In terms of current industrial requirements, the most interesting subject to the writer is the treating for bio-implant items and “repairs” to components that are inserted into the human body.

It’s hard to believe how much has changed in the past year. When I wrote my annual April column in early March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t yet a reality in the United States.

France’s ECM Group launched ECM Lab Solutions, a division dedicated to helping laboratories develop innovative products and processes by offering advanced furnace technologies under one ECM Group brand. ECM Lab Solutions gathers all products from the ECM Group that are designed for research and development in four main fields: metallurgy and heat treatment, crystal growth, semiconductor and renewable energies.

With January being our month to focus on emerging technologies, here are a few of them that affect us as metallurgists and heat treaters.

This is the sixth and final part of David Pye's series on the heat treatment of small arms, guns and rifle barrels. Part 5 can be found here.

This is part 4 of David Pye's series on the heat treatment of small arms, guns and rifle barrels. Part 3 can be found here.

This is part 3 of David Pye's series on the heat treatment of small arms, guns and rifle barrels. Part 2 can be found here.

This is part 2 of David Pye's series on the heat treatment of small arms, guns and rifle barrels.

Many stakeholders involved in heat treating try to find answers as to why their products are discharged 100-300°F below the furnace setpoint temperature. We shall only consider continuous annealing furnaces used in metal heating for the purposes of this article.

This is the first of several blogs that will describe some of the heat-treatment practices conducted on, handguns, rifle barrels, sniper barrels and artillery (155-mm howitzer).