Solar Atmospheres announced that its facilities in Michigan and Western Pennsylvania were recently awarded Nadcap Merit status for vacuum heat treating and brazing by the Performance Review Institute (PRI). The Merit status acknowledges the company’s strict adherence to specification requirements, allowing them to reduce their audit frequency to every 24 months (rather than 18 months). All of the company’s operations — located in Souderton, PA; Hermitage, PA; Fontana, CA; Greenville, SC; and and Warren, MI — have now earned Nadcap Merit status.
“The credit for these latest achievements goes to our quality teams, headed by Steve Choma in Michigan and Justin Hoffman in Western Pennsylvania, and all of our dedicated employees,” said Bob Hill, president of both the Michigan and Western Pennsylvania facilities. “We understand that a two-year Nadcap Merit accreditation is an honor and will never lead to complacency. That is because our robust corporate quality management system will never allow that to happen. Congratulations to all of the Solar Atmospheres’ facilities across the nation!”
Created in 1990 by SAE Inc., Nadcap is administered by the PRI, a global non-profit provider of customer-focused solutions designed to improve process and product quality by adding value, reducing total cost, and promoting collaboration among stakeholders in industries where safety and quality are shared goals. PRI works closely with industry to understand their emerging needs and offers customized solutions in response.
New Building in Michigan
Solar Atmospheres of Michigan Inc. (formerly known as Vac-Met) recently purchased 18,000 sq ft of plant space on over four acres in Chesterfield, Michigan. The new building is located 20 miles northeast of the company’s two existing facilities in Warren and Fraser, Michigan.
“We are working feverishly in 2023 to prepare and equip this new facility to make it our fifth state of the art vacuum heat treating and brazing facility in the U.S. Once all of the electrical, water cooling and specialty gas utilities are installed, we will strategically relocate the nine existing vacuum furnaces to their new home. Additionally, two new vacuum furnaces were purchased from Solar Manufacturing,” said Hill. “This investment of over $5 Million dollars gives Solar Atmospheres of Michigan the space to locate our valuable employees and equipment under one roof while continuing to grow the Michigan vacuum thermal processing needs.”
