Sponsored by Houghton International and Linde Gas, the International Federation for Heat Treating and Surface Engineering Congress was held April 18 – 21 in Savannah, Georgia.
The conference was well attended, with 171 heat treaters and 20 exhibitors from 20 countries and every continent. The keynote speakers were industry leaders who covered topics of great importance to advancing heat treating technology and expanding applications.
The first keynote presenter was HKDH Bhadeshia, Tata Steel Professor of Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge. The recipient of the IFHTSE Medal, he presented an excellent talk on “Very Short and Very Long Heat Treatments in the Processing of Steel.” His thought-provoking and humorous talk showed a real connection with the audience, and demonstrated some fundamental concepts in a unique manner.
The second keynote was by Tobias Steiner, of Robert Bosch GmbH, Stuttgart, the 2014 winner of the Linde Tom Bell Young Author Award in Munich. His enlightening discussion of “Alloying Element Nitride Development in Ferritic Fe-Based Materials upon Nitriding,” demonstrated fully why he was chosen for the Tom Bell Award.
The final keynote was by Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Rolf Zenker of Zenker Consult in Mittweida, on “Surface Treatment by Electron Beams in Combination with Other Heat Treatment Technologies.” His presentation demonstrated the value of understanding technologies in addition to heat treating to improve surface properties.
Other presentations covered quenching, modeling, nitriding, and other advanced thermal processing technologies. One interesting paper was “Life Extension of Furnace and Fixture Alloys by Surface Engineering in Carburizing Atmospheres,” by Mr. Anbo Wang of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Student of Prof. Rick Sisson). This paper examined the practical benefits of prolonging the life of expensive high-nickel alloy fixtures.
The winner of the Linde Tom Bell Young Author Award for this Congress was Dr. Matteo Villa, Technical University of Denmark, for “The Sub-Zero Celsius Treatment of Stainless Steels: Experiments and Perspective.”
A special symposium on Residual Stress Prediction, Control, and Measurement was held in conjunction with the IFHTSE Congress. This symposium brought together many experts from the aerospace industry, including the USAF Materials Laboratory, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls Royce, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing, as well as experts from IWT Bremen, including Prof. Hans-Werner Zoch, and others from the automotive industry. It was a very exciting symposium with a excellent exchange of ideas between very different industries. A great deal of networking was accomplished.
A special thanks to the Domestic and International Organizing Committees; ASM Staff (Jeanelle Harden and Lindy Good); and sponsors Houghton International and Linde Gas, for an event that was well attended, well organized, and very informative.
— D. Scott MacKenzie, Houghton International Inc.
