Doug Glenn

Publisher’s Page: The Bright Side of COVID-19

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Heat Treat Today publishes four print magazines a year, and included in each is a letter from the publisher, Doug Glenn. This letter first appeared in Heat Treat Today‘s Automotive Heat Treating magazine, June 2020.

Doug Glenn, Publisher, Heat Treat Today

For the record, the 2020 North American heat treat industry has been severely impacted by COVID-19. Everyone I’ve talked to agrees that the reality of 2020 will pale in comparison to the hopes and dreams for 2020 back in January and February of this year. March and April usually bring spring-like optimism, but this year those two months were marked by a grinding of the US economy to a nearly complete standstill, the heat treat industry included. As one of our Latvian foreign exchange visitors said in his broken English, “NOT GOOD.” Thus, it has been; and thus, it is even as of this writing.

Every situation, however, is 20% situation and 80% what you make of it, so let me suggest four positive things that will come out of this historic economic tragedy.

#1 “Sheltering at home” for 6-8 weeks might help us all slow down. For the vast majority, we’ve all been slowly heated in the waters of busyness to the point where we think it is normal. During my recent conversation with the executive director of an industry association, this person said, “I’m in favor of anything that will help us all slow down.” This person was fully convinced that our “normal” pace is not healthy. Perhaps this person was right. One other individual I spoke to was “forced” to ignore work for two weeks. His company furloughed individuals and sternly warned them NOT to check emails while furloughed because the company could be sued if furloughed workers were actually working. The national market manager that told me this story did so from his personal cell phone while preparing to paint a room in his house. No work for him. Like many of us, he had to slow down.

#2 Interacting face-to-face with other human beings is important. I know that many of you introverts are loving the forced isolation, but even you must admit that after a week or more seeing no one, it would be nice to be able to at least go somewhere where you can actually see and talk to other human beings besides those with whom you are confined to quarters. My favorite example of this are all of the technologically savvy young people who live on their phones. As long as they have their phones, they’re content. Come to find out, many of these now homebound young ones are now MISSING SCHOOL, not so much for the academics, but more for the interaction with their peers – even if it is sitting next to each other with their heads in their phones! People matter. COVID is helping us remember.

#3 COVID, or more accurately, the RESPONSE to COVID, is helping us all remember just how quickly we can lose our freedoms. For many of us, we lost the freedom to go to work, we lost the freedom to freely assemble, we lost the freedom to travel where and when we like, we lost the freedom to walk around without a mask, we lost the freedom to walk up a grocery store aisle in either direction, and we’ve even lost the freedom to worship where and when we like. Some even argue that we’ve lost our freedom of speech! Try asserting the opinion that the actual COVID virus is not significantly more dangerous than a normal flu. Try it once; you’ll not do it again! Of course, most of these freedoms will be lost only temporarily and for a good cause – our safety. But please remember what King Mongkut (Yul Brynner in The King and I) said about finding safety from others, “Might they not protect me out of all I own?” Or take it from Ben Franklin – “Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” 

#4 And finally, COVID is helping us all see just how quickly life can change … and this is a good thing … because it is true. We think we are safe, we think we are secure, we think that life will always be this way, we think we are in control. We are wrong. There’s only One in control – assuming you believe in God – and we are not Him. This might be a scary thought for some – to not be in control. But, it is better to live in an unpleasant reality than a dangerous fantasy. COVID is helping us deal with reality.

So, there’s a lot of good coming from this pandemic. Here’s to a more modestly paced life, here’s to time with friends and family, here’s to liberty, here’s to remembering Who’s in charge … and here’s to your health and safety and a return to a more “normal” North American heat treat market.

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Publisher’s Page: The Most Interesting Non-Heat Treat, Heat Treat Story You’ll Ever Watch

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Doug Glenn, Publisher, Heat Treat Today

Heat Treat Today publishes four print magazines a year, and included in each is a letter from the publisher, Doug Glenn. This letter first appeared in Heat Treat Today‘s Aerospace Heat Treating magazine, March 2020. 

The first time I heard the name “Rodriguez” was at the 2015 ASM International Heat Treat Show during the “The Heat Is On” networking reception held at The Waterview Loft at Port Detroit – the same location it was held this last year (2019). I was standing beside a to-remain-nameless president of a furnace manufacturing company who had traveled extensively in his pre-heat treat days. While we were chatting at one of the outdoor cocktail tables on a lovely Detroit night, a middle-aged couple (and by that I mean a couple who were roughly my age, 54 at the time) came up and stood with us. Striking up a conversation with them, as I’m known to do with complete strangers, it became clear to us, both by their accent and by the content of the conversation itself, that they were from South Africa. They were here in the States to attend the Heat Treat Show.

