HeatTreatDoctor
Yesterday’s SecoW seminar program was only interesting in that Tom Hart’s questions were answered by the well-known Daniel H. Herring, The Heat Treat Doctor.
If anyone is the concentrated worldwide knowledge of heat treatment in one person, it is this person. It is a great honour for me to share a profile with him on the HeatTreatToday website. And what was he talking about today? About the future of our field. And how will it be?
Above all, it will be different. With EV, an era of heat treatment is ending. The next future will depend on where electromobility moves, the aviation and space industry, as well as the defense industry … but it is rather meant as “offensive”. But what Dan has mentioned many times, everything will revolve around the vacuum. Vacuum hardening in gas, in oil, LPC, LPN, plasma, brazing, AM technologies. It is one of the few ways to ensure the path to ecology and friendliness.
In order for people to be willing to work in such operations as the iheat treatment plant in the future, the environment must be attractive and motivating. Dan talked about the generation of clean hands and dirty hands. The latter will be on the decline, and therefore the field of heat treatment, which is not amenable to large-scale robotization, especially in the case of commercial heat treatment shops, will have to take this direction. That doesn’t work very well with atmospheric ovens.
He also mentioned that the heat treater is satisfied and feels comfortable when, if it penetrates into the secrets of the furnace, it can accurately predict what will happen in it so that the resulting structure is OK. Vacuum ovens fulfill this. It is therefore necessary to think about the social aspect, the attractiveness of not only the environment, but also the technology. If this is the case, there will be no shortage of staff.
From his point of view, vacuum is for laymen, atmospheric furnaces need many years of experience, which can only be acquired through years of practice. The vacuum is green, and it is also 100% safe.
As for captive heat treatment plants, they focus on not burdening the final product too much with their costs. The quality level of the product is not only the heat treatment, but the quality of all process steps. Therefore, these captive heat treatment shops will not be very progressive and will focus only on the most essential things and on the effectiveness of the final product. The profitability of the product is then determined by the process steps as a whole, and the heat treatment is lost in this.
The opposite is the case with commercial heat treatment shops, where the emphasis is on progress and the future. Every such heatr treater must survive even in a few years, i.e. it must operate technology that is still in demand, corresponding to its time and the future, and at the same time efficiently. They are therefore carriers of progressiveness.
The world will change from large batches and furnaces, to smaller batches, but working faster. So, everything will be different…
So up to new challenges…. If it’s not too late.
September 29, 2022
Jiří Stanislav
