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ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES •
JUNE 2014
38
ASM to Lead Thermal Manufacturing Industries
Advanced Technology Consortium
hermal manufacturing, consisting of heat treating, melting, and other process heating methods, is used in nearly every
manufacturing facility in the U.S. It affects the employment of an estimated 8.3 million Americans at more than 262,000
companies, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The Bureau says these companies (98% of which are small and
medium enterprises) produce $3.4 trillion in total value of annual shipments.
Advanced thermal manufacturing technologies potentially can improve the efficiency, productivity, and global
competitiveness of many U.S. materials manufacturing and value-added, end-user industries. However, technical
challenges identified in previous roadmapping efforts (such as the Heat Treating Technology Road Map) are still
preventing development and deployment of these technologies. The main reason is because these roadmaps were
developed independently from one another by different industries that rely on or supply thermal equipment and
processes as a critical part of their operations. Understandably, these thermal manufacturing industries focused
primarily on their specific areas of interest. As a result, there has been a lack of the necessary coordination and
critical mass needed to address the technical challenges facing these industries. In addition, there has been an in-
complete transfer of available technologies to the small and medium enterprises that make up a large segment of
the thermal manufacturing industries.
To address these issues, the proposed Thermal Manufacturing Industries Advanced Technology Consortium (TMI
ATC) will be formed to lead and coordinate a national
effort to develop and deploy advanced manufactur-
ing technologies across the broad thermal manufac-
turing
community,
including
equipment
manufacturers and end users. Specifically, TMI ATC
will lead the development of a comprehensive R&D
roadmap that identifies common thermal manufac-
turing needs across industries and solicits the input
from key stakeholders in highly interactive, action-
oriented technology roadmapping workshops. The
results of these sessions will identify advanced man-
ufacturing technologies ready for implementation in
thermal manufacturing industries as well as high-pri-
ority areas for development. This 18-month process
will generate a final roadmap in the first year, and will
then begin to implement the recommendations dur-
ing the remaining months.
The proposed structure of the consortium will facili-
tate technology implementation and sustainability.
TMI ATC will be led by ASM International through a
federal grant. ASM, from its founding roots, and now
primarily through its affiliate Heat Treating Society,
is a leader in collecting and disseminating thermal-
manufacturing information, and has many relation-
ships with industrial companies.
The ASMHeat Treating Society has been involved for
the past 15 years in identifying and prioritizing key
initiatives in heat treating-related areas of equipment
and hardware materials technology, processes and
heat treated materials technology, and energy and en-
vironment technology. This puts the society in a
prime position to extend this work with the coopera-
tion of other consortium participants.
Ed Kubel
Contributing Editor
HTPRO
2
T
New Face for
Heat Treating Society Website
The Heat Treating Society (HTS) website joined the ASM International
website on the new technology platform. What can you expect with
this new development?
One ID, One Password –
If you login to the ASMwebsite, you will au-
tomatically be signed in if
you navigate to the Affil-
iate website (and vice-
versa). One ID/email
address and one pass-
word for the ASM and
ASM Affiliate websites.
Fast Checkout –
The
new, overhauled check-
out process is designed
after well-known Inter-
net commerce vendors.
When you add a purchase to your shopping cart on your Affiliate web-
site, you can also take advantage of adding products through the ASM
website “Store.” In addition, you can “Checkout as Guest,” which speeds
up and minimizes the time to register on the website.
Find Content Easier –
New ability to find content by Subject, Resource
Type, Publication Date, and Author to find exactly what you are look-
ing for to solve materials problems quickly and easily.
Easier Reading –
Enlarged text adds to a simplified look and feel.
More Connections –
Profile pictures can now be uploaded to the
Member Directory, which can help with recognition at networking
events.
Universal Content Management –
One database, one version of the
entire collection of ASM content.
It is an entirely new look and feel.
Be sure to check it out!
http://hts.asminternational.org.