SECO/WARWICK S.A., headquartered in Świebodzin (ul. Sobieskiego 8), is the world headquarters of the SECO/WARWICK Group – a manufacturer of industrial furnaces and equipment for the heat treatment of metals and for vacuum metallurgy; its principal activity according to the KRS is the manufacture of furnaces, furnace burners and hearths. The company is registered in the Polish National Court Register under KRS 0000271014 and has a branch in Dąbrowa (Dopiewo municipality). The group traces its history to the Elterma thermal engineering works in the Lubuskie region, founded in 1950, and to the American SECO/WARWICK in Meadville; it regards 1 June 1991, when a joint venture was set up with the Polish company Trans-Vac, as its symbolic beginning. Group subsidiaries operate in Poland, Germany, China, India and the USA.
The range covers vacuum furnaces, atmosphere furnaces, aluminium heat treatment and melting furnaces, controlled atmosphere brazing (CAB) lines for aluminium and vacuum metallurgy equipment, as well as service, spare parts, modernisation and automation. The equipment is supplied to the aviation, automotive, machinery, medical, tooling and power industries and to commercial heat treaters, among others; according to the company, the group has completed thousands of installations in more than 70 countries and holds dozens of patents. R&D is carried out by units including the SECO/LAB metallographic laboratory, the SECO/CAE simulation team and the CAB brazing research centre.
The link with non-ferrous metals is direct: aluminium furnaces – for coil and foil annealing, solution heat treatment and ageing, homogenising, ingot heating, and melting and holding – operate in more than 30 countries in primary and secondary aluminium production and in further processing into semi-finished and finished products. Group company Retech supplies vacuum melting equipment (VIM, VAR, electron beam and plasma arc melting) for titanium and its alloys, tantalum, tungsten, niobium, zirconium and nickel and cobalt alloys, also used for scrap consolidation and metal powder production. As an IGMNiR member, SECO/WARWICK represents suppliers of thermal and metallurgical technologies for aluminium and speciality metals processing.