When the “to-remain-nameless” furnace manufacturing president found out that this middle-aged couple was from South Africa, his eyes lit up. With enthusiasm somewhat uncharacteristic of his personality, he asked them – with great anticipation – “Do you know Rodriguez?” They looked at him as if he had two heads and after a short glance at each other replied, “Of course!” The to-remain-nameless president then looked at me, a man of roughly the same age as these two middle-aged individuals, and said, “Do YOU know Rodriguez?” Feeling a bit in the dark, I answered honestly, “No; who is Rodriquez?”

Suffice it to say, I did a lot of listening from that point forward in the conversation. It was fascinating and, to be frank, somewhat unbelievable.

As with any good story, it is best not to say too much, especially about how the story ends, but the story of Rodriguez is a fascinating story that you will NOT believe. And it is heat treat related – kind of.

I’ll tell you a bit more about Rodriguez here, but you must PROMISE to search for and watch the documentary about Rodriguez, Searching for Sugar Man. You can watch it on Netflix, and you may be able to find it other places as well. Trust me, it will be a worthwhile investment of time and, if you’re like most people who I’ve steered in that direction, your response will be something like, “No way! Not possible.”

In fact, Rodriguez was a heat treater. If you listen carefully at roughly the 1-hour mark in the documentary, you’ll find out that Rodriguez worked in the heat treat department for Chrysler, its Lynch Road Assembly plant in, interestingly enough, Detroit! According to Wikipedia, the “Lynch Road Assembly [Plant] was a Chrysler assembly plant located… near Coleman A. Young International Airport. It is now the location of The Crown Group, a powdered coatings manufacturer which supports the automotive manufacturing industry.”

That is as “heat treat” as the documentary gets, so don’t expect any more.

You need to watch this documentary, you and your entire family. My four kids were all in their teen years when we first watched Searching for Sugar Man. They were mesmerized once we got into it. Suffice it to say that Rodriguez was a musician besides being a heat treater, and what happened to him is, well… unbelievable.

If, nay, WHEN you watch it, please drop me an email (doug@heattreattoday.com) and tell me what you thought. Also, if you know of any other non-heat treat, heat treat stories, or simply movies where heat treat is mentioned, please let me know. I’m trying to compile a list of movies where at least heat treat gets a mention.

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Publisher’s Page: Infinite Energy from the Earth

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Heat Treat Today publishes four print magazines a year, and included in each is a letter from the publisher, Doug Glenn. This letter first appeared in Heat Treat Today‘s Medical & Energy Heat Treating magazine, December 2019

Doug Glenn, Publisher, Heat Treat Today

The fingers of heat treat reach into nearly every area of our life. Some of the effects of heat treating are obvious, like the landing gear on an airplane that is able to take repeated high-impact landings without snapping in two. There are other effects of heat treating that are not as obvious but are no less important. Take for example the amazing things that go on inside that same airplane’s jet engines at super-high temperatures and super high stress and strain levels. The jet engine is a modern marvel usually taken for granted by millions of travelers each day.

Graphene has the potential of being able to transport heat from the core of the
earth to the surface with essentially zero losses.

Some of the effects of heat treating are mundane. One of my favorite examples of a very practical and understandable heat treatment is the annealing process for aluminum foil. “Why is it,” I ask, “that you are able to bend this thin sheet of metal and yet it doesn’t shatter, break, or even crack?” Answer: heat treat–specifically, foil annealing.

In this issue, we take a look as some rather fascinating heat treatments in the medical and energy industries. It’s not that these two industries have anything to do with each other; they really don’t. In fact, much of what is done in the medical industry is done in vacuum furnaces in cleanroom settings. Energy heat treatments, on the other hand, can be done in a vacuum, especially when stainless steels or other more exotic materials are used (think nuclear reactors), or they can be done in the down and dirty atmosphere furnaces and oil quench tanks. But they are both heat treat-intense industries and both worthy of some attention–thus we’ve combined them into one issue.

