Heat treatment plays an important and – most would agree – critical role in gear manufacturing.

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

Just how clear is your crystal ball? Over the past two years, The Doctor has had the good fortune of interacting with a large number of industrial clients and industry professionals from all over the globe.

Thinking back to our high-school days often brings a smile to our faces. As a freshman, the daunting task of picking a foreign language to study fell to The Doctor’s mother, who immediately chose Latin for him.

Some say we are on the cusp of another industrial revolution, namely the decentralization of manufacturing heralded by the growth of additive-manufacturing (AM) technology.

The father of the endothermic gas generator was a gentleman by the name of Norbert K. Koebel, who was fond of saying to young engineers such as The Doctor, “Treat ‘em right, and they’ll treat you right.” He knew that the endothermic gas generator was the heart of any atmosphere heat-treat operation.

Heat treatment is an energy user and all too often an energy abuser. Given the significant amounts of energy needed to run a typical process, this translates into a huge cost to the heat treater.

How can one ever forget the smell of burning shoe leather? In the early 1970s, The Doctor, with the soles of his shoes literally melting away, was working atop a pusher carburizer to change one of those newfangled oxygen-probe sensors.

There is an old adage that says, “If you don’t know it, know where to find it.” Given the information age in which we live, with the Internet at our fingertips and “ask Siri” or “Alexa, what is…” at our beck and call, solving problems and getting answers to our questions seems faster and easier than ever before.