Less than one week remains in the nomination period for Heat Treat Today’s Class of 2019 40 Under 40! The nomination process closes at midnight (EDT) on Wednesday, July 31, 2019, so if you have been considering submitting the name of a colleague, a client, or an employee but just haven’t gotten around to it, now is the time!
Click here to link through to the nominations page.
What you may not realize is that the benefits to being selected as a member of Heat Treat Today’s 40 Under 40 are more than just a “one and done” recognition in the Heat Treat Show issue of Heat Treat Today’s print magazine. We will continue to point our audience to the 40 Under 40 landing page at our website, which will always feature the most current class of recipients. In addition, we request and publish interviews with 40 Under 40 members, highlighting their entry into the industry, what sparked their interest in heat treating, how their interest has grown, the remarkable projects they’ve enjoyed working on, and what words of wisdom they would share with other young professionals in the industry.
For example, Michael Elmore, Heat Treat Engineer, with GKN Driveline, remembered his early days in the industry this way: “When I came to GKN, I fell in love with heat treating,” said Elmore. “I expected this to be a puddle and it turned out to be more like jumping into an ocean. There’s so much more to it than I expected. . . . [Four years later,] I’m still finding out things I didn’t know. It goes deeper and deeper the longer I’m here, never hitting the bottom of what can be learned, done, or explored.”
Click here to learn more about Michael Elmore, GKN Driveline.
Christina Somogye, Akron Steel Treating Company’s VP of Administration and Operations, grew up in the environment of metallurgy, steel treatment and manufacturing, and heat treating operations, so her thoughts on how companies can stay relevant in an industry that is changing rapidly due to technology, new materials, etc., are unique, and she offers this perspective: “There are many opportunities in large and small heat treating companies (commercial and captive) as well as the equipment, alloy, material suppliers and service industries that serve the heat treating companies. The knowledge of senior industry members is ready to be passed on to the next generation with tremendous opportunities for growth and technical expertise. Small, privately held businesses and large, multi-facility companies have the need to pass down this tribal knowledge for their continued success.”
Click here to learn more about Christina Somogye, Akron Steel Treating Company.
Wei Guo, Principal Materials Engineer for The Timken Company, reflected on his passion for this industry by drawing a parallel between a metallurgist crafting a heat treat recipe and “a famous cook developing a recipe for new cuisine.”
“One needs to control the ingredients, mixing sequence, baking time and cooking temperature combined with skill and expertise to obtain an optimized flavor and palate. The development of heat-treating process recipes is similar, relying on the metallurgist’s fundamental knowledge and experience of physical metallurgy. The most exciting aspect of thermal processing is the application of the knowledge and experience to create a heat treat process that produces the desired result and creates value to the company.”
How should a young professional find his or her way into the right niche in the industry? Wei gives this advice:
“Gain hands-on experience with practical heat treatment processes when trying to identify problems and challenges. . . . Determine an area of interest and drive . . . to learn/practice thermal processing skills. . . . Find a mentor; learning from a senior experienced metallurgist is always helpful. Many aspects of heat treatments cannot be learned from the textbook and might take a long time to figure them out on your own.”
“Heat treatment processing is a very dynamic world because many novel metallic materials are emerging every day,” says Wei. “We, not only young professionals, but everyone in this field need to keep abreast of the latest materials development and make ourselves ready for the new challenges.”
Click here to learn more about Wei Guo, The Timken Company.
Heat Treat Today looks forward to interviewing your nominee for upcoming Highlight stories in our newsletter and for the Heat Treat Today website.
Nominate someone today!
