Message from the Editor: Restless

March 13, 2026 / EDITOR

Heat Treat Today publishes twelve print magazines a year and included in each is a letter from the editor. This letter is from the February 2026 Annual Air & Atmosphere Heat Treating print edition. In today’s letter, Bethany Leone, managing editor at Heat Treat Today, shares her insights on the restlessness stirred by recent shifts in the heat treat industry — and why sitting with uncertainty, rather than rushing to diagnose it, may be the most intentional form of leadership we can practice right now.

Recently, we have observed the shift in industry brain trust. In fact, if you follow the Heat Treat Daily, there have been a lot of significant acquisitions, announcements of growth, and refocusing of efforts. Yet no singular statement emerges to define what this moment is for the heat treat industry. This constant movement and reorienting is exciting, but what does it mean?

To recap some highlights, a brazing icon retired — Dan Kay, our tribute to him later in this publication (p. 49). Innovator and furnace expert Mark Hemsath joined forces with WINGENS CONSULTANTS as an executive expert. Major industry suppliers continued to consolidate under more international leadership, and we wait to see how priorities at these organizations will be recalibrated.

While all of these changes are decisive moves, there is hardly a definitive direction to describe where the heat treat industry is going. With the world at our fingertips, digital projections and instantaneous AI analysis feed the desire to know what to expect, what to avoid, what to get excited about. Data is the bread and butter of informed decisions, though tempered with discernment. A lack of satisfying answers, however, exposes how easily we can overuse data to create a safety net from uncertainty or seek a quick diagnosis for a discomfort whose true nature may be far more complex.

And so, we find ourselves without clear answers about what these industry shifts ultimately mean. Perhaps some are already making projections, but for me, I’m sitting in a restless state about what we should expect for the rest of the year. Still, restlessness isn’t something to “seek and destroy,” as my immediate inclination often is. Sitting with it can make space for true stewardship.

Stewardship

Stewardship takes the present form. The emphasis is simple: What is in my control now to change, cultivate, care for? Lots of garden terms with this word! This idea of stewardship shows up for me in small ways. The closest I am to gardening is the peace lily who stares at me while my one-year-old takes another swat at her leaves, brown and crinkled from the drafty air. Here’s the thing — stewardship, at least in this season, is not the one-plant garden. It’s knowing to cultivate joy in the one-year-old… and waiting to see if the peace lily survives.

Another key aspect of stewardship is listening. Stewardship happens after the pause that listens to the unsettled state. This attitude allows uncertainty, complexity, and even contradictory messaging. As leaders of wherever life finds us, listening to the noise and waiting through the discomfort of not having an answer is what precedes intentional action.

Waiting for the Meaning

If you have been observing the changes in industry with bated breath, continue the waiting. No need to diagnose. Dedicate yourself this year not to the novel goals of January, but the essential approach of not balking at the restlessness that you may find yourself in. It is enough to tend to what is immediately entrusted to you.

Bethany Leone
Managing Editor
**Heat Treat Today**
**Contact:** Bethany Leone at bethany@heattreattoday.com

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Message from the Editor: Matching Materials

February 20, 2026 / EDITOR

Heat Treat Today publishes twelve print magazines a year and included in each is a letter from the editor. This letter is from the January 2026 Annual Technologies To Watch print edition. In today’s letter, Bethany Leone, managing editor at Heat Treat Today, shares her insights on the widening gap between material science and industrial engineering in heat treatment — and what leaders can do to make smarter material decisions.

I recently spoke with an industry educator who is also a metallurgist and an engineer. She stressed the need for heat treat leaders to make informed decisions, blending industrial engineering and materials science expertise — just one is only half of the conversation. Our current era is reckoning with the fruit of underprioritized materials science education.

This concern arose several times at industry trade shows last year, both in lectures and conversations with attendees. While academic institutions have been pivoting to close this materials gap, the difficulty remains: Are the components that we design and for which we curate heat treat processes around making use of the best materials?

Barriers to Material Matching

The question of performance is prevalent: Are we designing with the right material in mind? Additionally, this age of advanced manufacturing and additive manufacturing challenges what we know to be the best material for an application; a new superalloy on the market may offer unforeseen abilities as well as risks. There is also the practical concern of time and supply chain; the tariffs of 2025 have brought this concern close to home, no pun intended.

