industrial furnaces and heat processing equipment founded 1915 ; 101 years ago 1915 in toledo ohio u.s. headquarters maumee ohio u.s. key people william j. bernard jr. chairman and chief executive officer ; william j. bernard iii president website surfacecombustion.com surface combustion inc. is a north american manufacturer of industrial furnaces and heat treating equipment headquartered in maumee ohio in the united states . the company was founded in 1915 and purchased by the midland ross corporation a steel manufacturer in 1959 . midland ross was acquired by the private equity investment firm of forstmann little & company in 1986 which spun off surface combustion to the barnard family in 1987 . the company has been called the ibm of the automotive industry due to its prominence in providing equipment used to heat treat automobiles parts . contents 1 history 1.1 early years 1.2 midland ross years 1.3 forstmann little years 1.4 independence again 2 about the firm 3 products 4 references 5 bibliography history edit early years edit surface combustion is an engineering term which refers to process whereby a gaseous fuel is premixed with enough oxygen so that both the fuel and the oxygen are nearly completely used up . 1 some time prior to 1913 natural gas salesman henry o. loebell incorporated the improved appliance company which manufactured industrial furnaces . 2 taking advantage of recent advances in combustion research 3 loebell changed the name of his corporation to surface combustion corporation in 1915 4 and expanded into natural gas burning generators and industrial combustion systems . 3 the firm was initially headquartered in the bronx new york 5 but in october 1924 oil industry executive henry l. doherty purchased surface combustion and merged it with his own natural gas industrial appliance company combustion utilities corp. under the name henry l. doherty & co. 6 doherty moved the company s headquarters to toledo ohio in 1928 where he believed the company would thrive due to a closer proximity to the midwest s manufacturing centers and easy access to the large number of engineers being produced by the region s colleges and universities . 5 in 1930 surface combustion purchased the chapman stein company a subsidiary of the c.j. cooper bessemer company of ohio cooper bessemer 7 and the columbus heating and ventilating company a manufacturer of industrial and consumer gas heating and cooling equipment . 8 in 1927 surface combustion introduced the janitrol brand of home heating and cooling appliances . 9 by 1940 janitrol had expanded into the aircraft and aerospace industries providing small self contained petroleum and gas powered heating de icing and other units . 10 by the late 1950s janitrol was providing heat treating equipment for missiles and space launch vehicles as well as military and civilian aircraft in addition to its aerospace and aircraft heating and cooling units . 9 midland ross years edit in november 1959 steel manufacturer midland ross corporation bought surface combustion for 23 million . 11 midland ross purchased the fandaire division of yuba consolidated industries in february 1962 and merged it with surface combustion . 12 in april 1969 midland ross sold surface combustion s janitrol and webster divisions to laird inc. the sale did not include the janitrol aero division which was retained by surface combustion . 13 in the 1970s surface combustion began developing furnaces for the destruction of chemical weapons under a contract awarded by edgewood arsenal . 14 surface combustion s business began to suffer after the late 1970s as orders for heat treated metal products heating equipment and cooling equipment fell during the early 1980s recession . 15 forstmann little years edit on july 1 1986 the private investment firm forstmann little & company acquired midland ross for 450 million . 15 by this time surface combustion owned more than 500 patents and had installed about 250 000 heat treating and industrial furnace appliances worldwide . 16 forstmann little did not retain control of surface combustion for long . in 1987 the investment firm sold surface combustion to a consortium consisting of surface combustion management . 17 the sale did not include surface combustion s janitrol aero division which forstmann little retained as part of its fl aerospace corporation . 18 independence again edit surface combustion moved into a 37 000 square foot 3 400 m2 headquarters 16 in maumee ohio in 1988 . 5 at the time the company was spun off from forstmann little it had about 150 employees about 20 of which worked on research and development . 16 it opened a new factory for the manufacture of heat treating equipment and furnaces in waterville ohio in 1991 . 5 as an independent firm surface combustion grew swiftly . it moved into another new headquarters 40 000 square foot 3 700 m2 in size in 1990 . 