While it is always impossible to predict the future of the heat treat industry, we all sleep well at night knowing that is long as the world continues to use metal in various products we will always have a job. But what if changes in a product’s design means no more metal and no more heat treating-that is exactly what a Mexican manufacturer recently learned.

“Grupo Industrial Arda” makes a variety of products including “safety toe caps”-the metal toe guard in safety shoes. Typically, these are made from hardened carbon steel or alloy steel and subsequently austempered, usually in a mesh belt furnace line. However it would appear that this market is changing with many safety toe caps now being made from non-metallic materials like plastic, fiberglass, carbon fiber, or Kevlar. Apparently this is the lightest option, and they are non-metallic, so they don’t set off metal detectors (thank goodness for AI as we don’t know a darn thing about safety shoes). 

The end result is that this company still produces “safety toe caps” but they no longer require heat treating and the heat treat department has been closed. 

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