Seco/Warwick celebrates 35 years in heat treatment technology
Seco/Warwick, headquartered in Świebodzin, Poland, is celebrating 35 years as a supplier of heat treatment and vacuum metallurgy technology. The company traces its origins to 1991, when Seco/Warwick Ltd was established through a partnership between Polish engineers associated with Lubuskie Termotechnical Works Elterma and the US-based Seco/Warwick.
Prior to the formation of Seco/Warwick Ltd, engineers who had previously worked at Elterma established Trans-Vac, where the first vacuum furnace was reportedly built in an adapted stable in Wilkowo. Contact with representatives of the US-based Seco/Warwick organisation led to the establishment of the joint company on June 1, 1991.
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“In the beginning, we primarily had expertise, courage, and tremendous determination,” stated Andrzej Zawistowski, founder of Seco/Warwick. “We operated in a Poland that was beginning to learn a new economic system, and yet we managed to build technology that attracted a partner from the United States. That was a turning point, but what happened later is even more remarkable. This story didn’t end with cooperation with America. We reached a point where it was the Poles who bought the American company. It sounds symbolic, but it best reflects the scale of the journey we’ve made.”
Seco/Warwick combines US industrial heritage, originating from the Sunbeam Equipment Corporation and Warwick Furnace Company in Meadville, Pennsylvania, with Polish engineering expertise developed through Elterma. Elterma formally joined the Group in 2003, adding capabilities in atmosphere and aluminium heat treatment technologies.
Over the past three decades, the group has expanded through organic growth and acquisitions in Poland, the USA, Germany, China and India. Among its notable acquisitions was the purchase of CAMLAW Ltd.’s intellectual property, including Continuous Aluminium Brazing (CAB) technology, in 2002. The acquisition of Retech further expanded the Group’s presence in vacuum metallurgy and titanium melting technologies.
Today, Seco/Warwick operates across five core technology areas:
- Vacuum heat treatment
- Aluminium heat treatment
- Atmosphere technologies
- Heat exchanger brazing
- Vacuum metallurgy
The company reports that it has delivered more than 5,000 systems worldwide and employs over 900 people. Seco/Warwick has been listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange since 2007.
