We will be celebrating the holidays with family, so look for your next Heat Treat Daily e-newsletteron January 3rd.
2022 has been a year of many new things, as we ventured out into post-pandemic life. We are thankful to have seen many of you in-person. The heat treat community is one that is warm (pun intended) and vibrant.
We are looking to 2023 with much anticipation and hope for even more opportunities to work together and challenge ourselves and others with new ideas in the North American heat treat industry.
Thank you for the opportunities every day to serve and encourage you in our heat treat corner of the world. From the entire Heat Treat Todayteam, we wish you a very joyous and restful Christmas celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ!
Welcome to Heat TreatToday's This Week in Heat TreatSocial Media: ChristmasEdition. So much content is available on the web, and it’s next to impossible to sift through all of the articles and posts that flood our inboxes and notifications on a daily basis. Heat TreatToday can help you filter the flood to bring you a peak at holiday happenings for heat treaters. Find some gift ideas and ways to relax over the Christmas break; Heat TreatToday is thankful for you!
Don't underestimate heat treaters' creativity. A handmade knife or a piece of jewelry with heat treated sapphires will be a welcome addition under the tree.
2. Holiday Experiences
This time of year, spending time together is a great way to share the joy.
Heat treaters know that spending time with each other means good food and fellowship and ways to help others!
3. Christmas Vacation Relaxation
How fitting that there is a recording artist with the name Heat Treat (of particular interest are tunes "Heat", "Condensers", and "Refinery Surveillance")? Kick back and relax over the break while listening to some tunes. Add some TV (ahem, Heat Treat TV) watching in the mix too, and you'll never have to go out!
4. A Few More Snippets To Extend the Christmas Cheer
"Tempering" and "Brazing" can be used at any time of year, but they seem to hold special places at Christmas! Enjoy some experiments and repairs to make the holidays bright.
"It's not Christmas until we use the brazing torch!" Need we say more?
Have a great Christmas!
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The monthly Industrial Heating Equipment Association (IHEA) Executive Economic Summary released in December gives forecasts for Q4 results and takes a look into the start of 2023. The 3.9% growth from Q3 is not expected to be matched in Q4, but the spending power of the consumer holds out hope for battling recession.
The 3.9% growth from Q3 is not expected to be matched in Q4 and beyond, but the spending power of the consumer holds out hope for battling recession. The thought is that inflation highs have peaked, and interest rates could lower about halfway into 2023. Heat treaters should note that applicable indices are remaining steady while still dealing with supply chain problems and work force shortages. Of the 10 economic indices in this report, 6 sectors are steady or seeing growth; while 4 are on a downturn.
Holding steady with biggest strength found in automotive. Source: IHEA
The categories included in seeing maintenance and growth are: New Auto & Light Truck Sales, Steel Consumption, Industrial Capacity Utilization, Metal Pricing, Durable Goods, and Factory Orders. Automotive sales are strong; people are wanting and needing to replace vehicles they've maintained for a long time. "People want new and they are confident enough in their job security to buy a new vehicle."
Automobiles are still in heavy demand due to supply chain issues and need to replace older vehicles. Source: IHEA
There are no surprises from the Steel Consumption reports, as the "big three sectors are all performing about as expected – vehicle manufacturing, construction and the oil and gas arena." Metal Pricing is seeing a A Tale of Two Cities because copper is affected by political tensions around the world, but aluminum is seeing strong demand, particularly for the aerospace industry.
Interest rates are prohibitive for single-family home purchases. Source: IHEA
Those indices that are in decline or experiencing drops are: New Home Starts, Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), Capital Expenditures, and Transportation Activity. New home purchases are difficult for those buyers because the interest rates are high. There is a bit of a bright spot for heat treaters since multi-family home sales are still strong; this means metal products are needed - appliances, window frames, and construction components.
Manufacturers are showing caution in purchases. Source: IHEA
The PMI "is always a good indicator of overall industrial activity as the purchasing manager will be doing what they do at the start of any industrial process." In the report it's down to 47.7; not an emergency, but very uncomfortable level.
Anne Goyer, Executive Director of IHEA
The report on these indices takes a middle-of-the-road approach. There are no alarmingly sharp drop-offs in the reports, neither is there any drastic growth into the positive numbers; it all comes down to inflation. Economic markers are such that the interest rates are as high as they will get indicate a drop about halfway through the new year. The report looks for some lowering of the numbers to "between 4.25% and 4.50%" while the Fed members think the rate "may top out at 5.1%."
Check out the full report to see specific index growth and analysis which is available to IHEA member companies. For membership information, and a full copy of the 11-page report, contact Anne Goyer, executive director of the Industrial Heating Equipment Association (IHEA). Email Anne by clicking here.
As the next installment in this series on cybersecurity, this third article will give you a better understanding of the Department of Defense’s DFARS interim rule and its requirements.
Today's read is a Cybersecurity Desk feature written by Joe Coleman, cybersecurity officer at Bluestreak Consulting™. This column is in Heat Treat Today'sNovember 2022 Vacuumprint edition. Refresh with part 1 and part 2 in earlier editions.
Joe Coleman Cybersecurity Officer Bluestreak Consulting™ Source: Bluestreak Consulting™
DFARS Interim Rule
On September 29, 2020, the Department of Defense (DoD) published the DFARS (Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement) interim rule 2019-D041, Assessing Contractor Implementation of Cybersecurity Requirements, with an effective date of November 30, 2020. These new clauses are an extension of the original DFARS 252.204-7012 clause that has been required in DoD contracts since 2018.
The interim rule implements the NIST SP 800-171 DoD Assessment Methodology and the CMMC (Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification) framework. The interim rule requires contracting officers to take specific action prior to awarding contracts, giving task or delivery orders, or extending an optional period of performance on existing contracts on or after November 30, 2020.
