Peter Hushek

Where To Find Heat Treat Training

Special Report: Doug Glenn, Publisher

Doug Glenn, Publisher, Heat Treat Today
Doug Glenn, Publisher, Heat Treat Today

This is the third and final special report from the triennial mega-meeting hosted by the Metal Treating Institute (MTI) and the Industrial Heating Equipment Association (IHEA) and the pressing question that needs to be answered is: “Where do manufacturers with in-house heat treat departments find good training and troubleshooting resources?”

This three-day event with over 91 heat treat industry supplier companies represented and approximately 200 attendees addresses the “brain drain” topic we reported on in Monday’s special report (click here to read Monday’s post).

Pete Hushek, 2018 President of MTI talks about heat treat training for manufacturers with in-house heat treat
Pete Hushek, 2018 President of MTI, talks about heat treat training for manufacturers with in-house heat treat operations

Both organizations are offering training courses, both live and web-based, for manufacturers with in-house heat treat. Some of the specific courses are mentioned below. In addition to offering training, both organizations also offer memberships to these same companies.

For membership information, click on the appropriate links below:

  • For the Metal Treating Institute, click here.
  • For the Industrial Heating Equipment Association, click here.

 

For training, consider the following:

IHEA Training Opportunities

If you’re looking for comprehensive, face-to-face combustion training, consider attending IHEA’s Combustion Seminar. The next combustion seminar is scheduled for early October and a link to register will be up on the website (www.ihea.org) in the near future. You can also purchase a video recording of a recent Combustion Seminar by clicking here. The cost is $960 (less for IHEA members). The course includes the following (plus more):

  • chemistry and efficiency of combustion
  • types of industrial burners available and how they are applied for efficient operation
  • supply and control of the fuel and air for these systems including piping design and valve selection
  • flame safety requirements of combustion systems
  • process and ratio controls with exposure to micro-processor equipment
  • furnace pressure controls for operation and efficiency improvements
  • preheated combustion air and furnace recuperators
  • NOX and other emissions: what causes them and how to minimize them
  • infrared process heating overview and applications

IHEA also offers an Induction Webinar and a Safety Webinar for training your employees how to safely operate and work around heat treating equipment. The next iteration of these face-to-face seminars are scheduled for early October. Check back to IHEA’s website for exact details.

IHEA also offers a very comprehensive online training course which covers many of the fundamentals of heat treating. More information at https://www.ihea.org/events/event_list.asp.

MTI Training Opportunities

The MTI offers equally good training in its Online Academy (click here for more information). The course offering is broad and very professionally presented. The Online Academy comes at a very affordable price of $1,400-$2,800 per year for up to 10 “seats”.

The Academy for Heat Treaters has both technical and managerial content. With over 175 hours of training, there is a wide array of heat treat topics to help management and line personnel understand the technical aspects of heat treating as well as “think” like a heat treater.

Since its inception, the MTI Academy has held over 25,000 classes all across the world. It satisfies minimum training requirements for Nadcap, ISO, and most other certification bodies.

Sample MTI Certificate of Completion available for completing certain MTI Academy training courses.
Sample MTI Certificate of Completion available for completing certain MTI Academy training courses.

Within the Academy, students can earn four different certificates:

  • Qualified Furnace Operator Program (QFO)
  • Heat Treat Technical Specialist (HTTS)
  • Heat Treat Specialist Certificate (HTS)
  • Heat Treat Management Specialist Certificate (HTMS)

Courses can be purchased individually or through the Academy Annual Corporate Subscription Program which provides unlimited use of all 175+ hours of training for a heat treat plant.

There’s More

The above listing of courses is not all that can be said about the offering from either organization. More can be found at each organization’s website or by contacting me directly with any questions. Click here to send me an email.

With the need for training being real, both of these organizations have well-developed educational and training programs that are worth pursuing.

 

See the first two Special Reports by Heat Treat Today publisher Doug Glenn here:

“One Fix for Heat Treat Brain Drain”, Monday 4/23/18

“Special Report: MTI & IHEA Combined Meeting Photo Gallery”, Tuesday 4/24/18

Where To Find Heat Treat Training Read More »

Heat Treat CEO Comments on 3D TUS Tool

Shaymus Hudson - Heat Treat Radio #5Mr. William Jones, CEO of the Solar Atmosphere Group of Companies, listened with interest to the recent Heat Treat Radio podcast featuring Phoenix Heat Treating president, Peter Hushek. Peter introduced a new 3D TUS tool, Virtual Visual Surveys.

Below, Mr. Jones offers his comments about this new tool and TUS practices in general.