Pulling Energy from the Earth’s Core

One of the more fascinating “heat treat” applications is the emerging possibility of being able to extract what appears to be an infinite supply of energy from the earth’s core using a material that will transfer the energy from the core to the surface with essentially zero losses. The material capable of doing this is graphene, and the graphene is currently made in vacuum furnaces. In fact, there are a number of vacuum furnace companies in the heat treat industry that are dabbling in this field.

The ability to extract energy from the core of the earth with essentially zero losses is the focus of the Limitless Energy Graphene Project headed by Manoj Bhargava and Ravi Sajwan. These gentlemen propose to transfer energy from roughly 4.5+ miles below our feet to the surface by using graphene, which is 100-times better at conducting than copper, lighter than air, and stronger than steel.

It transfers heat ultra-efficiently. According to Mr. Sajwan, if you apply 100°F to one end of a graphene pathway, you’ll instantly get 100°F heat at the other end of the pathway, but the middle of the pathway will remain perfectly cool. What they’re describing is 100% heat transfer with zero transmission losses. And according to Mr. Bhargava, you can go 10 feet or 10 miles, and the result is the same.

The temperature 4.5 miles below our feet ranges anywhere from 1,000°F to 7,000°F. Imagine being able to dig just deep enough to reach temperatures capable of boiling water and bring those temperature to the surface to fuel electricity-creating, steam-powered turbines.

Graphene is an atomic-scale hexagonal lattice made of carbon atoms.

If you’re not familiar with graphene, go to “The Google” and search for “What is graphene?” You’ll have no problem finding many explanations. I suggest looking for a short video from the University of Manchester.

CLICK HERE to be taken to an amazing YouTube video entitled, “5 Amazing Renewable Energy Ideas & Solutions for the Future.” HTT

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Publisher’s Page: A Short (and Mostly Accurate) History of Publishing in the Heat Treat Industry

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Heat Treat Today publishes four print magazines a year, and included in each is a letter from the publisher, Doug Glenn. This letter first appeared in Heat Treat Today‘s Trade Show Edition, September 2019.

Doug Glenn, Publisher, Heat Treat Today

There is a history in every industry and it is fascinating to go back and see how we’ve gotten to where we are, especially when you think about trade publications in the heat treat industry. These publications are quite a bit more important than many know. They’ve helped advance the industry and have played a major role keeping the industry abreast of the latest technologies.

In the heat treat world, the first industry publication appeared in the Steel City, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, compliments of I. Stanley Wishoski. In 1924, Mr. Wishoski published the first edition of Fuels & Furnaces, which changed its name to Industrial Heating in the early 1930s. Industrial Heating is still around pumping out excellent heat treat content every month.

Mr. Wishoski’s son-in-law, Charles (Chuck) McClelland, assumed ownership of Industrial Heating. Some industry veterans, Mike Kasprzyk of INEX, Inc. for example, actually met Mr. McClelland, a privilege I had only once in passing.

Charles (Chuck)
McClelland, owner/
publisher of Industrial
Heating up to 1988

There were four individuals associated with Mr. McClelland that have contributed significantly to the publishing industry. Stan Lasday was hired by McClelland and was the editor of Industrial Heating for years, retiring in roughly 1994. Two of Chuck McClelland’s daughters worked for Industrial Heating: Beth McClelland and Becky McClelland. Becky is still working for the publication. Kathy Pisano, a name very familiar to hundreds of heat treat industry vendors, is also still employed by Industrial Heating. Both Kathy and Becky are, by my estimation, two of the great unsung heroes of the heat treat publishing world.

In roughly 1989, the McClelland family sold Industrial Heating to what is today BNP Media. Jim Henderson was the owner of BNP at that time and his righthand man was Dave Lurie who was responsible for assimilating the new publication into the company. Dave did a masterful job building Industrial Heating from being the #2 or #3 magazine in the industry to being the number one publication. In fact, during his tenure and the 20 years that I was with the publication, Industrial Heating tripled in size and is still the leading publication in the industry under the leadership of publisher Erik Klingerman and seasoned editors Bill Mayer and Reed Miller.

Dave Lurie, with BNP
Media, published
Industrial Heating in the
early 1990’s.

In the early 1990s, the number one heat treating publication was Heat Treating. It was owned by Chilton/CBS and later sold to Penton Publishing. Penton struggled with it and changed the size of the publication and its name to Heat Treating Digest. It soon failed and folded.

