As your newly appointed 2014 MTI President, I wish to personally thank you for the opportunity to serve the Metal Treating Institute. After being a member of the MTI for over 30 years, it is most humbling for me to lead this 80-year-old, tradition-rich institute.

In 1933, as the steel industry was developing throughout North America, steel treating was a trade that was solely controlled and carefully guarded by the blacksmith. As the blacksmith began to evolve, our metallurgical predecessors encountered many obstacles. Some of the difficulties they encountered 80 years ago were:

•          Establishing robust material and corresponding heat-treating standards

•          Battling formidable intellectual-property rights  of steel chemistries by steel mills

•          Training of heat-treating personnel became a necessity as steel production increased

•          Financial issues became reality, especially during economic downturns

•          Desperate need for professional technical knowledge in heat-treating arenas

In 1933, prominent leaders realized that in order to promote the heat-treating industry they must band together (God forbid) as competitors. These astute pioneers were names such as Lindberg (Lindberg HT), Hoensheid (Commercial Steel Treat), Salkover (Queen City HT) and Knerr (Metlab HT). These forefathers of our heat-treating industry decided they needed to change their culture in order to exist. They knew it was imperative for them to put down their natural competitive guard and begin to learn how to share for the good of our industry.

Today, we continue to learn how to share within our MTI community. There is not a week that goes by where MTI members do not share:

•          NAM and CME governmental initiatives

•          Our newly designed audit finding portal

•          Benchmarking results

•          Training from our online academy

•          Safety issues

•          ITAR/EAR matters

As much as some things have changed within our industry over the past 80 years, many issues remain the same. From humble beginnings at the Hotel Statler in Detroit in 1933, we have grown exponentially from 14 members to 343 members today. With almost $1 million in the bank, it is the desire of your Board of Trustees to remain fiscally viable while still reinvesting those funds back into our industry.

Thank you for being a member of MTI. Tom Morrison and Associates, the Board of Directors and I sincerely look forward to serving you and your company’s needs today, as well as into the future.