On a regular basis we get asked; Who reads “The Monty Heat Treat News”, where these readers are and what they like reading-all information which we have at our fingertips. Lets answer the question “Who Reads The Monty Heat Treat News” first; the answer is overwhelmingly in house heat treaters first at 80%, followed by commercial heat treaters at 15% and industry suppliers and trade organizations filling out the remainder at 5%.

These numbers are exactly in line with what we would expect to see based upon estimates of how much heat treating is done in house and how much is outsourced to commercial heat treaters. In North America most estimates have in house heat treatment at 90% with the remainder outsourced, however at best this is an educated guess, worst case scenario is that this is just a stab in the dark. The discrepancy has to do with the fact that no clear definition of heat treating exists. For instance are foundries and steel mills included in captive heat treating?  You pick.

Incidentally these ratios vary by region. The USA, Canada and most parts of Europe have a higher ratio of commercial vs; captive than regions such as Mexico, Indian and China. The reasons for this are many and varied but certainly ease of transportation has a great deal to do with it. More on this entire topic later.

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