The Monty (www.themonty) started sometime in the 1990s as the first online only heat treating media outlet. Gordon Montgomery’s son, Jordan, is now involved and seems to be pushing the site to new heights.

Another very competent publishing company from Pelham, Alabama, Media Solutions, started Thermal Processing in the 2000s. This publication was a spinoff of their gear magazine, Gear Solutions. I can personally attest that this is a good group of people doing good work. David and Teresa Cooper along with Chad Morrison are the key players at Thermal Processing.

ASM International started and shuttered one or more heat treat publications over the years – remember Heat Treating Progress? HTPro is ASM’s current mostly-online heat treat e-newsletter. ASM, of course, is a publishing power-house, but mostly with books, not so much with industry publications.

Heat Treat Today, the magazine you’re reading now, started in 2016.

Today’s Heat Treat Media Brands

So that’s how we got to where we are today with three print media brands in the North American heat treat market: Industrial Heating, Thermal Processing, and Heat Treat Today, and a couple of digital-only brands, The Monty and HTPro. But more importantly, it is through one or more of these industry trade publications that you’ve learned more than you know about the technologies, processes, products, and companies in the ever-changing heat treat world. HTT

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Publisher’s Page: Electric Vehicles & Heat Treating: Our Death Has Been Greatly Exaggerated

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Heat Treat Today publishes four print magazines a year, and included in each is a letter from the publisher, Doug Glenn. This letter first appeared in Heat Treat Today‘s Automotive Heat Treating magazine, June 2019   

Doug Glenn, Publisher, Heat Treat Today

If you believe YouTube, the very first car was a Benz Motorwagen (1885). It was petro-powered. For the last 134 years, there have been only petro-powered vehicles.

Cars aren’t going away (drivers might be going away, but not cars!), but evidence seems to point to the soon extinction of the petro-powered vehicle. Every major automobile manufacturing company has a horse in the game. Volvo, the Chinese-owned Swedish car company, has committed to building ONLY all electric or hybrid cars starting in 2019. It plans to introduce five new, all electric models between 2019 and 2021.

What of the heat treat supply chain? Will automotive heat treating dry up to a paltry percentage of what it is now? Will automotive electrification usher in new heat treat opportunities?

Without a doubt, electrification will bring in a brave new world to heat treating, but I’ve not seen anyone present a good, in-depth analysis of how the heat treat world will be impacted. If you’ve seen such a presentation, I’d like to know.

What Will Go Away

What can be said is pretty straightforward. Assuming the current trajectory continues, the petro-powered engines that have propelled our vehicles for that last century and a half will slowly start to disappear. In their place will be electric motors and battery power. Specifically, gears and transmissions will take a significant hit. Currently, the heat treatment of gears is one of the largest segments of heat treating with all the carburizing, nitriding, carbonitriding, ferritic nitrocarburizing, and a seemingly endless number of other surface or through heat treat processes. Per car, there are more gears heat treated than any other single component. Pistons, fuel injectors, cylinders, rings, and anything else related to the internal combustion engine will wane as the popularity of EVs waxes.

As one of our heat treat consultants says in this issue’s article, “Heat Treat Brain Trust on Industry Innovations That Have Enhanced Automotive Heat Treating in Recent Years,” we have to also consider the upstream supply chain that will be affected by the displacement of the internal combustion engine. What about tooling and toolmakers and the heat treating they currently do? What about the heat treating that is required after soft machining and then again after hard machining? Keep looking further and further back the supply chain to discover who else will be impacted by electrification.

It will be a paradigm shift, a mega-trend, a tsunami of epic proportion . . . maybe even a train wreck in slow motion.

But that is the saving grace. None of this is going to happen overnight. So if your horse is hitched to the internal combustion engine, the 2020s is a good time to start looking for another ride home from the dance.

“Without a doubt, electrification will bring in a brave new world to heat treating, but I’ve not seen anyone present a good, in-depth analysis of how the heat treat world will be impacted.”

What Won’t Go Away

On the other hand, there’s plenty that will not be going away. Body panels and structural components/frames, suspension parts (although they may change due to the vehicles having a motor on each of their four wheels), and non-engine related stampings and forgings will all make the cut. But even these parts are not completely safe. The push for lighter, stronger vehicles will continue to push designers to consider lighter materials with equivalent or superior functionality. Take wheels for example. Carbon fiber is superior but too expensive for the average pocketbook, but high-end vehicles are already sporting these high-tech wheels. The days of aluminum wheels may be limited. Auto manufacturers will continue to push for less expensive, higher performing materials which, in some cases, will include non-metallic, non-heat treatable composite materials.

