“Large, repeat orders like this are earned over time,” said Ipsen Global CEO Geoffrey Somary. “They reflect consistent equipment quality, responsive service, and deep process expertise, which are especially critical for customers operating in highly regulated, high-stakes manufacturing environments.”

The historic order follows a strong year for Ipsen, driven by sustained demand across commercial aviation, space launch, defense, medical technology, advanced manufacturing, and energy markets.

In 2025, Ipsen recorded a 45% year-over-year increase in new equipment units sold and achieved the second highest level of new equipment proposals in company history, reflecting strong demand heading into 2026.

Most new equipment buyers were repeat customers expanding their furnace fleets, citing consistent quality, reliable service, parts availability, and familiarity with Ipsen systems. New customers increasingly sought to bring heat-treatment processes in-house to improve quality control, reduce costs, and shorten delivery timelines, selecting Ipsen for its process knowledge, proven reliability, and long-term support capabilities.

Ipsen’s Quality at Speed initiative guided investments across manufacturing, service, and customer support throughout 2025. Production capacity increased at the Souderton, Pennsylvania, facility through investments in CNC machine tools while maintaining high quality standards. Aftermarket demand also grew significantly, with hot zone and retrofit orders increasing 26% and calibration services rising 48% year over year.

In parallel, Ipsen continued expanding its Service HUB program while investing in advanced training and certification for field service engineers to strengthen technical expertise, response times, and customer support across North America.

Momentum from 2025 has already carried into the new year. In addition to the record-setting order awarded in January, Ipsen continues testing its next-generation furnace operating system, with a targeted launch planned for later in 2026.

About Ipsen

Ipsen is the global leader in heat-treatment solutions with more than 10,000 operating systems in 70 countries. Through its Global Excellence Centers in Vacuum and Atmosphere Technology, Ipsen delivers innovations that advance thermal processing and help customers achieve their goals. Focused on performance and quality, Ipsen supports commercial heat treaters and customers in many industries including aerospace, automotive, energy and medical. With locations in North America, Europe and Asia, and the largest service team in the industry, Ipsen is committed to providing 360° support for customers worldwide.

Bodycote, the world’s leading provider of advanced heat treatment and specialist thermal processing services, has achieved independent validation by Bureau Veritas for its proprietary product carbon footprint (PCF) calculators across nine core processes representing approximately 80 percent of Group revenues.

Customers can now request carbon-footprint data for the heat treatment of their products from a Bureau Veritas-validated calculator tool with the confidence that the methodology and tool used have been independently assured and calculations follow recognised best practice. This data will enable customers to:

• Measure and report product carbon footprints with confidence
• Compare the carbon performance of different thermal-processing routes
• Select lower-carbon options such as vacuum processing or low-pressure carburising (LPC)

The validation was performed by Bureau Veritas, one of the world’s most respected providers of environmental verification services, in accordance with ISO 14064, the internationally recognised standard for greenhouse-gas accounting, validation, and verification.

“Validating our product carbon footprint tools through Bureau Veritas reflects Bodycote’s commitment to scientific integrity and leadership in sustainable manufacturing,” said Jim Fairbairn, Chief Executive Officer of Bodycote. “By providing robust, credible carbon data at the product level, Bodycote is helping manufacturers accelerate their journey to net-zero while also advancing our own strategic priorities — to optimise operations, perform efficiently, and grow revenues in lower-carbon service lines.”

“This initiative is a cornerstone of Bodycote’s sustainability and commercial strategy,” said Lily Heinemann, Chief Sustainability Officer at Bodycote. “The validated calculators represent a major step forward for a sector that has historically faced challenges in quantifying process-level emissions due to the technical complexity of thermal processing.”

“Sustainability and corporate strategy go hand in hand,” added Heinemann. “As we expand our low-carbon process portfolio, validated carbon measurement becomes a powerful enabler for both.”

About Bureau Veritas

Bureau Veritas is a world leader in inspection, certification, and laboratory testing services with a powerful purpose: to shape a world of trust by ensuring responsible progress. With a vision to be the preferred partner for customers’ excellence and sustainability, the company innovates to help them navigate change. Created in 1828, Bureau Veritas’ 84,000 employees deliver services in 140 countries. The company’s technical experts support customers to address challenges in quality, health and safety, environmental protection, and sustainability. Bureau Veritas is listed on Euronext Paris and belongs to the CAC 40, CAC 40 ESG, SBF 120 indices and is part of the CAC SBT 1.5° index. Compartment A, ISIN code FR 0006174348, stock symbol: BVI.

