Thermal Processing Magazine

D. Scott MacKenzie received the 2025 George H. Bodeen Heat Treating Achievement Award in recognition of his contributions to advancing quenching technology and dedication to training within the heat treat industry. Last month, I discussed the different types of titanium alloys. In this column, I will discuss the heat treatment of alpha and near alpha, alpha-beta, and beta and metastable-beta titanium alloys.

Become part of a community dedicated to advancing the thermal processing industry through education, collaboration, and innovation. IHEA members play an active role in developing programs and initiatives that address today’s challenges and drive meaningful progress across the industry. Why Join IHEA? Contribute to industry education on sustainability and evolving energy challenges. Access trusted, unbiased technical resources and insights.

Thermocouples are one of the most practical and widely used tools for gathering time/temperature data in thermal processing environments. Ranging from laboratory-scale experiments to full industrial heat-treatment operations, these sensors provide direct insight into how materials respond to heating and cooling cycles.

Post weld heat treatment on large pressure vessels is not a simple operation. When a vessel weighs hundreds of thousands of pounds, spans 70 to 100 feet in length, and carries a wall thickness measured in inches rather than fractions, every decision made during setup and execution has consequences. Do it right and you relieve residual weld stresses, improve toughness, and send a code-compliant vessel into service. Get it wrong and you may not know until something fails in the field.

What is the European Innovation Centre for Industrial Transformation Emissions (INCITE) web platform? The INCITE platform is a public digital initiative by the European Commission, developed by JRC in Seville under the EU Industrial Emission Directive (IED 2.0). Launched in 2024, it aims to identify, assess, and showcase innovative industrial techniques that improve environmental performance, particularly in energy-intensive sectors such as steel.

Decarbonization efforts are becoming a more urgent priority among heat-treat businesses, both big and small. Government directives guiding companies in Europe will eventually affect U.S. businesses that want to continue to work with their overseas customers. In an effort to bring these carbon-reduction initiatives to the forefront, the Cluster for Industrial Decarbonization (CDI) is working with companies to identify ways they can make their processes more environmentally friendly.

7th Asian Conference on Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering September 10-12, 2026 Chengdu, China The 7th Asian Conference on Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering of Materials (7ACHTSE2026) will be in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China, September 10-12, 2026.

Cold spraying additive manufacturing (CSAM) Ti exhibits minimal plasticity, posing a significant challenge to its broader application. Heat treatment is recognized as a potent strategy to enhance the mechanical properties of additive manufacturing parts. However, prior investigations have struggled to discern the genuine impact of heat treatment on CSAM Ti due to the high porosity in initial deposits. This study addresses this gap by fabricating CSAM Ti deposits with a low porosity of 2.76%.

Machine shops exist across the U.S. in all shapes and sizes; however, that “uniqueness” can sometimes cause customers to question consistency in the final product. But what if machine shops could be franchised like a fast-food chain? In hindsight, it seems like a no-brainer, but it took the minds behind Isembard to make the franchising of machine shops a reality.

The piezoelectric ceramic coating, [0.94(Bi0.5Na0.5)TiO3-0.06BaTiO3]0.98-(LiNbO3)0.02 (BNBTLN), was fabricated by thermal spray process on stainless steel substrates with thermal barrier coating (TBC) as an intermediary layer. The morphology, structure, and electrical properties of the thermal-sprayed BNBTLN coatings after furnace heat treatment (F-HT) and plasma torch heat treatment (P-HT) were studied, respectively.