DFARS 252.204-7019 Clause: Notice of NIST SP 800-171 DoD Assessment Requirements
All DoD contractors in the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) must complete a self-assessment using the DoD’s NIST 800-171 Assessment Methodology and generate a points-based score. If the self assessment score falls below 110, contractors are required to create a POAM (Plan of Action and Milestones) and indicate by what date the security gaps will be remediated and a score of 110 will be achieved as part of the Supplier Performance Risk System (SPRS). At the time of a DoD contract award containing the new 7019 clause, a DoD contracting officer will verify that a score has been uploaded to the SPRS.
DFARS 252.204-7020 Clause: NIST 800-171 DoD Assessment Requirements
Along with the 252.204-7012 and 7019 clauses, the 7020 clause is approved for use in all DoD contracts. This new clause requires that contractors provide the government with access to its facilities, systems, and personnel when it is necessary for the DoD to conduct or renew a higher-level Assessment. The higher level Assessments are the Medium and High Assessments. The self assessment conducted as part of the 7019 clause is called a Basic Assessment.
Photo Source: Bluestreak Consulting™
A Medium Assessment is conducted by DoD personnel and will include a review of your System Security Plan (SSP) and how each of the requirements are met and to identify any language that may not adequately address the security requirements.
A High Assessment is conducted by DoD personnel onsite at the contractor’s location and will leverage the full NIST SP 800-171A (Assessing Security Requirements for Controlled Unclassified Information) to determine if the implementation meets the requirements by reviewing evidence and/or demonstration such as recent scanning results, system inventories, baseline configurations and demonstration of multi-factor authentication and/or two-factor authentication.
Along with that, this rule also requires that contractors flow down their requirements from 7019 to their subcontractors and suppliers. Just as the DoD may choose not to award a contract due to noncompliance, you may not be able to use a subcontractor or supplier due to their noncompliance.
DFARS 252.204-7021 Clause: Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Requirements
Heat treaters willing to move forward with these cybersecurity initiatives by the DoD will have an overwhelming impact on the DoD supply chain and your business. If many heat treaters in the U.S. choose to not embrace the mandatory requirements, the DoD and DoD contractors will award contracts solely to the few heat treaters who do choose to become compliant. Poor cybersecurity practices can result in hacking, loss of company data and critical customer data, and attacks by malware, viruses, and ransomware. All of this can result in major damage to the business and loss of customers, not to mention being liable for all losses and paying significant fines.
Complying with DFARS 7012 and NIST 800-171 is a requirement for all DoD contractors, subcontractors, vendors, and suppliers. The DoD has now begun confirming that contractors and subcontractors are compliant before awarding additional contracts. Navigating NIST 800-171 and DFARS is a complex and challenging — but necessary — step in this process.
This DFARS clause establishes CMMC into the federal regulatory framework. This requires that CMMC is to be included in all contracts, tasks or orders, and solicitations, with very few exceptions. The level of CMMC that is required will be determined by the DoD and added into the Request for Proposal. Contractors must maintain the appropriate CMMC level for the duration of any contract and the requirements must be trickled down to your subcontractors and suppliers. The CMMC certification is required at the time of contract award.
Watch For the Next Cybersecurity Desk Installment
My next article, number four in the series, will be: “General Cybersecurity Best Practices and What You Should and Should Not Do.
About the Author:
Joe Coleman is the cybersecurity officer at Bluestreak Consulting™, which is a division of Bluestreak | Bright AM™. Joe has over 35 years of diverse manufacturing and engineering experience. His background includes extensive training in cybersecurity, a career as a machinist, machining manager, and an early additive manufacturing (AM) pioneer.'; Contact Joe at joe.coleman@go-throughput.com.
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Watching the calendar phase from one year to the next has us all thinking about change. Karen Gantzer, senior editor and associate publisher of Heat Treat Today, gives insight to a change happening within the Heat Treat Today team. The team is thankful for the work of both Karen Gantzer and Bethany Leone and look forward to the new year and their new roles!
This article first appeared inHeat Treat Today'sDecember 2022 Medical and Energyprint edition. Feel free to contact Bethany Leone at bethany@heattreattoday.com if you have a question, comment, or any editorial contribution you’d like to submit.
Transitions. How appropriate as we look at 2023 approaching without hesitation. We have no choice but to welcome this new year, preferably with joy and perhaps a child like anticipation of the new adventures to come.
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One of the transitions taking place now, albeit an intentionally slow and steady one, is the move of all the print responsibilities at Heat Treat Today from my plate to Bethany Leone’s as she continues to assume the managing editor role.
I’ve been leading the editorial team for the past several years as we’ve expanded to eight annual print magazines. I have loved helping to produce them each quarter, and honestly, it’s been difficult passing the baton of this responsibility. Not because I don’t think Bethany can do it — I know she will do a phenomenal job in leading the team. I’m seeing it now and am so stoked!
No, it’s because I kind of see the magazine as my “baby.” It’s hard to give it up! Can anyone relate? When you work on a project and see it grow, how exciting and rewarding. To build our team and watch them pivot when necessary and contribute creative and thoughtful ideas to help better serve has truly been energizing and exciting. I think it’s because I love experiencing the process and seeing that magazine in print.
However, the time has come for Bethany to receive the complete baton hand off. (If you ever ran on a relay team and practiced those hand offs, do you remember running with your hand outstretched behind you and adjusting your speed so that you could achieve the perfect transition of the baton from your teammate’s hand to yours without dropping the baton?!) Bethany has her hand in perfect position to receive the baton and I’m looking forward to passing it to her smoothly and completely so that she can run with confidence and vigor.
I’m not leaving Heat Treat Today, just transitioning into new responsibilities — that of associate publisher and senior editor. I’ll still be able to be part of the print publication from 20,000 feet, just not up close and personal (for which Bethany will be incredibly thankful)! I’m looking forward to working on special projects and learning other facets of the publishing world.
So, in February 2023’s Air and AtmosphereHeat Treat magazine, you’ll see Bethany’s picture on this page and enjoy her column in each issue, and you’ll know then that hand off went down without a hitch!
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In this article, explore the importance of alternative advanced manufacturing processes and the effects of post-process heat treating of DMLS titanium alloy parts. In a recent study, a team at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) evaluated the effects of these processes. Read along to see what they found.