About Bodycote

Bodycote plc is the world’s leading provider of precision heat treatment and specialist thermal processing services, delivering vital metallurgical solutions that improve the performance, reliability, and longevity of critical components. Serving customers across aerospace, automotive, energy, defence, medical, and other industrial sectors, Bodycote combines global scale with local expertise to meet demanding technical and sustainability requirements. Through its global scale (with about 150 facilities worldwide), the company is committed to delivering innovative solutions that advance performance, sustainability and competitive advantage for its customers.

Bodycote has set bold decarbonisation goals, including reducing its own Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 46 percent by 2030 (from 2019 levels) while also targeting a 45 percent reduction in its fuel- and energy-related Scope 3 emissions and having 30 percent of its suppliers set their own carbon reduction goals by 2030. These ambitions are delivered through its integrated sustainability strategy that focuses on creating sustainable impact for customers and operating responsibly for people and planet – underpinned by initiatives in low-carbon processing, sustainable end markets, environmental leadership, resource efficiency, safe and compliant operations, and a culture of zero-harm and inclusivity.

Bodycote has also received a host of sustainability accolades including:

• An A- rating by CDP in 2025, recognising leadership in environmental transparency.

• Named one of Europe’s Climate Leaders 2025 by the Financial Times (for the second year running)
• A sector ‘Leading’ score in Bloomberg’s 2024 ESG scores.

Three of the most widely used heat-treating processes—hardening, annealing, and tempering—rely on precision furnace technology to deliver repeatable, high-quality results.

Hardening: Maximizing Wear Resistance

The Process
Hardening heats steel or alloy components above their critical temperature and then rapidly quenches them. This locks carbon within the microstructure, resulting in a harder, more wear-resistant material.

Furnace Types

• Batch Integral Quench (IQ) Furnaces – Ideal for flexible workloads, offering precise heating and seamless integration with quench systems.
• Continuous Quench Furnaces – Designed for high-volume operations needing consistent performance and efficiency.

Key Benefits

• Uniform heating for reliable hardness
• Suitable for small batches or full-scale production
• Engineered for integration into automated heat-treating lines

Annealing: Enhancing Ductility and Stress Relief

The Process

Annealing heats metal to a controlled temperature and cools it slowly to relieve internal stresses, restore ductility, and improve machinability—making the material easier to form and process.

Furnace Types

• Box Furnaces – Excellent uniformity and ideal for smaller loads or specialty annealing cycles.
• Car Bottom Furnaces – Designed for heavy or oversized workpieces, with rail-mounted hearths for simplified loading and handling.

Key Benefits

• Exceptional temperature control for consistent stress relief
• Scalable for both small components and large fabrications
• Robust construction for long operational life

Tempering: Balancing Hardness with Toughness

The Process

After quenching, hardened steel can become brittle. Tempering reheats the material to a lower temperature to relieve stresses and create the correct balance between hardness and toughness—ensuring components can withstand demanding service conditions without fracturing.

Furnace Types

• Batch Temper Furnaces – Provide precise sub-critical heat to fine-tune mechanical properties.
• Continuous Temper Lines – Optimized for high-production facilities requiring consistent, efficient throughput.

Key Benefits

• Accurate temperature control for predictable results
• Reduced brittleness in hardened components
• Configurable to meet a wide range of metallurgical specifications

Final Thoughts

Hardening, annealing, and tempering form the foundation of modern metal processing. With the right furnace technology, manufacturers can achieve the exact combination of hardness, ductility, and toughness required for their applications.

Why Choose ITS Furnaces?

International Thermal Systems (ITS) engineers advanced, high-performance furnaces designed to meet the rigorous demands of today’s metalworking and heat-treating industries. Our product range includes batch IQ furnaces, car bottom systems, continuous lines, tempering equipment, and fully engineered custom solutions.

Our furnaces deliver:

• Energy Efficiency – Advanced insulation and optimized heating technology that reduce operating costs.
• Process Repeatability – Consistent, cycle-to-cycle performance for dependable quality.
• Customization – Systems tailored to specific metallurgical requirements and production goals.
• Global Support – Installation, training, maintenance, spare parts, and retrofit services—even for equipment built by other manufacturers.

For manufacturers who require precision, reliability, and long-term performance, ITS furnaces provide the trusted technology foundation for the future of heat treatment.

Whether you need the precision of a batch furnace, the throughput of a continuous line, or the rugged handling of a car bottom furnace, ITS delivers the engineering expertise to keep your steel operations competitive in a global market.

International Thermal Systems
International Thermal Systems (ITS) is a global leader in designing and manufacturing industrial ovens, washers, and furnaces. With a commitment to innovation and customer success, ITS provides tailored thermal-processing solutions for a wide range of industries including aerospace, automotive, metal packaging, and more.

https://www.internationalthermalsystems.com/