In the mid-1990s, representatives of the heat treating community, related organizations and the U.S. Dept. of Energy met to establish a vision of how heat treaters could become more efficient and better at what they did. Why the attention? Because DOE identified seven U.S. industries (now nine) as Industries of the Future and wherever metals were involved with those industries, you would find heat treating. Heat treated parts are essential to the operation of automobiles, aircraft, spacecraft and computers, and are essential in industries such as the chemical/petrochemical process industry, power generation, and much more. Tooling, cutting tools, bearings, gears, axles, fasteners, camshafts and crankshafts are just a few of the components whose satisfactory performance depends on heat treating. And while iron and steel account for the majority of heat treated materials, aluminum, copper, magnesium, nickel and titanium also are heat treated.

It's interesting that many of these common manufactured products and industries that we take for granted happen to be considered as great engineering accomplishments of the past 100 years in a list I saw recently. The Top 20 Engineering Breakthroughs of the 20th century was put together by the National Academy of Engineering along with the American Association of Engineering Societies and other engineering societies. The interesting thing about the list is how important thermal processing/heat treating is in nearly all the technology areas.

The top 20 engineering feats are:

1. Electrification (power generation)

2. Automobile

3. Airplane

4. Safe, abundant water

5. Electronics

6. Radio and television

7. Agricultural mechanization

8. Computers

9. Telephone

10. Air conditioning and refrigeration

11. Interstate highways

12. Space exploration

13. Internet

14. Imaging technologies

15. Household appliances

16. Health technologies

17. Petroleum and gas technologies

18. Laser and fiber optics

19. Nuclear technologies

20. High-performance materials

The rapid advancements in science and technology are sure to result in unimaginable breakthroughs in engineering during the next 100 years, and you can be sure that thermal processing will be an integral part. IH