This Technical Tuesday article was first published in Heat Treat Today's December 2022 Medical and Energy print edition.
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Jianyu Liang Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Worchester Polytechnic Institute Source: WPI
According to Markets and Markets reports, the metal implants and medical alloys market 1 will reach $17.64 billion by 2024, at a CAGR of 9.4%, with titanium metal implants and medical alloys accounting for the largest share of the market. Since it was first reported in the 1940s that titanium had excellent compatibility with human bones, titanium has been used in a wide range of biomedical applications, including arthroplasty and bone replacement, prostheses, craniofacial, maxillofacial, and dental implants, as well as surgical instruments and healthcare goods. 2,3
Although Ti-6Al-4V alloy was originally developed for aerospace applications, its many attractive properties — such as high strength-to-weight ratio, satisfactory biocompatibility, and good corrosion resistance — resulted in it being one of the most widely used biomedical alloys. 4
However, Ti-6Al-4V alloy is very difficult to machine. Traditional Ti-6Al-4V manufacturing processes include casting, wrought (forging/milling from ingots), and powder metallurgy (P/M), with wrought products accounting for 70% of the titanium and titanium alloy market. 5
In recent decades, additive manufacturing (AM) processes have been rigorously
Richard Sisson Key Heat Treat Researcher and Lecturer at Worchester Polytechnic Institute Source: WPI
developed as an alternative advanced manufacturing process for Ti-6Al-4V, especially in personalized biomedical applications. Alternate processes, including powder-bed fusion (PBF), directed energy deposition (DED), and sheet lamination (SL) have been applied in AM processing of titanium and its alloys. 6 Direct metal laser sintering (DMLS), a PBF technology, was the first commercial rapid prototyping method to produce metal parts in a single process and is one of the most widely used AM technologies to manufacture Ti-6Al-4V parts. 7 However, even with the protective oxide film (mainly TiO2), titanium alloys still suffer from pitting and crevice corrosion. Localized breakdown of the protective film leads to the formation of pits. These pits can grow and propagate into macroscopic cracks, which lead to catastrophic failure in orthopedic applications. 8,9
It was reported that post-heat treatment of Ti-6Al-4V parts fabricated by AM techniques could improve its mechanical properties, especially increasing ductility and fatigue strength.
Yangzi Xu Yield & Module Process Engineer at Intel Corporation Source: WPI
However, the changes in corrosion behavior with various post-heat treatments of Ti-6Al- 4V parts fabricated by AM techniques have not been fully understood. In a recent study, a team at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) evaluated the effects of various post-process heat treatments (including solution treatment and aging, annealing, stress relief, and hot isostatic pressing (HIP)), on the corrosion behavior of Ti-6Al-4V parts manufactured by DMLS. The researchers then proposed a desirable posttreatment procedure that can obtain a good combination of mechanical properties and corrosion behavior of as-printed parts in a simulated body environment. 10,11,12
Ti-6Al-4V dumbbell-shaped tensile testing bars were fabricated by DMLS, according to ASTM standards. The microstructure, phase fraction, porosity, and residual stress of as-printed parts were examined and compared to those of the commercial Grade 5 alloy. It was found that the as-printed samples, mainly composed of acicular α’ martensite phase with a small amount of nano-scaled β precipitates, dispersed in the α’ matrix due to rapid cooling during laser processing, whereas the Grade 5 alloy has an α + β two phase with an equiaxed microstructure. The β phase fractions in the as-printed and Grade 5 alloy were 1.6% and 20%, respectively, based on the results of x-ray diffraction refinement. Furthermore, porosity and defects due to lack of fusion or entrapped gas were observed in the DMLS samples. The rapid cooling rate also resulted in residual tensile stress in the as-printed parts.
The microstructure and phase changes due to different heat-treatment processes were examined and compared to those of the commercial Grade 5 alloy. The corrosion behavior of the heat-treated DMLS parts was studied in simulated body fluid by well-established electrochemical methods.
Microstructure: coarsening of the α lath thickness, more spherical β precipitates. Phase identification: narrowed α characteristic peaks (reduced compressive residual stress) Source: WPI
Transformation from α’ to α phase, coarsening of the α lath microstructure, and the development of β phase were observed in samples after heat treatments. The greatest fraction of β phase was obtained in the high temperature annealed sample. Enhanced corrosion resistance was found in all heat-treated samples. The reasons for improved corrosion resistance after heat treatments include: 1) a passive layer that was developed on the sample surface after heat-treatments; 2) increased β phase fraction and size after heat treatments that led to the reduction of the corrosion susceptible sites. Furthermore, only a single passive layer has been observed in the as-printed sample, whereas double passive layers have been observed in samples after heat treatments at temperature higher than 550°C. However, this second layer, which was largely composed of Al2O3 and V2O5, had very low corrosion resistance compared to that of the primary passive layer that was primarily TiO2.
Microstructure: coarsening of the α lath, and grain boundary can be observed Phase identification: narrowing of α characteristic peaks (reduced microstrain, increased grain size) and evolution of β phase Source: WPI
It was also found that the surface roughness had an exponential effect on the corrosion current density and calculated corrosion rate. A rough surface led to a higher corrosion rate, but a rough surface is known to enhance osteointegration. Therefore, surface roughness needs to be adjusted, based on specific applications.
Microstructure: no significant change in the α lath thickness Phase identification: narrowing of α characteristic peaks (reduced microstrain), evolution of β phase Source: WPI
The effect of porosity was analyzed by using a crevice corrosion test. After a one-month immersion in Ringer’s solution at body temperature, pits were found on the Ti-6Al-4V sample surface near the pores in the as-printed samples, which was due to the formation of localized O2 concentration cells near the pore. Porosity in the as-printed parts was confirmed to impair crevice corrosion resistance. To reduce porosity, HIP was applied at three different temperatures. Based on polarization tests and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy tests, different degrees of reduction in porosity and corrosion-current density were observed in samples after HIP; this reduction was most significant after high-temperature HIP at 799°C (1470°F).
