research and manufacturing, ECM is excited to announce a strong bi-monthly sales order pattern for 2021. These smaller-scale system processes range from rapid thermal processing (RTP), annealing (RTA), oxidation (RTO), nitridation (RTN), diffusion (RTD) to sulfurization, selenization and crystallization. Of the several orders placed so far in 2021, the bench-top JIPELEC JetFirst 100-200 product line leads the way as a cold-wall, single-wafer RTP furnace for process engineering and qualification utilizing atmospheric or vacuum thermal treatment.

August 30, 2021 – Mercury Marine of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, recently launched a plan to upgrade its heat-treating capabilities with a move to the low-pressure carburization and high-pressure gas quench system. Partnering with ECM Technologies, the new plan incorporates completely automated Nano vacuum heat treating systems. The innovative Nano system incorporates 20 bar nitrogen gas quenching along with Low Pressure Carburizing (aka vacuum carburizing). The Nano, with its versatile configuration, will operate several different carburizing, hardening, and spheroidizing processes simultaneously. This change marks a departure from Mercury’s traditional atmospheric carburization and oil quench system while benefiting from advantages that come with vacuum processing.

May 3, 2021 - At the Beijing Shaping Tomorrow Gala (annual dinner for the French and Chinese business community), CCI FRANCE CHINE Green Business acknowledged outstanding businesses for their deep commitments to environmental sustainability, from reducing water waste to improving atmospheric conditions. ECM was recognized as one of the companies who is leading the way towards a better, brighter, greener future. ECM's ECO Furnace was presented the Green Business Award for accomplishing a cleaner, safer, and more efficient operation in the heat treat industry; more specifically the environment benefits from a low carbon footprint (energy consumption is minimal and CO2 emissions are near 80% less). The future of heat treat is looking quite eco-friendly (specifically in the automotive industry), as recently announced during the 2021 Virtual Leaders Summit on Climate, the United States plans on reducing CO2 emissions approximately 50-52 percent by 2030. Comparably, the France Recovery Plan has designated ecological transition as top priority...

April 8, 2021 – ECM USA is pleased to announce the addition of Gordon Banish, Technical Sales Engineer for the North, Central and South American thermal process markets. Gordon Banish joins ECM USA with a highly skilled background in various induction/resistive equipment systems & heat treat applications, such as large ferrous & non-ferrous alloy melting equipment. Working primarily as a National/Global Sales Manager in Crystal Growth Furnaces (including PV/Solar) with various global companies for 20 years, including Cyberstar since 2004, his experience also expands into the automotive industry with automation systems for custom-designed tooling with induction & heat transfer applications. He is a graduate of Wayne State University (Detroit, MI) with a degree in Electrical Engineering. Gordon will primarily be working with ECM’s Cyberstar division...

March 16, 2021 - Many in the heat treat community may recognize one of the newer faces to join the ECM USA Team – Juan Cruz, of Saltillo Coahuila Mexico! With a Mechatronics Engineering degree from the Technologic Institute of Saltillo ITS and Master Degree MBA from the Northeast Autonomous University UANE, Juan has more than 10 years of experience in the Heat Treat industry. His industry experience is anything short of impressive with previous leading roles in maintenance, sales and service in the USA, and senior management in Mexico. With international vacuum furnace experience in supporting many projects for the Heat Treat Industry, his extremely efficient focus is and always will be on continuous improvement. In his role as ECM USA’s Senior Project Manager to Mexico, Juan will be leading the Mexican market, projects and support for our customers. He will be located in Saltillo Coahuila which is in the north of Mexico.