Sometimes the most useful ideas are those that are taken for granted. Frequently, those ideas – like the mousetrap – are hard to improve on. Such is the case for the sun visor. Introduced in the 1930s, the visor became an automotive fixture that remains much as it was introduced over 90 years ago.

Today’s blast furnaces are distant cousins to the iron works of the early colonial era. One such operation – possibly the first successful iron works in the colonies – is the Tubal Works in Virginia. Started by Colonel Alexander Spotswood nearly 300 years ago, it later became known as Spotswood Furnace.

Aalberts surface technologies, a global provider of specialized thermal-processing solutions, announced that its U.S.-based businesses will begin doing business as Aalberts surface technologies. This rebrand is part of a global rebranding initiative that Aalberts began in 2020. The U.S.-based businesses included in this phase of the rebranding initiative include Aalberts Surface Treatment, Precision Plating Company, Roy Metal Finishing, Ushers Machine and Tool, Accurate Brazing, Ionic Technologies, Applied Process and Premier Thermal.

Because of its unique properties, aluminum has been of key importance in many of the developments of the past century. Why only a century or so? Because although aluminum is the most abundant metallic element in the earth’s crust (8%), metallic aluminum was produced for the first time just 200 years ago. It was not until 1886 that a commercial process was developed – the Hall-Heroult process – to refine aluminum from alumina.

To fish, you need the right equipment, which definitely includes a hook. Have you noticed there are hooks of various sizes and shapes, some with barbs and some without? Why do the differences exist?

Harper International entered into an equipment supply agreement with Westwater Resources Inc. to produce custom-engineered systems for thermal purification of natural graphite. These furnace systems are a part of Westwater’s Phase 1 facility investment and will be installed at the Coosa Graphite production facility in Alabama. The supply contract includes the manufacture, installation and start-up services for Harper’s rotary and vertical furnace technologies. The systems will be capable of processing 7,500 metric tons of natural graphite per year by 2023.

Without heat treatment, many of the products we use daily – and take for granted – would need to be designed differently or would not function as effectively. One of these is the automotive seat-belt clasp. Before getting into some specifics of this part, however, let’s look at the history and benefits of these restraints.

There are a number of ways to join two metals together. Most of these involve some form of welding or brazing, with many variations in these techniques. One of the welding categories is solid-state welding, and one of the eight solid-state welding techniques – explosion welding (EXW) – meets a unique metal-joining need.    
 

A tunneling project to extend a subway line created interest in the large Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) being used. Just how does this 23-foot-diameter machine with a length of 200 feet and a weight of 1.2 million pounds cut 35 feet of tunnel every day, and how does thermal processing play a role?

The study of heat treatment and the metallurgy of metals is perhaps the oldest science known to man-kind. If one thinks about that statement, you realize that there was a time that humans used only stone for weapons and digging. Then came the age that carried man into the world of metals.