(Photo source: Wolfgang Eckert from pixabay.com)

What’s Coming

On May 8 of this year, our publication ran the following article: “First Aluminum Sheet Battery Enclosure Helps Electric Vehicles Go Farther on a Single Charge.”  In that article, Novelis Inc.’s Pierre Labat, VP of Global Automotive, announced the first aluminum sheet battery enclosure for “the rapidly growing electric vehicle and battery sectors.” Batteries. Hitch your wagon to anything battery related!

Additionally, electric motor production and anything upstream in that supply chain would be a safe bet to investigate.

No one has ever accused me of lacking imagination, but I’m having a difficult time seeing a net gain for heat treaters in the coming EV swell. Then again, the free market and human innovation – which is especially strong in these United States – is a wonderful thing. We will adapt. Fortunately, we have some time – probably two decades of slow change. Embrace the change. Prepare for the future.

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Publisher’s Page: Where to Find the Best Aerospace Heat Treat Training

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Heat Treat Today publishes four print magazines a year, and included in each is a letter from the publisher, Doug Glenn. This letter first appeared in Heat Treat Today‘s Aerospace Heat Treating magazine, March 2019.

Doug Glenn, Publisher, Heat Treat Today

If this is your first exposure to Heat Treat Today, welcome to the heat treat industry’s newest and most innovative media brand. You’re perusing our very first Aerospace Heat Treat special print and digital edition, but we have a host of other cutting-edge aerospace heat treat resources that you might find helpful.

Here’s what we’ll cover in this brief column. I’m going to tell you about a few other Heat Treat Today resources that might help your in-house heat treat crew and then we’ll highlight some of the industry’s best heat treat training opportunities. If you have any questions about anything you see here, contact me at doug@heattreattoday.com.

First, some shameless self-promotion of resources that the team at Heat Treat Today is providing or plans to provide in the near future.

? On our website, www.heattreattoday.com, we have a special section dedicated to aerospace. If you’re reading this column by means of the digital edition, you can click on the following link and you’ll be taken directly to that special aerospace section. If you’re reading a hard copy, just type this URL into your browser: https://www.heattreattoday.com/category/industries/aerospace-heat-treat/

? We have a daily e-newsletter that sometimes – on average once or twice a week – highlights aerospace heat treat news. You can subscribe to that e-newsletter by clicking on this URL: www.heattreattoday.com/subscribe.

? Every Tuesday as part of the daily e-newsletter mentioned above, we publish a technical article. We call it Technical Tuesday. These articles are not all specific to aerospace, but you might find them of interest.

? How about a podcast? Heat Treat Radio is something unique only to Heat Treat Today. We interview movers and shakers in the heat treat industry, many of whom have something to say about technologies in the aerospace industry. Click here to be taken to a list of recent episodes: www.heattreattoday.com/radio.

Two more:

? Heat Treat Consultants is a unique resource provided exclusively by Heat Treat Today. Essentially, this resource is a comprehensive list of heat treat industry consultants, many of whom have expertise in aerospace heat treating. Click here: www.heattreattoday.com/consultants.

? And, how about something brand, spanking new? If you’re social media savvy, why not join Heat Treat Today’s new “Leaders in Aerospace Heat Treating” LinkedIn Group – see the image in the center of this page. If you have a LinkedIn account, sign in and search for “Leaders in Aerospace Heat Treat.” Join the group and stay current on the latest technologies, products, processes, and discussions with other leaders in aerospace heat treat.

But enough about us! How about other resources for your in-house heat treat team? Consider the following:

? Our friends at ASM International are ALWAYS the go-to guys for heat treat training and education. They really can’t be beat. If your team is not a member of ASM’s Heat Treat Society, a special affiliate organization of ASM International, they really should be. ASM is constantly cranking out on-site and virtual training opportunities covering a wide range of heat treat topics – many pertinent to aerospace. Take, for example, Aeromat 2019. This event is billed as “Engineering the Future – Cutting Edge Aerospace Materials & Processes.” It just so happens that ASM publishes a journal called Advanced Materials & Processes. If you want more information about Aeromat 2019, here’s the website: https://www.asminternational.org/web/aeromat-2019.