In summary, it was found that high temperature heat-treatment enhanced the corrosion resistance of DMLS Ti-6Al-4V parts. HIP was effective in reducing porosity and improving corrosion resistance. HIP below the annealing temperature (799°C, 1470°F) was recommended as a post-treatment for DMLSprintedTi-6Al-4V, to achieve a good corrosion resistance.
References
[1] “Metal Implants and Medical Alloys Market – Global Forecast to 2024,” 2019. https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market- Reports/metal-implant-medical-alloy-market-256117768.html.
[2] R. Bothe, et al., “Reaction of bone to multiple metallic implants.” Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics, 1940, 71:598–602.
[3] M. Sarraf, E. Rezvani Ghomi, S. Alipour, et al., “A state-of-the-art review of the fabrication and characteristics of titanium and its alloys for biomedical applications,” Bio-des. Manuf., 2022, 5, 371–395. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42242-021-00170-3.
[4] L.-C. Zhang and L.-Y. Chen, “A Review on Biomedical Titanium Alloys: Recent Progress and Prospect,” Adv. Eng. Mater., 2019, 21: 1801215. https://doi.org/10.1002/adem.201801215.
[5] L. E. Murr, S. A. Quinones, et al., “Microstructure and mechanical behavior of Ti–6Al–4V produced by rapid-layer manufacturing, for biomedical applications,” Journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials, 2009, 2(1), 20-32. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jmbbm.2008.05.004.
[6] A. Hung Dang Nguyen, A. K. Pramanik, Y. Basak, C. Dong, S. Prakash, S. Debnath, I. S. Shankar, Saurav Dixit Jawahir, and Budhi Dharam, “A critical review on additive manufacturing of Ti-6Al- 4V alloy: microstructure and mechanical properties,” Journal of Materials Research and Technology, 2022, 18: 4641-4661. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2022.04.055.
[7] “Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) Technology,” Additive News. https://additivenews.com/direct-metal-laser-sintering-dmlstechnology/.
[8] O. Cissé, O. Savadogo, M. Wu, and L’H Yahia, “Effect of surface treatment of NiTi alloy on its corrosion behavior in Hanks’ solution.” Journal of Biomedical Materials Research, 2002, 61/ 3 :
339-345. https://doi.org/10.1002/jbm.10114
[9] Sara A. Atwood, Eli W. Patten, Kevin J. Bozic, Lisa A. Pruitt, and Michael D. Ries,”Corrosion-induced fracture of a double-modular hip prosthesis,” The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, 2010, 92/ 6: 1522-1525.
[10] Y. Xu, Y. Lu, K.L. Sundberg, et al., “Eff ect of Annealing Treatments on the Microstructure, Mechanical Properties and Corrosion Behavior of Direct Metal Laser Sintered Ti-6Al-4V,” J. of Material Eng and Perform, 2017, 26: 2572–2582. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s11665-017-2710-y
[11] Ibid.
[12] Z. Yang, Y. Xu, R. D. Sisson, & J. Liang, “Factors Influencing the Corrosion Behavior of Direct Metal Laser Sintered Ti-6Al-4V for Biomedical Applications,” Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance, 2020, 29/6: 3831-3839.
About the Authors
Professor Richard Sisson is a key heat treat researcher and lecturer at Worchester Polytechnic Institute. His main research interest is the application of diffusion and thermodynamics to the solution of materials problems. Currently, he is working on modeling the surface treatment of steels and the postprocessing of AM ceramics and metals. His research endeavors have resulted in over 300 publications and over 300 technical presentations.
Dr. Yangzi Xu is currently working at Intel Corporation as a Yield & Module Process Engineer. She received her PhD at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and focuses her research on understanding the mechanical and electrochemical properties of AM Ti alloys with different types of heat treatments, and their corrosion performance in biofluid for potential orthopedic applications. Her background includes research in polymer and food science and engineering.
Professor Jianyu Liang is a Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Worchester Polytechnic Institute, with affiliated appointments in the departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Fire Protection Engineering. Her research work on nanomaterials, AM, agile manufacturing, machine learning for materials science and manufacturing engineering, and sustainability has been funded by NSF, NASA, DoD, ED, and industry. Her work has resulted in over 300 research papers and technical presentations. As an educator, Liang strives to equip students with the confidence, enthusiasm, knowledge, and skills to allow them to enjoy learning throughout their lives.
For more information
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 100 Institute Road, Worcester, MA 01609 Or email jianyul@wpi.edu and sisson@wpi.edu
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The Philadelphia Mint recently began a round of upgrades for its heat treat furnaces. Their function in the minting process is to anneal, clean, and dry the coin blanks to soften the metal prior to striking into coins, extending the service life of the striking dies.
SECO/WARWICK Group’s American subsidiary, located in Meadville, PA, recently began upgrades, a refurbishment of all five of the Philadelphia Mint’s heat-treating furnaces, one furnace per year. The heat-treating furnaces were originally installed there by SECO/WARWICK USA from 1994 through 2000.
All five furnaces are 4000 pound per hour rotary retort furnaces outfitted with a quench system, as well as a hopper feeder, a batch burnish barrel, and a batch/continuous drum drier. The furnaces are showing their age after a quartercentury, so rather than nickel and dime the maintenance, the mint opted for a comprehensive refurbishment.
“Our Partner has plenty of coin to heat-treat, but they don’t have any to burn," commented Marcus Lord, managing director at SECO/WARWICK USA. "These waste-heat recovery and combustion efficiency upgrades are going to save them a mint while cutting carbon and NOx emissions nearly in half."
The small letter at the nape of Washington’s neck in the coin image above is a mint mark. The “P” indicates that the coin was struck at the Philadelphia Mint. Source: SECO/WARWICK Group
To reduce energy consumption, the Mint is replacing insulation, roof panels, and radiant tubes as well as upgrading the loading systems. More energy efficient burners are being installed, along with recuperators to preheat the combustion air, to improve energy efficiency and use less natural gas. Mechanical improvements include replacing drive motors and two-speed gear boxes. The retort can over-heat and warp if the rotary retort unexpectedly stops before the cool-down cycle. As a failsafe, SECO/WARWICK added a pneumatic backup motor that can run the gear box off the Mint’s compressed air reservoir during a power outage.
