November AMP_Digital

A D V A N C E D M A T E R I A L S & P R O C E S S E S | N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 3 6 iTSSe TSS iTSSe TSS 2 TSS TOPICALS: FROM EXPERIMENT TO ONGOING SUCCESS W hen writing this editorial, I had recently returned from TSS’s latest topical event, TS4E in Boucherville, Quebec. This conference brought together many of the leading researchers of suspension and solution thermal spray technology. The meeting was highly successful, with re- cord attendance of 127 attendees for TSS topical events. This positive outcome made me think back to the origin of these topical conferences and how the idea has become a great suc- cess for TSS and ASM. Most of our readers are aware that the flagship TSS con- ference, ITSC, is held every three years in North America. The other two years the event is held in Europe or the Pacific Rim. When the meeting is held in Europe, the German Welding So- ciety (DVS) is responsible for organizing the majority of the conference. In the Pacific Rim, the organizing of the confer- ence and trade show is shared between local thermal spray organizations such as the Japan Thermal Spray Society and China Thermal Spray Society. Back in 2007, TSS made the de- cision to rotate ITSC throughout the world instead of holding it each year in North America. This decision had great foresight in helping to grow the community and technology of thermal spray by further exposing the technologies and enhancing the collaboration for manymore users, researchers, and suppliers. However, this unselfish decision by the TSS leadership had a cost, as the revenues from ITSC were now shared with other organizations, and this occurred at a time when the fi- nancial stability of TSS was not as strong as it is today. Fortu- nately, the void this decision created sparked the beginning of the TSS topicals, with the first event being TSS Cold Spray 2007. This experiment was a great suc- cess, and it showed TSS how to become more financially stable in years when ITSC is not held in North America. It also enabled further scientific collaboration for the thermal spray community. There were many TSS members who helped craft the idea of the first top- ical, but TSS Hall of Famers Mark Smith, Chris Berndt, Bob Tucker, Al Kay, and Richard Knight deserve most of the credit. Their visionary idea has helped strengthen TSS through 10 subsequent topicals since the first in 2007. Many volunteers have followed in the footsteps of the original topical founders by organizing the nu- merous other TSS topical conferences. Most recently, the society thanks the TS4E 2019 organiz- ers Rogerio Lima and Christian Moreau for showing the society that topical conferences can be taken to a new level of success. Already well into the planning stages, the next topical confer- ence, North America Cold Spray 2020, is being organized by Charlie Kay and Peter Richter. This event already has the add- ed excitement of being co-located with ASM’s inaugural IMAT 2020 conference next September 15-16, in Cleveland. Let the success continue! Bill Lenling, FASM, TSS-HoF ASM Thermal Spray Society Vice President Founder/CTO, Thermal Spray Technologies Inc. EDITORIAL Lenling