Having the right tools in our toolbox or knowing who to call and rely on makes any job go easier, faster and better.

I know that some of you reading this column are on board with memberships in our industry associations – Metal Treating Institute (MTI) and Industrial Heating Equipment Association (IHEA).

After spending two years as a retail sales associate and five years handling industrial equipment telephone support calls, it became abundantly clear that the experience one creates for their customer can be even more important than having the fast/easy solution.

Heat treaters like precision. When asked to achieve a given hardness value after heat treating a piece of steel, there is comfort in designing a recipe that achieves this hardness and then, by control of process and equipment variability, repeat the process and results time after time.

Additive manufacturing (AM) is changing how we think about making parts from metal.

In today’s marketplace, from the start of a college education to the day we retire, change is inevitable. The science of heat treat has been around for over 100 years.

Manufacturers of all types account for approximately one-third of GDP and national employment. For every employee in the industrial base, four others are employed elsewhere based on that manufacturing output.

As we shine the “light” on nonferrous this month, don’t miss what’s included in this issue. The Heat Treat Doctor® discusses the nonferrous topic of overaging.

Although Contour has been in business for over 30 years, the Indianapolis, Ind.-based company has gone through quite an evolution.

Customer Relationship Management software, or CRM as it is more commonly known, has traditionally been recognized as a sales tool.