The mint was established by the Coinage Act of 1792, when Philadelphia was the nation’s capital. It was the first public building constructed under the direction of the recently formed United States government. The machinery was powered by a horse walking circles in the basement.
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Last Friday Stellantis announced it will indefinitely halt operations at an Illinois assembly plant in February, citing the rising costs of electric vehicle production.
The automaker, which employs about 1,350 workers at the Belvidere, Illinois plant that builds the Jeep Cherokee SUV, said the action will result in indefinite layoffs and added it may not resume operations as it considers other options. Stellantis said the industry "has been adversely affected by a multitude of factors like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the global microchip shortage, but the most impactful challenge is the increasing cost related to the electrification of the automotive market." The company had said it will invest over 30 billion euros ($31.6 billion) through 2025 on electrifying its vehicle lineup, and also expected EVs to make up 100% of its sales in Europe and 50% in the United States by 2030.
The company shared it is working to identify other opportunities to repurpose the Belvidere facility and has no additional details to share at this time. Sam Fiorani, head of production at AutoForecast Solutions said the UAW and Stellantis could reach a deal in contract talks next year for a new vehicle for the plant "but any new product redirected its way will take investment and time to retool the plant, leaving Belvidere empty for a year or more."
As 2022 comes to an end, we’re taking this episode to look forward to what North American heat treaters can expect in the largest trade show for heat treaters anywhere: THERMPROCESS 2023. Doug Glenn, publisher of Heat Treat Today and Timo Würz, managing director at VDMA Metallurgy and General Secretary of The European Committee of Industrial Furnace, Heating and Metallurgical Equipment Associations (CECOF) talk about what attendees and exhibitors should expect and several of the hot topics in manufacturing that will be guiding this event.
Below, you can watch the video, listen to the podcast by clicking on the audio play button, or read an edited transcript.
Heat Treat Today is cancelling the North American Exhibitor Group. Please disregard the comments in podcast above or transcript below referencing this.
The following transcript has been edited for your reading enjoyment.
Doug Glenn (DG): Welcome to another episode of Heat Treat Radio.
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DG: Let’s talk about this. I know you are involved, in your capacity, with VDMA and CECOF and things of that sort with the THERMPROCESS event which is coming up in June. For people who might not know what THERMPROCESS is, can you give us a 30,000-foot view of the event?
Timo Würz Managing Director at VDMA Metallurgy General Secretary of CECOF Source: LinkedIn
Timo Würz (TW): THERMPROCESS is the world-leading tradeshow for the thermal processing industries. And it’s not just one show -- THERMPROCESS is part of a tradeshow quartet. It’s four shows, and they are all about metallurgical equipment, metallurgical processes, thermal processing, foundry equipment, foundry applications. All of these topics are very much connected one to the other, and that makes it a really big show. It’s not just this little part of industrial furnaces and burners, but it’s imbedded in a huge metallurgical environment. That’s the reason they call this exhibition “the bright world of metals.” You’ll find there any kind of thermal applications. If you want to process glass or ceramics, you'll find the respective equipment there. This is the larger context of this show.
It's really huge. The 2019 edition that was more than 73,000 visitors in Düsseldorf, more than 2,300-something exhibitors on all the four tradeshows. For the THERMPROCESS alone I think it was about 340-350 exhibitors and about 6,000 visitors only for the show, not taking into account all the others coming from GIFA show or the METEC show which are the other shows. So, there are a lot of symmetries between these shows, and you see really everything that has something to do with thermal processing -- with equipment, with applications- it’s really a big thing.
DG: You and I both have probably been to the THERMPROCESS since early on, maybe its beginning. I’m not sure when the first show was, but I know the first one I attended was in 1999. It was quite an event, even then.
I want to give our listeners and viewers a sense of the enormity of it. You’ve been to some of the North American shows. I don’t know if you’ve been to one of the larger shows in Chicago like the IMTS. It’s probably one of the larger metal shows in the United States. My contention is, and I wonder if you’d agree with this -- McCormick Place, where the IMTS is held, the campus on which the quartet of shows, as you say, is being held, is probably four to five times the size of an IMTS show. I don’t know if you’ve got that comparison or not, but it’s much larger than any other North American show I know of.
TW: I know IMTS quite well because I’ve been there many years ago when I was working for the machine/tool industry. That is really a big show in the United States. I think the FABTECH is about the same size or even a little bit bigger than IMTS. I would say, maybe THERMPROCESS and the other three tradeshows are even a little bigger. I don’t know if your readers know the exhibition crowds in Düsseldorf, but they are quite huge. I think it’s the second or third largest exhibition area in Germany. The four trade shows, they really occupy all halls at the exhibition center. So, 73,000 square meters -- that is about 150,000 cross square meters, so 33,000 is only the net square meters. If you take all of the other areas together, it’s really a huge exhibition area. Still, the comparison is not too bad -- it compares to the big shows in the United States in other industries.
DG: Yes, I think so. I tell people, when I try to give them a sense of the size of the campus that the Düsseldorf Messe. If you were to start on one end and just walk at a normal rate, it would probably take you 15-20 minutes to walk from one side to the other which, fortunately, we don’t have to do too much.
The dates of the show?
TW: It’s June 12-16, 2023, in Düsseldorf.
Düsseldorf, Germany Source: Unsplash.com
DG: Which is a great time of year in Düsseldorf. It’s a lovely, lovely place, so I would encourage people to go.
Let’s talk about some of the trends, the international trends in thermal processing. From your perspective, what are some of those international trends, international things that are happening now that people will be able to learn about and hear about if they do come to THERMPROCESS?
