Non-Martensitic Transformation Products (NMTP)
Whether formed during a conventional quench and tempering process, carburizing, or induction hardening, non-martensitic transformation products (NMTP) are widely considered undesirable microstructural features. However,...
Performing a Temperature Uniformity Survey
Performing a temperature uniformity survey (TUS) can be somewhat of a daunting process. After all, a TUS carries the weight of not only being...
The State of Process Controls
It is hard to find a market segment that has not benefited from technology advancements. Heat-treating process control is no different. While there are...
Heat Treating, Furnaces, and Unintended Consequences
A few decades ago, my involvement with depleted uranium (DU) began in the metallurgical R&D department, developing program logic to heat treat DU in...
Q&A with Joe Stambaugh
Pease tell us a little about your background and company.
My education was in electromechanical technologies. I have spent my 40-year career working in the...
Coupling Alloy and Process Selection
Combining both alloying and processing into a single strategy to achieve a desired level of performance sounds like a simple concept, but can be...
Vacuum Furnace Leaks
The process of finding leaks in your vacuum heat-treating system can sometimes be a lengthy process. However, a deeper understanding of best practices for...
The Right Prepared Atmosphere
Furnace atmospheres are critical to meeting metallurgical specifications defined by control processes. The makeup of a furnace’s atmosphere in the heat-treating process varies based...
Furnace Types
Heat treating furnaces consist of several subassemblies: insulation (fiber and brick), heating systems (electric and gas), material handling, quenching, atmosphere system, process and control...
Q&A with Bill St. Thomas
Please tell us a little about your background.
I started in the heat treating industry back in the late 1960s working for one of my...
Carburizing Optimization & ECD Precise Control
As discussed in the September/October 2016 Metal Urgency column , carburizing is a nonsteady-state diffusion process and thus can be expressed by Fick’s second...
Extending the Hot Zone’s Life Span
One most commonly recommended procedure for making your equipment perform more effectively is to run a cleanup cycle, which removes contaminants from within the...
Pyrometry, Industry Standards, & Temperature Uniformity Surveys
In its simplest sense, pyrometry is the measurement of temperatures. Practically speaking, in the business of heat treatment, the term also refers to the...
Q&A with Andrew Bassett
How did ATP get started?
During the early 1990s, the National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program (Nadcap) began embracing all special processes, and we...
Q&A with George Barbour
Please tell us a little about Heavy Carbon Co.
The company began in 1995 as an idea for carburizing steel at a cleaner, faster rate...
Furnace Doors
No matter the configuration, single or multi-chamber vacuum, batch integral quench, continuous, or even pits — an item that all furnaces have in common...
Carbon Diffusion and Carburizing Parameter Selection
Although carburizing is a complicated process, it can be broken down into two main steps: carbon generation in the furnace and carbon diffusion into...
Thermal Process Modeling
Thermal process modeling has been a hot topic in the heat treating community over the past few years. The project conducted by ASM International...
Q&A with Bill Stuehr
Please tell us how Induction Tooling began.
In 1975, I was working as a process design engineer with a local commercial heat treating company. Several...
Stainless Steels
Kitchen sinks, refrigerator or oven doors, and tableware are what many people think of when they are asked what’s made from stainless steel (SS)....