? Industrial Heating Equipment Association (IHEA) also offers several training resources that might be helpful. The group’s “Fundamentals of Process Heating On-Line Course” runs from April 15 through May 26, and their NFPA 86 Update Seminar is scheduled for May 14 in Elgin, Illinois. More information can be found at www.ihea.org.

? Metal Treating Institute (MTI), the world’s largest network of commercial heat treaters, offers a very comprehensive Heat Treat Academy. Space doesn’t allow us to list all of the courses provided, but I would strongly recommend you check out this resource. Go to MTI’s website, www.heattreat.net, and click on “MTI Online Academy for Heat Treaters” under the “Training” tab.

? There are two other good heat treat publications in the industry besides Heat Treat Today, both offering excellent heat treat technical and news content. The industry granddaddy is Industrial Heating. They’ve been around since the 1920s. Good people and good product being published by these folks every month. Then there is Thermal Processing, which is published by a competent group in Alabama. They are relatively new to the heat treat industry, but you can’t tell by the high-quality content they produce. Check either of these publications on the web at www.industrialheating.com or www.thermalprocessing.com.

Enjoy the content in the following pages and know that it is just the tip of the iceberg. You can nd more at www.heattreattoday.com.

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Reader Feedback: On Heat Treating Firearms

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Our Reader Feedback feature allows us to facilitate discussion between Heat Treat Today‘s content contributors and hard-working folks in the shop who have questions about an article.

This Reader Feedback exchange followed an inquiry to our publisher Doug Glenn about government regulation of heat treatment of firearms which we threw out to a few of our consultants and individuals who have knowledge and expertise in this field — and we added a few questions of our own. Our experts are Doug Shuler, lead auditor with Pyro Consulting LLC; John Quaglia, president of Bennett Heat Treating and Brazing; and Jamie Jones, president of Solar Atmospheres. If you have any questions about this or other topics you’ve seen covered on any Heat Treat Today platform, please submit them to editor@heattreattoday.com.

Do you know if any type of firearms license is required to heat treat firearm components?

Doug Shuler

Doug Shuler: It depends on which components are being heat treated.  Barrels, slides, etc. do not require a license, but if the receiver (the part with the serial number) is heat treated, a license is required and the heat treater is subject to ATF audits. . . . Basically, if serialized parts are heat treated it must be done under an FFL (Federal Firearms License) so the ATF can audit the whereabouts of any firearm at any time.

John Quaglia

John Quaglia:  To the best of my knowledge, based upon some pretty extensive experience heat treating firearm components for one of my customers, the only license I am aware of is an FFL which is required to heat treat serialized receivers. If the components are military or ITAR controlled, you must be registered with the DDTC and have ITAR certification, [as well as] for domestic (commercial firearms) if you are heat treating serialized components of a firearm (the receiver). Barrels, slides, sights, magazines, springs, firing pins, etc., are all easily acquired and interchangeable between firearms and therefore require no special permitting.

Jamie Jones

Jamie Jones: The US Department of Justice authorizes the ATF to regulate those who are manufacturers, dealers, collectors, and importers of firearms and destructive devices. Part of that regulation requires a license (Federal Firearms License [FFL]) be applied for and held by those who are involved with any of the above. For a contract heat treat company, this essentially only pertains to serialized components. Under the “manufacturing” definition, the ATF considers any activity which results in the manufacture of firearms for sale or distribution (including installing parts in or on firearm frames and receivers, and processes that primarily enhance a firearm’s durability), constitutes firearms manufacturing, and requires a manufacturer’s license.  The FFL does not include components related to fully automatic firearms or suppressors.  In order to possess and process those serialized items, the ATF requires a manufacturer’s FFL plus a special occupational tax stamp (SOT).  Prior to issuance of the FFL, the ATF will conduct an on-site audit of the operation and person(s) applying for the license/stamp.  The FFL needs to be renewed every three years.

What is the most challenging part of heat treating gun parts?

Spring Loaded Firing Pin thetruthaboutguns.com

JQ: Managing distortion is probably the most challenging as most components are very close to being finished machined. Special racking and methodizing is often required. Marquenching, ausquenching, and vacuum processing are often employed to minimize or eliminate the possibility of distortion. Also, due to the small size and complex geometry present, inspection of the parts is difficult. It is important to clarify the testing location with the manufacturer prior to punching hardness holes into areas of the parts that may be exposed after assembly. After all, manufacturers want their guns to look nice afterward. We have experienced delayed rusting on barrels due to the combination of steel wire and the 4150 barrel reacting to cause anodic corrosion after processing in a salt bath which would only expose itself after a few days. We would ship parts that were perfect, and two days later I would be on the phone with my customer trying to explain a mysterious rust line through the rifling in the barrel. We solved this with some tooling changes.