TW: There are a lot of things going on at the moment: there is the whole sustainability greenhouse gas reduction discussion going on. That is certainly going to be reflected at the show. There is digitization which is a very important issue for all industries but also for the metallurgical industries and the thermal processing industries. It gives you some new benefits you can offer to your customers, or you can benefit from in your product development. So, that’s a huge topic.
There is additive manufacturing that gives you completely new opportunities on how to produce certain parts for your equipment or how to replace a traditional technology. Think about replacing a casting by a part that is produced with additive manufacturing. Finally, the part is the same but the production process is completely different. There is a very interesting competition now between different production technologies coming out. That will be shown there and many, many others.
We could go into very specific details like new types of communication between machines and management systems or between different kinds of machines, and really a lot of interesting developments -- artificial intelligence, machine learning -- that all helps to optimize your process and your equipment, so that’s really an amazing development going on.
DG: I’ve got a question for you: I know you are kind of on the inside track with the whole Bright World Metals and Messe Düsseldorf, the organization that puts this on. Do you think that some day in the future they will add a fifth show on 3-D printing? There are a lot of metals going on here, right?
TW: That is a very good question. I don’t know because there are still other exhibitions for 3-D printing and additive manufacturing. Maybe not necessarily a new show, but it is certainly becoming a permanent part of the existing show. One or the other place will really highlight that additive manufacturing maybe without having a fifth show to do it.
DG: I think it would be interesting! We’d have to figure out instead of being a quartet, it would have to be a quintet, or something.
Let’s talk a little bit about the electrification. Let’s dig a little bit deeper into the electrification. What are you seeing there? I know, right now, you’re sitting in Florida, with tropical storm Nicole in your background. Is that the name?
TW: It’s Nicole.
DG: You’re sitting there in Florida, but I know you’re typically out of Germany. What are you seeing, Timo, there in Germany, regarding electrification and the move away from greenhouse gas, let’s say?
Source: Unsplash.com
TW: That is a good question but difficult to answer question. Electrification is not really new. There are well-established processes which are already electrified. Think about induction heating or melting or electric arc furnace. That is all electrified heating equipment, so that is not really new.
The important question is, how many other processes could be replaced by electrified processes? Now, I mean such processes where you burn fossil fuel, for example, natural gas. That is really the point when it comes to greenhouse gas mitigation -- you want to get rid of greenhouse gases, and usually they are emitted when you burn something. From a physics point of view or an engineering point of view, electrification is great because it has a very high efficiency. Turning electricity into heat has a very high efficiency, much better than burning something and generating heat from burning fossil fuels.
The problem is -- think of a reheating furnace in a steelworks. In terms of energy consumption, which has to be called a monster because a reheating furnace in a steelworks consumes per hour as much energy as a jumbo-jet flying from Europe to the U.S., each hour. And now, try to imagine how to electrify such an application. At the moment it’s hardly conceivable that you can really replace that existing equipment by something that is electrified. You have the same energy density that is needed to get the process done. That is very difficult. You really come to technological limits.
I don’t say you can’t overcome them in the future; but at the moment, it is just not possible. But you have to see which processes are possible, and those which possible should be electrified. And for others, you have to accept maybe you need a hybrid concept -- electrical heating and conventional burner, or you have to accept that you have to burn something. In the future, maybe that will be green hydrogen. So, there are different roots.
Finally, green hydrogen is another form of electrification because you need electricity to produce green hydrogen. When you bring that all down to one point, it’s only a question of -- are you able to generate a sufficient amount of renewable energy? It’s not a question about the thermprocess aspect, it’s more or less a question about the generation of enough renewable energy so that it’s about wind energy, it’s about solar power, etc. If there’s enough renewable energy, I would say everything can be electrified or everything could be supplied with green hydrogen. That is not the main problem. The main problem is the availability of enough renewable energy.
DG: I think our listeners would be interested in your perspective just on this one little issue: I know one of the drivers in Germany for electrification is the fact that you’re getting your gas supply cut off by friends to the East. I’m curious, how is it there in Germany with the lines being cut? The pipes being cut?
TW: It’s really challenging. To be honest, we were used to having a cheap energy supply from Russia, cheap gas from Russia that was the fuel for a lot of parts of our life -- for industry, for private heating, and everything. So, that’s gone now. Now, we have a completely different situation. At the moment, fortunately, all our gas storage is full so we were able to fill them very quickly at very high cost because we had to buy all the gas, wherever we got it, and had to pay really insane prices.
So, maybe that might not really push electrification because, at the moment, a good part of our electrification strategy was based on burning natural gas as a kind of transition technology. Now that’s gone and we have to reactivate all the power plants which are already phased out. Now we reactivate the coal-fired power plants in order to have enough electricity. So, we have a big discussion about nuclear power because we phased out already most of our nuclear power plants. There are only three running. How long they can run to maybe support energy production?
On the other hand, we’ve seen friends that more than 50% of their nuclear power plants, at the moment, are not working either because they have technical problems or because the French rivers don’t have enough water due to the drought. You need the cooling water for the nuclear power plant. At the moment, we have to export electricity to France; usually it’s the other way around.
DG: That is very interesting. I didn’t realize that. I knew there was quite the drought, but I didn’t realize that that had an impact on their nuclear power production.
TW: Yes. At least in France, it is very bad. The whole situation is somewhat strange, at the moment. My personal opinion is that it will help us to transform our energy system much faster than we already tried to do. That is really something pushing us in a completely new direction. I think the renewable power generation will really get a boost because we don’t have that many alternatives. We have to rely on I don’t know how many ships from the U.S. bringing LNG or from Qatar or some of these places. It is a challenging situation but I think it will help to transform the whole system much faster.
DG: We have a saying, and you may have something similar in Germany, but they say, “necessity is the mother of invention,” meaning, if you’ve got to do something, you figure out how to do it, right? You invent something to be able to do it. Such is the case with the power situation there in western Europe, for sure.
Well, we wish you luck on that.
Let’s talk a bit about digitization or the internet of things and things of that sort. Tell me what people will possibly see, if they go to THERMPROCESS in regard to digitization and IIoT.
