Manufacturers of automotive and aerospace parts, medical devices, robots and machine components depend on advances in metals processing to address a range of challenges, often simultaneously. This includes the need for lighter-weight and higher-strength components, performance at temperature extremes, rapid prototyping and manufacturing, superior surface quality and durability and, of course, controlling production costs.

This article reviews industrial-gas technologies that the metals industry can use to respond, improve and even help transform advanced metal-parts manufacturing and processing.

The process of heat treating is often the most overlooked step in producing quality metal components for automotive applications, but it is usually the first process suspected if there are any deficiencies in quality or final product performance.