If you’re at all like me, you wonder which articles get the most attention on our website. Every year we publish around 45 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. This ranking applies only to articles published in 2020.

Solar Atmospheres of Western PA (SAWPA) successfully achieved Nadcap AC7101/4 accreditation for its captive metallography laboratory and became an approved Boeing Process Source (D1-4426). The accreditation will allow SAWPA to test for microhardness, surface contamination, intergranular oxidation and grain size in accordance with various aerospace specifications, including many Boeing process specifications. Furthermore, the accreditation will reduce SAWPA’s dependence on outside testing facilities and provide its customers with a single-source supplier capable of meeting all testing needs internally. Along with the laboratory accreditation, SAWPA continued the 24-month merit status for Nadcap heat treating.

A similar incident two years prior prompted the engine’s manufacturer, CFM International, to recommend inspections of fan blades on CFM56-7B engines with 20,000 cycles. All told, the FAA and CFM bulletins covered approximately 3,160 engines, or 76,320 separate fan blades.

Olympus, a manufacturer of nondestructive testing (NDT) solutions, supplied Hellier’s Houston, Texas, location with advanced NDT inspection equipment. The OmniScan X3 phased-array flaw detector with FMC/TFM and other Olympus instruments will be used to train the next generation of inspectors in ultrasonic testing (UT). Hellier provides NDT training and Level III services. At its locations around the United States, the company offers classroom, online and blended training, as well as NDT auditing and consulting. Olympus’ equipment enables students to work with the latest NDT technologies and software while adhering to most company and industry standards.

Industrial Heating, during a Q&A session at FNA 2020, announced that it will support the Reshoring Initiative with a $2,500 sponsorship. The mission of the Reshoring Initiative is to bring good, well-paying manufacturing jobs back to the United States by assisting companies to more accurately assess their total cost of offshoring and to shift collective thinking from offshoring is cheaper to local reduces the total cost of ownership. As part of this new relationship, the Reshoring Initiative will provide Industrial Heating with editorial content throughout 2021.

The AxSEAM scanner allows inspectors to easily set up and inspect long seam welds, enabling them to work more independently in the field.

SimpliVac is the first programmable castable mounting system that will expedite materials sample preparation in manufacturing quality control or inspection laboratories that work on testing small material parts or component samples.

Just like individuals, each business will have its unique challenges and some commonalities as well. For heat treaters, the need to maintain customer approvals, industry accreditations, equipment calibration and furnace efficiency are vital to their current and future ability to provide heat-treatment services. Yet these are not easy to achieve in optimal conditions, and today’s world is indisputably suboptimal. 

After much analysis, feedback from attendees and the uncertainty of COVID-19, the MTI Board of Trustees has approved transition to a virtual format for Furnaces North America 2020. Attendees will be able to experience the virtual exhibit hall for free. For those wanting to view the three live panel discussions and 35 technical sessions, FNA is offering a special for attendees of $199 for each of the first two registrants from a company and $49 for every person after that. To qualify, everyone must register on the same online registration form. 

Wall Colmonoy – as part of its plan to improve product development, technical support and advancement – invested approximately $627,000 in the Research & Development Laboratory at its Pontardawe-based European headquarters. The R&D Lab has developed into a fully comprehensive suite of analytical equipment for characterizing powders, including laser diffraction, chemical analysis, dry powder and fluid rheometry, and optical and electron microscopy. With a move into materials for additive manufacturing, where powder properties such as particle shape and size are often more critical, there was a need to expand analytical capabilities.