Source: Thermprocess-online.com
TW: I think digitization is not a trend anymore. It’s a reality and it’s a necessity for all companies. You can’t do any business without thinking about how to digitize certain aspects of your business. It helps on different levels. First of all, it is, of course, a great help to optimize processes. Think of using, for example, machine learning or artificial intelligence or whatever you might want to call it. You can generate optimized furnace recipes for heat treating processes, for example, which were then based on the knowledge of people, in the past. And they were quite good, but now you reach new levels of optimization just using these digital solutions or the transformation of data communication. You get a complete new level of transparency of what is going on in your system because every part has an IP address and can tell you what its stage is, what it’s doing, and what is maybe a problem. So, you have a complete new transparency of your processes of your equipment that you can transfer easily to management systems. You can base decisions on such data which then becomes information and that is something that really improves the overall equipment efficiency very much. That is a really big benefit for the customers.
Digitization is also the way towards new business models. So, having all your equipment, all your processes as a part of, let’s say, a digital or data ecosystem, it allows you to offer completely new products. For example, apps that help your customer to do the scheduling of the production or to allow you to have paper production concept or maybe helps you to do predictive maintenance and all those things. I think you will see all of this at the THERMPROCESS and the other three trade shows next year because, I would say, most of the companies, be it small or be it big, they have such digital solutions now and they will show it in all different aspects and types of application.
DG: Along that line, shifting gears just a little bit on this, one of the issues that we’re experiencing here in the United States is labor shortages and things of that sort. I don’t know if that’s exactly the same in Germany, but let’s assume that it is. How about automization and the use of robotics? Are you seeing anything along that line there, and do you anticipate that people would see some solutions or some ideas along that line if they were to come to THERMPROCESS?
Source: Unsplash.com
TW: Yes, we do have the very same problem. Finding young people, finding skilled people who are able to do their jobs in a highly sophisticated, industrial environment is terribly difficult. We have many, many jobs where we can’t find people for. Not the low wages jobs, but highly qualified jobs that require a lot of training. It’s exactly the same problem you have in the United States. And automization is maybe one aspect of overcoming that problem. Of course, a lot of companies do invest in automization, they do invest in robotics. Maybe not in the thermal processing industry. Robotics there is maybe different from what we maybe think of when we hear robotics like in automotive assembly, when you see maybe 2,000 robots working in a coordinated way, assembling a car structure. But any kind of automization that helps to overcome labor shortages being manipulating heavy pieces.
DG: I think of fixturing and racking, right? I mean, that’s a heavily labor-intensive process, even if it’s small parts? Taking 100 parts and putting them in a rack so that they can be heat treated -- I think automization.
TW: Yes. So, if you don’t find the people to do that, you certainly will have automization. You find all the big robotic companies and the automization suppliers on the four trade shows, especially in the foundry environment -- there is a lot of robotics. So, robotics manufacturers like KUKA, ABP and Fanuc, they are all there. They will show their special applications for the metallurgical sector. There is certainly a lot to see at the THERMPROCESS and the other three shows.
DG: So, you and I both know that at THERMPROCESS and GIFA and METEC and NEWCAST, that it’s not all business. There is a little bit of enjoyment beyond business that goes on there. It’s also a little bit of fun on the show floor, but I would like your personal opinion: What do you enjoy about Düsseldorf? What is there for those people who would want to come over and do more than just work? What is there to see?
TW: First of all, it’s taking place in summer and usually, at least the last two or three editions, we had really nice weather. That helps a lot to get people in a good mood. Düsseldorf is a particularly nice city. It has an old part, Düsseldorf Altstadt, where you’ll find these typical restaurants and these typical Düsseldorf pubs where you get this special beer. That is really a place where people just meet and have fun. So, after the show you can go there and just have fun. You can talk business of course, if you like, but you can just have fun, drink a beer, sit at the banks of the Rhine river. The people are nice people. The people from the Rhineland, they are known as nice people. They have a good sense of humor so it is really a good place to come, do business, but also do anything else but business. It is a good place to be in June. There is plenty to do, and it’s a good place to have a lot of fun.
DG: And it’s easy to get around, I must say. At the Messe or the fairgrounds, where the show is, the trains pull right in. They’re more like trolley trains, not necessarily subway trains, but it’s kind of what we think of in the United States as subway cars- they pull right into the Messe there. It’s easy to get on, it’s easy to get off. It’s 10-15 minutes to downtown. There is some great shopping for any of you ladies, or men if you’re a shopper, that you can easily take a walk down Königsallee which is a beautiful shopping place there and the Altstadt as you mentioned- all pretty much, which I think is nice, depending on where you stay in Düsseldorf . If you’re in the downtown area, it’s all relatively, if you’re in decent shape, in walking distance. You can walk it. I walked from the Bahnhof all the way over to Altstadt. You can do it; it’s not undoable.
TW: That is all within walking distance, yes. And, if not, you can take the tram or the subway and it takes you 15-20 minutes, and you’re right in the center. Even if you want to go a little further- all the other large cities around are very well connected by this public transportation system. Never use a car in this area -- that is bad. In terms of traffic, if you are in a car, it’s a mess. Use the public transportation, and it’s wonderful because it connects all cities. You can easily go to Cologne, you can go to all the other cities around. It’s very easy.
DG: In the past, they’ve had a bit of a technical program associated. Are they having that this time?
TW: Yes, of course.
DG: If you don’t mind, tell us a bit about what you know about that technical program.
Be a Part of the Show! Source: Unsplash.com
TW: At THERMPROCESS, there is going to be the THERMPROCESS forum -- what was the THERMPROCESS symposium, in the past. It’s a kind of 2-day presentation program right in, I think, Exhibition Hall #9, so where the THERMPROCESS really is, where we have a two days with program presentations from exhibiting companies showing their innovations or showing new solutions, new applications.
