As members of the IHEA heat treatment community, Azbil North America aims to make a meaningful contribution to the North American market. Being a part of IHEA will provide opportunity for new relationships and further growth in the industry. Azbil North America offers flame safeguard equipment for commercial and industrial combustion applications across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Their product range includes burner controllers, ultraviolet flame detectors, flame relays, igniters, gas pressure switches, and more. These solutions are designed to protect employees and operations from leaks, explosions, and other thermal incidents, ensuring safety and security.
Azbil’s flame safeguard and combustion control solutions provide peace of mind in various applications, such as: automotive manufacturing, commercial and captive heat treating, paint booths and ovens/paint air house units, die casting, pulp and paper mills, chemical and petrochemical industries, food and beverage processing, metal foundries, aerospace and aerostructure manufacturing, agricultural drying and preservation processing, environmental remediation, pharmaceutical plants, and the biomedical industry.
Azbil North America is actively expanding products in the measurement, control, and safety categories within North America’s flame safety markets. Additionally, they are exploring the development of products that can contribute to carbon neutrality. Its plans include introducing products that support carbon neutrality in the furnace and oven market, contributing to both industry development, and environmental sustainability. Azbil intends to share carbon-neutral technologies — such as hydrogen and ammonia combustion —introduce suitable products and share technological advancements.
Azbil North America is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, and was established in 1996. Before it was known as azbil, the company started in Japan as Yamatake Shokai Co., Ltd. in 1906. After an equity-based alliance with Honeywell Inc. in 1953, it eventually became Yamatake-Honeywell. The relationship ended in 2002 but is one of the reasons many in North America immediately recognize the products. In 2008, Yamatake Corporation changed the group name to azbil Group, and as a world-class comprehensive automation manufacturer, has strived to contribute to a human-centered economy, environment, and to achieve the sustainable development of its customers and society.
Gavin DeFreese, vice president of revenue operations for Azbil North America noted they are serious about making sure its customers have the best possible flame safeguard products, but also how the people are using them in the plant.
“There are not a lot of people who understand these things anymore,” he said. “Our mission is to make sure that one, people do understand the importance of these products, but two, protect those who do not and who are using and are reliant on combustion equipment for their process and operations.”
The technology offered by azbil is becoming a hot topic because of workforce issues being faced globally. The setup and maintenance of combustion systems is normally performed by seasoned workers with decades of experience. As the workforce ages out, that expertise is also fading with very few young workers filling the vacancies. Azbil’s products provide the much-needed safeguard, and the Azbil North America team is looking to provide better training for those products to help fill this growing experience void. Azbil provides more tools to accurately sense the preventative maintenance period. A more human-centered focus will keep them moving forward because the fundamentals of the product specs will not change.
DeFreese also pointed out an odd combination of factors that will also be part of the current heat-treating world.
“Especially with new technology, in the industrial world, you have this weird mix of 50-year-old technology and new opportunities with AI,” he said. “That’s one of the biggest challenges coming up in the next few years is that there are some physical safety-based systems that you will never get away from or shouldn’t get away from. Sure, the information coming from these should be aggregated and used for analysis. We know how to achieve safe and stable operations and optimized maintenance through state-of-the-art technology but when it comes down to it, this is very situational based — if you have a problem, you shut down fast and safely. No compromising.”
For more information: us.azbil.com
IHEA annual meeting
Join IHEA from January 26–29, 2026, for the Annual Meeting on board Celebrity’s Reflection celebrating IHEA’s 97th association anniversary. For details and registration information, go to: www.ihea.org/event/AM26.
