We at “The Monty” would have to say that it is probably very fortunate that we have never had to put much thought into what constitutes an essential business-the past few days though have certainly educated us. From far and wide we have been receiving notices from US companies announcing that in spite of widespread forced shut downs due to the COVID-19 virus they will be remaining open due to their designation as either an “essential business”, “essential service”, “critical manufacturer”, “Critical Manufacturing Supplier” and a half dozen other designations. The designations refer to the fact that these companies provide services to the defense, food, energy or chemical industries to name a few. Of particular note is the number of commercial heat treaters who have these designations, Advanced Heat Treat Corp., based in Iowa, Braddock Metallurgical in the Southeast, National Heat Treat in Texas and Stack Metallurgical in the Northwest are a just a few that come to mind. While this is one heck of a way to find out you are needed it certainly puts a perspective on how important our industry is.