We’re going to have at the first day, a special program that will try to dive a little bit deeper into the energy transition -- how the energy system will transform in the future. That is more from a scientific point of view, a political point of view, but nevertheless very interesting. Then we have the company presentations, and we are going to have the ‘tech talks.’ On Thursday, we are going to have the ‘tech talks.’ Originally, it was an online forum, but there we transfer it to the exhibition. So, three companies are giving presentations in a frame of a specific topic. They all build thematically on the other presentations so you see a whole picture of one specific topic. That is going to happen.
And there will be, of course, the foundry related events. There is going to be the ESTA that is the European steel technology application day. That is a very big event with seven hundred sessions over the whole exhibition. That is for the metallurgical people, so for the steel producers.
DG: Good. That’s great. I thought that was going on but I wasn’t sure and I just wanted to confirm.
Timo, I thank you very much. I appreciate you taking the time to help us understand what might be going on at THERMPROCESS. Thanks very much for joining us.
The American steel industry is the cleanest of the leading steel industries in the world. Of the major steel-producing countries, the U.S. has the lowest CO2 emissions per ton of steel produced. By contrast, Chinese steel production creates carbon emissions that are nearly twice that of the U.S. per ton of steel produced. The global steel industry contributes 8% of total world greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, whereas the U.S. steel industry only accounts for 1–2% of total U.S. GHG emissions.
Read why Kevin Dempsey of American Iron and Steel Institute thinks that America is doing so well with decarbonization.
This article first appeared in Heat TreatToday’s November 2022 Annual Vacuum print edition.
Kevin Dempsey President and CEO American Iron and Steel Institute Source: steel.org
There are several reasons for the American steel industry’s leadership in decarbonization. A key factor is that the American steel industry has adopted electric arc furnace (EAF) technology at a much more accelerated rate than the global industry. Nearly 71% of the steel produced in the U.S. in 2020 was from EAFs, compared to only 26% globally.
In addition, the American steel industry operates blast furnaces that are among the most carbon efficient in the world. Integrated steel mills in the U.S. are almost entirely fed by domestically sourced iron ore pellets compared to CO2 -intensive sintered ore used in China and elsewhere. This results in significantly lower emissions of CO2, as well as lower emissions of NOx, SO2, and particulate matter.
Also, the emissions factors associated with the energy mix used for steelmaking in the United States are lower than in other steel-producing locations in the world, with much more reliance on natural gas and renewable energy. This cleaner energy mix helps produce steel with the lowest CO2 emissions. The American steel industry is continuing to invest in clean energy to provide the electricity needed to run our mills — a number of steel producers in the U.S. have announced several projects that employ renewable energy to supply all or most of specific facilities’ energy requirements.
The steel industry in the U.S. also continues to make other key investments to further decrease its carbon emissions and advance its leadership position on sustainability. For example, American steelmakers have made investments to increase the use of direct reduced iron (DRI) and hot briquetted iron (HBI), which can lower emissions for both integrated blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace steel mills and EAF steel mills. Additionally, new DRI and HBI facilities are being designed and have recently been built to be hydrogen-ready once clean hydrogen is available on an industrial scale and commercially viable.
Steel is a critical component in the continued development of all clean energy technologies to reduce America’s carbon footprint. According to a recent study by McKinsey & Co1, steel is the only material critical to all low-carbon technologies. Wind, solar, and tidal renewable energy systems, zero emission electric vehicles, electric grid transmission, hydrogen production, and carbon capture systems all highly depend on steel. For example, steel comprises over 70% of the weight of a typical wind turbine. Grain oriented electrical steel (GOES) is a critical and irreplaceable material used in the production of power and distribution transformers that will be necessary for the greening and modernization of the domestic electric grid. American non oriented electrical steel (NOES) is used for electric motors, including those that will power the growing electric vehicle market.
The American steel industry and its construction partners have also proactively and voluntarily published verified Environmental Product Declarations, which report the carbon footprint and other potential environmental impacts for nearly every steel construction product available in the marketplace today. Furthermore, when steel construction products have outlived their current intended use, they can be recycled into new steel to be used for any variety of new products. Today’s steel beam can become tomorrow’s refrigerator, soup can, or car door.
Sustainable steelmaking is the American steel industry’s number one commitment — for our customers and all Americans. Our entire industry is continuing to make key investments and innovations to further decrease carbon emissions and advance our leadership position on sustainability.
About the Author: Kevin Dempsey is the president and chief executive officer of the American Iron and Steel Institute, a leading advocacy group representing electric arc furnace and integrated American steel producers. He previously served as senior vice president of public policy and general counsel to the Institute, during which AISI achieved landmark policy successes on trade, tax, and infrastructure, and successfully showcased the steel industry’s sustainability accomplishments and steel innovations in the automotive and construction markets.
As the next installment in this series on cybersecurity, this third article will give you a better understanding of the Department of Defense’s DFARS interim rule and its requirements.
In this article, explore the importance of alternative advanced manufacturing processes and the effects of post-process heat treating of DMLS titanium alloy parts. In a recent study, a team at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) evaluated the effects of these processes. Read along to see what they found.
The Philadelphia Mint recently began a round of upgrades for its heat treat furnaces. Their function in the minting process is to anneal, clean, and dry the coin blanks to soften the metal prior to striking into coins, extending the service life of the striking dies.
As 2022 comes to an end, we’re taking this episode to look forward to what North American heat treaters can expect in the largest trade show for heat treaters anywhere: THERMPROCESS 2023. Doug Glenn, publisher of 
Steel is a critical component in the continued development of all clean energy technologies to reduce America’s carbon footprint. According to a recent study by McKinsey & Co1, steel is the only material critical to all low-carbon technologies. Wind, solar, and tidal renewable energy systems, zero emission electric vehicles, electric grid transmission, hydrogen production, and carbon capture systems all highly depend on steel. For example, steel comprises over 70% of the weight of a typical wind turbine. Grain oriented electrical steel (GOES) is a critical and irreplaceable material used in the production of power and distribution transformers that will be necessary for the greening and modernization of the domestic electric grid. American non oriented electrical steel (NOES) is used for electric motors, including those that will power the growing electric vehicle market.