Fire and Steel

Michael Pendley, General Manager of National Heat Treat, spoke at the annual Oktoberfest meeting of the Houston Chapter of ASM International. In his presentation, entitled "Secrets of the Heat Treating Industry," Mr. Pendley covered a number of interesting topics including "Things Your Heat Treater Wants You Know," "Heat Treating Hacks for Manufacturing Mistakes," "Insider Secrets of the Heat Treating Industry," and "How to Choose a Heat Treater." The presentation was enthusiastically received by the audience of over hundred men and women representing a cross section of the materials engineering community in the energy capital of the world.

The Oktoberfest meeting is an annual tradition of the Houston Chapter. St. Arnolds, a craft brewery near downtown Houston, hosts the meeting in their expansive upstairs meeting hall featuring windows which afford a view of the large stainless steel vessels on the brewery floor. Meeting attendees not only enjoyed the technical presentation and networking opportunities, but were able to get a first-hand look at the beer making process.

The Houston Chapter of ASM International will hold its annual Oktoberfest meeting on Tuesday evening, October 1 at St. Arnold's Brewery in Houston, Texas. The technical presentation will be given by Michael Pendley, General Manager of National Heat Treat. The topic of his address is "Secrets of the Heat Treating Industry". Michael will take the audience on the inside of the heat treating industry, revealing valuable insider tips and secrets including:

• How to select a heat treater.
• Free services available from your heat treater.
• Heat treating hacks for manufacturing mistakes.
• What heat treaters wish you knew.
• Common heat treating mistakes to avoid.

Click here for more information on the meeting.

On 6 June 1944, the pivotal battle in World War II took place as the Allies crossed the English Channel to breach Nazi Germany's Atlantic Wall and establish a beachhead on the Continent. The legendary courage exhibited by the men who landed on the beaches of Normandy on that historic day needs no additional embellishment here. Instead, we will pay tribute to another contributor which helped win the day for the good guys - the American steel industry. The battleships, landing craft, tanks, trucks, artillery, bombs, and all other types of military ordnance used in the D-Day invasion were made from carbon steel produced in Pittsburgh, Birmingham, and other American cities. Hitler's "wonder weapons" such as the V2 rocket and the Me 262 jet fighter were impressive technological feats, but in the end, the Axis Powers were overwhelmed by America's industrial might and the courage of her fighting men. Today, National Heat Treat is proud to carry on that tradition as we serve the defense industry in protecting America in the 21^st century.

National Heat Treat is proud to announce another significant addition to our staff as Brian Taylor becomes our Business Development Manager. Brian has been in the heat treating business all of his adult life, starting way back in 1979. He has a lot of expertise with all kinds of heat treating equipment, processes, and materials, but maintains that technical know-how alone is not enough.

"Customer service and quality work are the most important factors in operating a successful heat treating business," Brian states. "It may sound like a cliché – but it really does have to be done right and done on-time, every time."

We hope you will join Brian's many friends and associates in the Houston heat treating community in extending congratulations to him on his new position.

March 3 marked the 176^th birthday of William Chandler Roberts-Austen (3 March 1843 – 22 November 1902). Austen was an English metallurgist known for his work in physical metallurgy. He invented an automatic recording pyrometer and played a key role in the development of the binary phase diagram.

Roberts-Austen had quite a career. After graduating from the Royal School of Mines in 1865, he held a succession of positions including Assistant to the Master of the Mint, Chemist of the Royal Mint, and Professor of Royal Metallurgy of the School of Mines. He became a world-recognized authority on the minting of coins.

Roberts-Austen was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1896 and was knighted in 1899. The French government made him a member of the Legion of Honor. The iron-carbon phase austenite is named in his honor.

National Heat Treat is to proud to announce the addition of our new Quality Assurance Manager, Andy Mishaga . Andy is a quality assurance professional with over twenty years of diverse experience in ISO 9001:2015 and API Q1, in oil and gas fabrication, product manufacturing, aero structures and R&D. His experience includes quality systems design, implementation and auditing, creating quality policies, procedures and metrics, supplier qualification and management, and documentation management.

He has earned a graduate degree from the University of Maryland University College and believes in excellence, aspires to process improvement, and dedicates his talents to assure the success of the business by achieving company objectives. Andy's personal interests include volunteering with his wife, Ramona, for special needs children, cooking, and shooting sports.

Andy states that "Quality can be simply stated as verification of compliance and is of great importance to me". He recalls an incident in his career in which a third-party firm hired to perform radiographic examination of over 200 critical welds actually inspected only two welds. Instead of conducting exams on the remaining welds, they submitted duplicate copies of the two radiographic exams they actually performed. Fortunately, the deception was detected before the product was placed into service but the costs incurred were substantial. As Andy observes, "This is just one example of the importance of quality and demonstrates the need for proper measures of compliance".

On Friday, March 1st, the Houston Chapter of ASM International is presenting a one-day course entitled "Metallurgy for the Non-Metallurgist". It is intended for engineers, technicians, supply chain personnel, sales people, and anyone else who would benefit from a better understanding of how metals are selected, processed, and tested.

A complete description of the course with prices and other details can be found on the chapter website www.asmhou.org. National Heat Treat's General Manager, Mr. Michael Pendley will be presenting two sessions – the first on the structure of metals and the second on the heat treating of steel. Michael is looking forward to presenting and the opportunity to see old friends and make new ones.