If you’re at all like me, you wonder which articles get the most attention on our website. Every year we publish over 40 feature articles, and at the end of the year we gather statistics to see which ones get the most page views. So, without further ado, here are the five most-viewed articles on www.industrialheating.com based on page views in 2021. This ranking applies only to articles published in 2021.

Nichols Portland Inc. of Portland, Maine, acquired the assets of Alpha Precision Group LLC (APG) of St. Marys, Pa. Nichols, a portfolio company of Altus Capital Partners, designs and manufactures powder-metallurgy components for use in automotive and industrial applications. APG is a metal-forming technology company that provides conventional powder metal, high-temperature stainless steel powdered metal, metal injection molding and additive manufactured (3D metal printed) components and assemblies to a global customer base. APG operates five manufacturing plants in Pennsylvania and Michigan.

Industrial Heating is hosting three free webinars over the next three weeks, including two in the next couple of days. “Users of Industrial Hydrogen Look Beyond Delivered for Security of Supply” will be held tomorrow, November 30, at 11:00 a.m. (EST). “How to Help Your Customers Decide to Reshore” will be held Thursday, December 2, at 2:00 p.m. (EST), and “Grinding and Polishing of Sample Materials for Microstructural Analysis and Hardness Testing” will be held Tuesday, December 14, at 2:00 p.m. (EST). Registration for these webinars is free.

Registration for IHEA’s Fundamentals of Industrial Process Heating Online Learning Course is now open. Scheduled to begin January 17, 2022, the six-week class will run through February 27. The flexible online format and interactive forums are just some of the benefits of this class. The curriculum includes the basics of heat transfer, fuels and combustion, energy use, furnace design, refractories, automatic control, and atmospheres as applied to industrial process heating. Weekly coursework, quizzes and a final-exam project are administered to guide students on their progress and evaluate their knowledge of the material.

SSI Sintered Specialties (SSI) and ExOne Company jointly announced that SSI purchased two metal binder-jetting systems featuring ExOne's patented triple advanced compaction technology (ACT). The metal 3D printers are scheduled for delivery in the first half of 2022 and will be located at SSI’s headquarters in Janesville, Wis. The company’s 250,000-square-foot facility also houses what it says is the world’s largest installed capacity of high-temperature sintering furnaces and post-processing technology to support volume production in metal binder jetting.

This article discusses how sintering parameters, especially the atmosphere, can be optimized on vacuum furnaces to obtain the best-possible quality from sintered stainless steel parts.

Italy’s TAV Vacuum Furnaces received an order for a horizontal debinding and sintering vacuum furnace from a company focused on the design, development and production of braking systems. The furnace has useful dimensions of 31.5 inches wide x 31.5 inches high x 47.25 inches long (800 x 800 x 1,200 mm) with a maximum gross charge of 1,543 pounds (700 kg) and maximum operating temperature of 1022°F (550°C). It is equipped with a pumping unit, an AISI 310 retort for cycles up to 550°C and a forced-gas-circulation system. After pressing, the parts are placed inside the debinding furnace, where the binder is removed, pumped and trapped. Then the temperature is raised to carry out the sintering process. After a residence time at the maximum temperature, the heating is switched off and the retort is cooled.

ASM International and AGMA are committed to holding the 31^st Heat Treating Society Conference and Exposition (Heat Treat 2021) and the Motion + Power Technology Expo September 14-16 in St. Louis, Mo., and will not be canceling the events. Members want a platform to conduct business face‐to‐face, and it is our job to support that with our conferences and trade shows. The top priority remains the health and safety of all those who support the event on‐site. We have protocols in place and are working with America's Center Convention Complex, the city of St. Louis and our vendor partners to provide a safe environment for a successful in‐person event.

The Höganäs high-alloy facility in North America expanded operations with the completed construction of its fine powder atomization building in Johnstown, Pa. The 24,000-square-foot facility extends production capabilities to produce cost-effective solutions within the additive-manufacturing (AM), metal injection molding (MIM) and surface-coating markets, which is part of the company’s long-term strategy to further grow its high-alloy business.

Centorr Vacuum Industries, to satisfy multiple orders, is currently building two furnaces designed for the metal 3D-printing and metal injection molding (MIM) industries. Sintervac AM is designed for debinding and sintering. It is outfitted with a graphite hot zone and operates in vacuum, partial pressure or positive pressure of forming gas. It also has a dual trapping system to handle the process off-gassing from binder-jet 3D-manufactured parts. MIM-Vac, which has multi-zone temperature control for improved processing uniformity, has the ability to handle virtually any metal feedstock.