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

June 14, 2019 / PUBLISHER'S PAGE

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

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

March 15, 2019 / PUBLISHER'S PAGE

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.

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

October 19, 2018 / PUBLISHER'S PAGE

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.

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.

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