JJ: Frankly, it is no more challenging or different than heat treating any other parts for any other industry. Some parts are routine and some are challenging. Some materials are more challenging than others and some designs are more challenging than others.

Which parts are the most difficult and why?

BCM PNT™ Trigger Assembly Bravo Company USA

JQ: They all present challenges. Slides and barrels present challenges due to the non-symmetrical nature which require special setup procedures. These also tend to have lots of crevices and blind or small holes which trap quenchants, salts, cleaning materials which tend to lead to unhappy customers unless the parts are thoroughly cleaned. Magazines present challenges because they are thin steel stampings which tend to distort due to the quench and induced stressed relieving themselves during heating. I could write a book on the challenges we have faced with the processing of gun parts.

JJ: Parts that require carburizing which have been machined to a finished or near-finished state, with intricate designs, cut-outs, and varying cross sections are the most challenging; a perfect example of this is an AR bolt carrier.  This kind of challenge is why we developed our version of low-pressure vacuum carburizing, as we now don’t need to worry about severe quench distortion or carbon potential control. With traditional carburizing, the austenitizing temperature of the steel can change if too much carbon diffuses into the corners and edges.  This can lead to retained austenite and carbide formation.  Our process negates that phenomenon by using precisely controlled boost-diffuse controls instead of carbon potential.  Our process also leaves the parts bright, with no post carburizing blasting or cleaning operations required.

Is it the materials that make it difficult or is it the configuration of the part?

JQ: The materials tend to be common that most heat treaters have worked with before so from a metallurgical standpoint I would say that the materials are not the problem. The configuration of the parts is definitely worse. Non-symmetrical parts tend to distort more than symmetrical parts. It also makes it difficult to inspect the parts. Test in the wrong area and you have spring-back or rocking. As I mentioned earlier, if you test in the wrong area the customer cannot sell the part. Some gun manufacturers have test methods that are unconventional, testing a shallow case depth using an HRC scale, so that the hardness reading is a combination of the case hardness, case depth, and core hardness.

JJ: It seems like you are assuming it is difficult all of the time! Please see my answer to question 2 above.

Are there any other special processes or regulations that need to be followed when heat treating gun parts? If so, what are they?

JJ: This answer is not to be taken as legal advice. If you want to apply for an FFL, or you get an FFL, you need to know the regulation. It is serious business: if you don’t follow regulation, you could end up in prison. You need to keep detailed records of EVERY serialized component that you receive, process, and ship. You don’t want to be on the tail end of a missing part or parts, especially if you don’t know about it. If something goes missing you need to report it immediately. Of course, reporting it could mean losing your license. So my advice to anyone considering this is: BE GOOD AT TRACEABILITY and RECORD KEEPING!

We welcome your inquiries to and feedback on Heat Treat Today articles. Submit your questions/comments to editor@heattreattoday.com.

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Publisher’s Page: Manufacturers with In-House Heat Treat: Welcome to Heat Treat Today

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Heat Treat Today publishes four print magazines a year, and included in each is a letter from the publisher, Doug Glenn. This letter first appeared in Heat Treat Today‘s Trade Show edition, October 2018.

Doug Glenn, Publisher, Heat Treat Today

Aerospace, automotive, medical, and energy sector manufacturers who do their own in-house heat treating are a diverse and interesting group. And while they vary, they also share quite a bit in common – they all use heat and they all would prefer to not make mistakes.

That’s why, in early June 2016, Heat Treat Today went public on the web and has grown to be a helpful resource for this diverse group. With this premiere print issue, we’re hoping to enhance that helpfulness.

“We believe people are happier and make better decisions when they are well informed.”

After serving as the publisher of Industrial Heating magazine for 20 years (1994-2013), my wife and I decided to start our own heat treating publication and help the people and industry we’d grown to love over two decades. Our website clearly states WHY we’re doing what we’re doing: “We believe people are happier and make better decisions when they are well informed.” That’s why we’re here. We like making people happy. We like helping.

