The Industrial Heating Equipment Association (IHEA) brings industrial process-heating professionals together to provide combustion and safety education for the industry each and every fall. This year will look different, but IHEA will still deliver essential content through a virtual platform.

The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) released its 2019 Annual Statistical Report, which provides comprehensive data on the U.S. steel industry and select data on the North American steel industry as a whole. The report highlights that shipments from domestic steel mills measured 96.1 million net tons in 2019, up 0.9% from the previous year. U.S. raw steel production was 96.7 million net tons in 2019, a 1.3% increase from 2018.

Aluminum Association President and CEO Tom Dobbins issued the following statement in response to the announcement by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) removing recently reimplemented tariffs on imports of unwrought, or P1020, aluminum from Canada into the United States. The decision was made after “the United States … determined that trade in non-alloyed, unwrought aluminum is likely to normalize in the last four months of 2020, with imports declining sharply from the surges experienced earlier in the year,” consistent with industry expectations.

Denmark’s Mountain Top Industries, which manufacturers aluminum roll covers for pickup trucks, plans to invest $13.3 million to open a 73,000-square-foot facility in Montgomery, Ala. The plant will create 90 full-time jobs. In addition to Denmark, the company also has design and production facilities in Australia and Thailand.

SMS group received an order from Outokumpu for the supply of an atomization plant for the production of high-quality stainless steel powder used in additive manufacturing. The plant, which is scheduled to become operational in early 2022, will be designed for an annual production of up to 330 tons of stainless steel powder. It will include an induction melter, atomizer, two cyclones and filter elements. The powder atomization plant will be designed for the complete process to take place in an inert atmosphere.

Sintavia, LLC, a metal additive manufacturer, entered into an agreement to collaborate with Siemens Digital Industries Software on the development of an end-to-end additive-manufacturing (AM) software solution as a part of Siemens’ Xcelerator portfolio. Sintavia will provide testing and technical feedback on pre-released software that will be part of future AM solutions. In exchange, Sintavia becomes a preferred AM partner of Siemens and gains access to the software in advance of the market, along with technical support for its implementation.

Editor Reed Miller has a one-on-one chat with Marc Glasser, Rolled Alloys’ director of metallurgical services. They talk about furnace alloys and what might be cheap compared to what is the best value for your furnace operations.

Quintus Technologies delivered what it says is the world’s fastest fan-driven hot isostatic press (HIP) to Italy’s PRES-X, a start-up established to meet the post-production needs of 3D-printed metal components. The HIP’s high-pressure heat-treatment (HPHT) capability makes it possible to eliminate several operations in the AM production line. With Quintus’s proprietary uniform rapid cooling (URC) technology, a cooling rate of 1500K/minute can be achieved while minimizing thermal distortion and non-uniform grain growth, producing finished 3D-printed parts with optimal material properties.

L&L Special Furnace Co. Inc. shipped a high-temperature box furnace to a government defense organization located in the southeastern United States. The medium-sized furnace will be used for military ceramic-composite development along with research and development for other components. The furnace, which has a work zone of 24 inches wide x 18 inches high x 36 inches deep, is rated for continuous operating temperatures up to 2500°F (1371°C). It comes equipped with silicon-carbide heating elements for high-temperature operation.

Global Control Pte Ltd., a heating-system original equipment manufacturer (OEM), is incorporating Honeywell technologies, including the ControlEdge HC900 controller, into its heat-treatment solutions. The company expects the controls to help its customers improve their asset performance, reduce their inventory and lifecycle costs, and save energy. When integrated into Global Control’s furnaces and ovens, ControlEdge HC900 provides new end-user capabilities such as simplified process ID (PID) execution. It also eliminates the requirement for an external controller, reducing overall maintenance requirements, and provides end users with the flexibility to run temperature profiles directly from the human-machine interface instead of downloading the program in the controller every time they use it.