16 in 2004 and again in 2010 the company won contracts to produce furnaces and decontamination devices for chemical weapons . 19 about the firm edit as of 2015 surface combustion inc. primarily manufactured industrial furnaces and equipment to heat treat metal products . its equipment was used in the automotive energy production farming and mining industries . some of the equipment is purpose designed and requires on site assembly . the company had about 100 employees and annual sales of 40 million to 50 million . it sold equipment in 40 to 50 countries and owned more than 675 patents . 5 tim levy president of industrial steel treating has called surface combustion the ibm of automobile manufacturing for the critical role their heat treating equipment plays in the industry . 5 products edit surface combustion manufactures equipment for various thermal processes including carburizing annealing vacuum processing tempering nitriding and quenching among others utilized for batch production or continuous production . citation needed allcase batch integral quench furnace a furnace patented by surface combustion and typically used in batch carburizing processes . citation needed rx generator endothermic gas generator a furnace which produces a carbon carrying gas used in the carburizing process . citation needed dx generator exothermic gas generator a furnace which produces a gas that can be used in several different applications . citation needed vringcarb a high purity vacuum carburizing technology using cyclohexane . 20 mpf metal parts furnace a furnace sed to destroy chemical weapons . 21 roller hearths and pusher furnaces products utilized in continuous production for a variety of thermal processes . citation needed references edit geiger j.w. january 1923 . surface combustion . purdue engineering review 11 12 . personal notes . american gas engineering journal . november 13 1920 . p. 415 . a b battle 2014 p. 278 . henry o. loebell winner of the munroe award . gas age record . november 3 1934 . p. 384 . a b c d e f mcdonald kendrick june 24 2015 . local firm still hot in 100th year of heat treating work . toledo blade . retrieved april 5 2016 . surface combustion co. inc. combines with combustion utilities corp. . iron trade . october 23 1924 . p. 1068 . control for doherty unit . the new york times . september 19 1930 . p. 39 . buys gas equipment business . the new york times . december 3 1930 . p. 42 . a b harris 1964 p. 49 . flying furnaces . popular science 67 . march 1944 . bryan john e. november 10 1959 . midland ross buys surface combustion . the plain dealer . p. l33 . other sales mergers . the new york times . february 22 1962 . p. 35 . abele john j. april 11 1969 . u.s. freight sets share acquisition . the new york times . pp. 63 67 . national research council 2007 pp. 19 20 . a b sims calvin july 2 1986 . forstmann in deal for midland ross . the new york times . a b c d surface combustion 75 years of research . toledo blade . august 21 1990 . p. 21 . retrieved april 5 2016 . ward s business directory 1995 p. 4184 . companhy news forstmann little . the new york times . march 10 1988 . surface combustion aids international weapons control . toledo business journal . july 1 2004 . retrieved april 5 2016 ; port aids shipments of weapons incinerators pdf . the port of baltimore . september october 2010 . p. 10 . retrieved april 5 2016 . poor ralph ; verhoff stephen october 2002 . new technology is the next step in vacuum carburizing pdf . industrial heating . pp. 41 48 . russian weapons facility orders furnace systems . industrial heating . december 17 2009 . retrieved april 5 2016 . bibliography edit battle thomas p. 2014 . sustainability in ironmaking the rise of direct reduction . in mackey phillip j. ; grimsey eric j. ; jones rodney t. ; brooks geoffrey a. celebrating the megascale proceedings of the extraction and processing division symposium on pyrometallurgy in honor of david g.c. robertson . hoboken n.j. john wiley & sons . isbn 9781118889619 . harris wade n. 1964 . midland ross corporation a story of diversification report . new york newcomen society in north america . national research council 2007 . 2 potential problems relating to obsolescence in chemical demilitarization processing operations . assessment of the continuing operability of chemical agent disposal facilities and equipment report . washington d.c. the national academies press . ward s business directory of u.s. private and public companies . new york gale research inc. 1995 . isbn 9780810388284 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title surface combustion & oldid 742956705 categories companies based in ohio1915 establishments in ohiohidden categories all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from april 2016 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to 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