There are other practical concerns when it comes to materials, as I was informed by Malur Narayan. As the CEO of Xtrium, an AI-powered materials matching and intelligence platform that connects materials to real-world applications, he is attuned to the specific challenges around this question. According to Narayan, there are missed revenue opportunities by failure to consider materials that are common in industries outside of one’s own.

Moreover, even if the desire to innovate or examine new materials and processing methods is fostered, the typical months of discovery handicaps time and action steps. This makes sense because, as Narayan summarized, just because an alloy manufacturer developed an extremely useful alloy for applications in one industry doesn’t mean they are reaching clients in other industries. From that supply side, it takes market research to prove the use case in those alternative sectors.

Furthermore, there has not been an effective single-source of truth for users to navigate and compare properties against.

What Can You Do?

Talk with your materials supplier. A number of alloy suppliers can be accessed on HeatTreatBuyersGuide.com and searching www.heatreattoday.com for their published articles can yield helpful insights as to what other applications and treatments are within reach. Additionally, Xtrium is releasing an AI-native online search and discovery engine which is designed to match materials to real-world applications in minutes, cutting down the traditional months of manual research.

Xtrium tool screenshot | Image Credit: Xtrium

Look across industries for new applications. We will explore more about innovative materials applications and the benefit they have in alleviating the heat treat process in future editions of the magazine. If you have your own use case, please reach out to share your story.

Brace yourself. There are heat treat processing modifications that allow users to take advantage of less expensive alloys. We will be excited to share more on one of these innovative solutions in an upcoming magazine.

References

Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT). 2025. “Scientists Forge New ‘Superalloy’ That Could Revolutionize Jet Engines and Power Plants.” SciTechDaily. https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-forge-new-superalloy-that-could-revolutionize-jet-engines-and-power-plants/.

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Message from the Editor: Elbowing a Captive Audience

January 16, 2026 / EDITOR

Heat Treat Today publishes twelve print magazines a year and included in each is a letter from the editor. This letter is from the November 2025 Annual Vacuum Heat Treating print edition. In today’s letter, Bethany Leone, managing editor at Heat Treat Today, shares her insights on the value of in-person visits to captive heat treat facilities and announces a new editorial series aimed at spotlighting North America’s best in-house operations.

There is nothing like walking your shop floor. I’m talking for me, not for you. But perhaps you agree!

When I leave my neighborhood, I often pass a steel operation with atmosphere heat treat furnaces sitting snugly by the door. In the winter, the building’s windows are flung open. In the summer, workers head out of the building toward the parking lot (seemingly) every hour. And I want in.

Regrettably, I have yet to elbow my way into that fine establishment to see what’s going on, but hopefully one day I will.

This Editor’s Page is very self-interested: I want to see your heat treat operations.

At Heat Treat Today, we’re on a mission to spotlight North America’s best captive heat treat facilities — the quiet powerhouses who are making gears harder, shafts straighter, and production lines hum with thermal precision. And we’re willing to travel to do it.

Whether you’re in Ontario or Ohio, Monterrey or Michigan, we want to be on your shop floor, taking notes, asking questions, and celebrating the know-how that keeps your operation running strong. In-person site visits give us an unmatched opportunity to understand your process flow, your constraints, and what really makes your team tick. It’s the difference between writing about heat treating and actually getting into it.

A New Editorial Series: “An Inside Look at In-House”

We’re calling this editorial series “An Inside Look at In-House.” Our aim is to profile exceptional in-house heat treat operations to hear their stories: Why they changed a process, added automation, doubled down on legacy equipment, or resisted the pressure to outsource. Even when change isn’t the story, stability might be. If you haven’t altered your heat treat process in twenty years, that might be the very reason we want to feature you.

Why Open Your Doors?

I am not naive, though. Your work home is not an open-door environment. So why let us in?

We respect your time and value your trust. Our editorial team works with every contributor closely to ensure accuracy and clarity with absolutely no trade secrets exposed and no photos published without your consent. In return, you get visibility for your team, credibility for your investment in captive heat treating, and a chance to shape the conversation in your industry. Dare I ask you to envision the front magazine cover of Heat Treat Today splashed with a picture of you and your team?

Whether you have a story to tell or you’re simply proud of what your people do, we want to talk with you. Maybe even walk, too.

Get in Touch

Reach out to me directly at bethany@heattreattoday.com. If you’re lucky, Doug Glenn might even come with me — or instead of me! (You can request either one of us, but no guarantees.)

Let’s open the doors and shine a light on the hidden heroes of heat treat. We’re ready when you are.

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Bethany Message from the Editor