Yesterday I bought a simple, gas-powered Craftsman lawnmower with a Briggs & Stratton engine. It wasn’t very fancy, it wasn’t self-propelled and it didn’t have a lot of “bells and whistles.” It did, however, happen to be exactly what I wanted – a basic workhorse lawnmower to cut grass at my daughter’s rental property.

There is a plethora of automotive news this month. Never before have I seen so much significant news coming out of the auto industry. We will do our best to parse it in this column and in the podcast.

As an editor in business-to-business media, I have watched for more than 30 years as good-paying manufacturing jobs slowly disappeared from the United States toward foreign countries eager to build up their economic prospects through basic manufacturing and job creation.

The cool thing about this treasure trove of technical information is that we are able to track what visitors look at – including articles that were posted in the early 2000s. 

With this issue, we continue the circle of life for FORGE magazine. For those of us who have been around since 2006, you are aware that FORGE started from Industrial Heating (IH).

Since January is the month we try to focus on new technologies and products impacting the thermal-processing industry, let’s take a look at some recent news items that have come across my desk (or rather appeared in my inbox).

It’s December, and it is time to focus my monthly musing on something other than “work.” Well, it’s not high-temperature metallurgy, but it might have a little to do with work.

It’s already November, which means it’s the time of year that we shine a spotlight on the aerospace segment of our industry. Aerospace involves such things as commercial jets, military, space travel, satellites and a variety of equipment (e.g., planes, helicopters, rockets, drones, etc.).

Another historically autumn ASM Heat Treat Show is in the rearview mirror, and it was great to see many of you there. That also means we are officially headed toward winter, which is significant for those of us in the Midwest or northeast.

The COVID pandemic cancelled or postponed a great many things in people’s lives, from graduations and weddings to concerts and vacations. Another one of the many affected events was in-person trade shows and seminars.