What makes Fluidtherm stand out from a crowd of furnace fabricators is their Thermal Process Prototyping Center. Accounting for the largest block of their movable assets, the center accounts for over 6 per cent of their annual expenditure. In return Fluidtherm gets to be one of the furnace industry’s leading innovators, regularly presenting its technological developments at international conferences and exhibitions.
A big time exporter of sophisticated furnaces to advanced economies (over half their turnover).
Fluidtherm has sales & application centers in USA, Germany, Spain, Turkey China & Korea for their range of furnaces for Heat Treatment, Powder Metallurgy, Brazing & Mineral Processing.
Fluidtherm has several patents and initial approvals for their inventions of: a process to improve hardness without quenching, continuous carburizing with gas quenching, a furnace design that reduces 60 per cent of atmosphere gas consumption, new methods of nitriding, an improved method for oxidizing parts for improved corrosion resistance and the process of boiler less steam treatment, continuous pressure gas quenching of steel parts and a solution to the extremely sensitive process of Aluminum powder sintering.
Included in their ‘B’ lists are: furnaces for hardening extremely tiny parts without material mixup, novel waste heat recovery from hardening furnaces, high temperature sintering furnaces with sinter hardening capability, very high temperature (TMax 1750°C) hydrogen furnaces, Continuous top suspension furnaces for hardening long parts and processing plants for Graphene precursors.
Fluidtherm Technology Pvt. Ltd. was incorporated in 1985 and moved into its present location in 1989 for the development of the Fluidized Bed Heat treatment Technology in India (hence their name) as well as the operation of a process prototyping facility & laboratory. They got a lot of orders thanks to increased environmental awareness of salt bath pollution. This achievement got them the prestigious “National Award for Technology Development”.
In time Fluidtherm were ‘discovered’ by German furnace makers and became an OEM supplier of certain types of furnaces to more than one German furnace maker for re-branding and resale into the European market. This situation lasted for 15 years and ended when the management of their customers changed hands. “While we already had creativity, a scientific temper and a fundamental knowledge of metallurgy & engineering, we remain grateful to all our German OEM customers for introducing us to European standards, their best practices and their manufacturing systems,” says the Fluidtherm MD, N. Gopinath.
Fluidtherm is a specialist enterprise with all the necessary in-house resources for the development, manufacture and installation of furnaces for the thermal processing industry
During this period there was a steady increase in the number of Fluidtherm installations in India. OEMs part makers from Europe and North America who had established joint ventures in India where Fluidtherm furnaces were used found that the parts processed in these furnaces were of high quality. This led to exports to their manufacturing facilities around the world. From this point on there was no looking back for this innovative & ‘quality at all costs’ company. Currently, Fluidtherm employs a permanent workforce of 78 on its payroll.
Strong demand and further expansion
Fluidtherm is a specialist enterprise with all the necessary in-house resources for the development, manufacture and installation of furnaces for the thermal processing industry and finds no hindrance except time to its penetration into markets all over the world.
