Tom Morrison

A Special Report by Doug Glenn, Publisher

Manufacturers with in-house heat treat would benefit from what’s going on this week in Scottsdale, Arizona. As many of you have expressed, experts are leaving your organizations, and they are not easy to replace.

Heat Treat Today recently had a manufacturer in the mid-Atlantic region call to say, “We need help with stress relieving!” They had nowhere to turn so they called us. This same type of thing is happening time and time again across the country as those with in-house heat treat knowledge retire or move on to other companies.

Where does a manufacturer with in-house heat treat turn for heat treating knowledge?

Besides subscribing to one of Heat Treat Today‘s regular newsletters and visiting the website periodically, in-house heat treaters can tap into the resources that have converged on Scottsdale this week. Starting today at the Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale, North America’s largest gathering of heat treating industry professionals are holding a combined meeting with two of the nation’s most prestigious thermal processing organizations:

• IHEA — The Industrial Heating Equipment Association with roughly 60-some company members is an organization of heating equipment manufacturers.
• MTI — The Metal Treating Institute is a network of over 300 commercial/contract heat treating companies and suppliers.

Both of these organizations have separate semi-annual meetings, but once every 3 years they have a combined mega-meeting that brings in one of the largest gatherings of heat treat intelligence in all of North America. Companies from Canada, Mexico, and the USA are represented. This week’s meeting has drawn over 200 attendees and is full of educational sessions and networking opportunities to keep North America’s heat treat minds fresh and progressive.

Companies with in-house heat treat should consider tapping into one or both of these organizations to help them fill the brain drain that is happening and will continue to happen over the next decade.

Brain drain is a real phenomenon.

Heat Treat Today spoke with one company who estimated that up to 60 percent of the heat treat brains in their organization will retire within the next 10 years. This is not an isolated case. Baby boomers, who make up the vast majority of today’s heat treat industry brain trust, are beginning to retire and there are not enough metallurgists graduating from North American universities to fill the gap. Where are these manufacturers with in-house heat treat going to turn for specific, real-life heat treat help?

Both MTI and IHEA encourage manufacturers with in-house heat treat to join their organizations. This would be a great place to start. Both of these organizations are capable of fielding nearly any heat treat-related questions and if they don’t know the answers, they know people who will know the answers.

Both organizations also provide excellent training programs targeted especially for manufacturers with in-house heat treat.

• IHEA’s combustion, safety, and induction seminars are all highly rated and reasonably priced. For more information on these courses, click here.
• MTI offers a wide spectrum of heat treating courses in their “Heat Treat Academy”. Some are free, some come at a price. Click here for more information on the Heat Treat Academy.

So, here is a challenge. If you are a manufacturer with in-house heat treat, and your company is located near Scottsdale, Arizona, I suggest you send one or more of your top heat treat personnel over to the Talking Stick hotel/resort/casino sometime on Tuesday or Wednesday to join in on the meetings of top heat treat minds. If you’re brave and compulsive enough to take the challenge, please send me an email and I’ll help make the arrangements.

Otherwise, think about joining one or both of these organizations.

Finally, you can always contact Heat Treat Today with any heat treat related problems or questions.