As you read through this first issue of Heat Treat Today, if you think of something that we could do to be more helpful, especially if it is something that will inform you and make you more happy, please contact us.

To-date, here are some of the helpful tools we’ve already launched – and I will say right here and now to “stay tuned” because there are more ideas in the works.

  • www.heattreattoday.com This is where it started. You can take a look if you haven’t done so already. Every weekday we post at least one new technical or news item on the site. We hope it’s helpful. Based on current feedback, it does.
  • Heat Treat Today’s Daily e-Newsletter. At first, we called this our “almost daily” e-newsletter because we’d miss a day here and there. But it has struck a chord and now we’re publishing ONE every weekday and blasting it out to thousands of heat treat industry leaders. You can subscribe by going to www.heattreattoday.com/subscribe and you can see a list of past 100 e-newsletters by Googling “Heat Treat Today Last 100 e-Newsletters.”
  • Heat Treat Radio. This is a fun one for me because I enjoy talking to people and learning about the products, processes, or technologies that they’re offering that might be of help to you. By the time this issue publishes in early October 2018, we’ll have roughly 15 episodes posted to the site. Check it out. Google “Heat Treat Radio” and click on the first NON-PAID result that comes up. Our goal is to do roughly 2 episodes every month. We’ll see! Let us know if you have a topic you’d like covered.
  • Heat Treat Consultants. This is one of my favorites because, to my knowledge, it is not being done anywhere else in the industry. Imagine this (which should not be too difficult to do!) – You’ve run into a heat treat problem in the plant. It might be a process problem, a material problem, or an equipment problem. The guy who just retired has historically been the “go-to” guy for things like this. Now, who do you go to? If there is no one in-house to whom you can turn, what are you going to do. Googling “heat treat help” isn’t going to save you any time. Up to this moment in time, there has not been a single place where you could go to get a list of ALL heat treat consultants at-a-glance. Now there is. Google “Heat Treat Today Consultants” and enjoy.
  • Heat Treat Shop. This is a monthly e-newsletter that has roughly 7 to 10 heat treat components, parts, services, or supplies that may or may not be of interest to you that month, but certainly will be of interest to you at some point in your heat treating journey. To subscribe, go to www.heattreattoday.com/subscribe.

This is where it starts. We have plenty of ideas on how we can help, but please let us know if you have something specific you’d like to see. Enjoy Heat Treat Today.

Publisher’s Page: Manufacturers with In-House Heat Treat: Welcome to Heat Treat Today Read More »

ThermProcess Summit Starts Tomorrow in Atlanta — You Should Be There

/ FEATURED NEWS, HEAT TREAT NEWS INDUSTRIES
Doug Glenn, Publisher, Heat Treat Today
Doug Glenn, Publisher, Heat Treat Today

A Special Message from Heat Treat Today publisher, Doug Glenn.

 

 

There are heat treat trade shows; then there is ITPS — the International ThermProcess Summit — being held this year, for only the second time in the USA, in Atlanta, Georgia, at the Intercontinental Hotel in Buckhead. This event is the premiere event for forward-thinking heat treat executives whether they be from manufacturers with in-house heat treat, from a contract heat treat shop, or from a supplier to the heat treat industry. This event is not so much an equipment and process event as it is a strategic planning event for high-level heat treat department heads or C-suite dwellers.

It would be good to register today and get to Atlanta ASAP if you have not done so already. Click here to register or go to www.itps-ifcs.com. Or you can just show up on-site. I’m sure they’ll let you in!

High-level, strategic planning is what this mostly-conference-with-some-table-top-exhibit event is all about.

Covey talks about taking time to “sharpen the saw” — this event is a saw-sharpening moment. You might run into some other like-minded people in organizations that would be advantageous for you to know — customers, competitors, vendors.

The event is organized by the Industrial Heating Equipment Association (www.ihea.org), and they are responsible for the high-level talks. Take a look at some of the excellent presentations.

These are just six of the more than 20 speakers who will be presenting at this event — ALL worth hearing.

To see the entire event brochure, click here, or visit the event’s website at www.itps-ifcs.com.

Both Industrial Heating magazine and Heat Treat Today are media sponsors.

It’s time to invest in some strategic planning time with your top executives. If you haven’t done so already, consider taking time to make a visit to Buckhead.

Hope to see you there.

 

 

ThermProcess Summit Starts Tomorrow in Atlanta — You Should Be There Read More »

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