If you’d like to listen to the Heat Treat Radio episode that sparked these comments, click here.

Please note that immediately following Mr. Jones’ comments is a response from Peter Hushek.


Unedited comments from Mr. Bill Jones, CEO, Solar Atmospheres & Solar Manufacturing…

Like Peter Hushek we have been in this TUS business for more time than we like to remember. So, most up to date HT companies track our TUS data on paperless video recorders and down load onto an Excel spread sheet and plot out the data a minimum of every 30 seconds. This is done with a preprogrammed digital temperature controller thru the necessary ramps, soaks, and set points. The Excel spread sheets also contains all the survey and controller TC correction factors. Prior to the survey each data point contains the preset temperature controller PID parameters. All survey TC’s are set into their preset locations per AMS 2750E with careful notation to position and correct TC length and care for equal hot / cold lengths. Prior to survey each electronic instrument is checked with a calibrated thermocouple millivolt run-up box and each instrument calibrated. Normally midafternoon each furnace under test is set up thus and the survey to run preprogrammed overnight. Our QC department downloads the data, reviews and makes the pass fail decision, within a few hours, the next day. If the TUS failed back to maintenance to look into the issues, make corrections and rerun the TUS. Problems are not always furnace related but thermocouple, TC position, jack panel, jack panel wiring, instrumentation, and numerous other issues. I view the VVS 3D presentation as an aide but only part of the story”.

William R. Jones, CEO, FASM
Solar Atmospheres Inc.
Souderton, Pa.

More about Solar Atmospheres? www.solaratm.com


And Peter Hushek’s unedited response to Mr. Jones’ comments…

In regards to the response from the listener I can say he makes some valid points.  There are many issues that can affect the outcome of a TUS.  We realize that the evaluation of the furnace uniformity involves many aspects and we are only addressing the data generated by the process.  We believe that when companies begin the process of actual data analytics they will become more aware of the process and improve the quality of their processing as a result.  VVS is only beginning to scratch the surface of the data flow that occurs daily in processing companies.  We look to greater innovation through customer supplier interface as well and technological improvements that can be used as feed stock to improve future generations of this software.  We are only starting the process and I hope the market realizes that this is not a static process or company.


If you haven’t done so already, clicking here to listen to the Heat Treat Radio episode being discussed above.

To find out more about VVS, go to www.virtualvisualsurveys.com.

Peter Hushek. Heat Treat Radio podcast - President of Phoenix Heat Treating

Heat Treat CEO Comments on 3D TUS Tool Read More »

Heat Treat Radio #6: Peter Hushek on Reducing TUS Failures

Welcome to another episode of Heat Treat Radio, a periodic podcast where Heat Treat Radio host, Doug Glenn, discusses cutting-edge topics with industry-leading personalities. Below, you can either listen to the podcast by clicking on the audio play button, or you can read an edited version of the transcript. To see a complete list of other Heat Treat Radio episodes, click here.


Audio: Heat Treat Radio: Peter Hushek on Reducing TUS Failures

In this conversation, Heat Treat Radio host, Doug Glenn, interviews Peter Hushek about Virtual Visual Surveys, a new 3D software that will help minimize temperature uniformity survey failures. Listen to Peter’s description of how this innovative new tool can help aerospace heat treaters know what’s going on inside the furnace during a TUS.

Click the play button below to listen.

 

Doug Glenn, Publisher, Heat Treat Today
Doug Glenn, Heat Treat Today publisher and Heat Treat Radio host.

To find other Heat Treat Radio episodes, go to www.heattreattoday.com/radio and look in the list of Heat Treat Radio episodes listed.

 

Heat Treat Radio #6: Peter Hushek on Reducing TUS Failures Read More »

3D TUS Software Released to Heat Treat Market

Photography by Quang Nguyen

Long-time heat treating expert, Peter Huskek of Phoenix Heat Treating, a fourth generation commercial heat treating institution, is branching out into the computer simulation arena with a very impressive, 3D temperature uniformity survey (TUS) reporting tool called Virtual Visual Surveys (www.virtualvisualsurveys.com). What Mr. Hushek and his team, including key developer Jeff Murch, have developed under the company name of Thermal Innovation Technologies, Inc., is a 3D visualization tool capable of showing furnace operators what their furnace uniformity looks like. This 3D visualization software helps quality personnel know if a furnace will pass a TUS, and if not why. It also allows maintenance personnel the opportunity to isolate and diagnose problem areas within the work area of the furnace. The 3D visualization package is offered as a service. For more information, visit www.virtualvisualsurveys.com.

3D TUS Software Released to Heat Treat Market Read More »

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