In 2018, Heat Treat Today introduced one of its most popular features, the 40 Under 40 Awards for young, up-and-coming talent in the North American heat treat industry. Click here for the 2018 recipients. Heat Treat Today is posting occasional features of some of the 2018 recipients in anticipation of the 2019 40 Under 40 awardees to be presented in September (nominations are being accepted here). First on our list is also one of the first to have been nominated.
Michael Elmore
GKN Driveline
Heat Treat Engineer
Michael Elmore was nominated from within GKN Driveline. The following was provided by the nominator:
Michael continues to prove himself many times over by working to improve the heat treat and processes at GKN. He shows himself to be knowledgeable and takes great pride in what he does, working well with everyone in the department and always willing to help out. The heat treat department at our facility has already reaped rewards for his hard work. Michael’s work ethic is practiced daily, garnering him a great deal of respect.
Michael Elmore started at GKN Driveline right out of college with a little bit of familiarity with the territory, having worked for the company during a summer internship. That experience led him to shift his academic focus from design-based engineering to the type of process improvement work he encountered in the heat treat department at the automotive components manufacturer’s North Carolina facility.
“When I came to GKN, I fell in love with heat treating,” said Elmore. “I expected this to be a puddle and it turned out to be more like jumping into an ocean. There’s so much more to it than I expected.”
Michael worked with Jack Gerochowski, head of the heat treat department, whom he describes as “a heat treating genius”. He spent time in the metallurgical lab with Gerochowski, learning all about the process. GKN was in the process of creating the position of heat treat engineer and Elmore was the first to be hired. Four years later, “I’m still finding out things I didn’t know. It goes deeper and deeper the longer I’m here, never hitting the bottom of what can be learned, done, or explored.”
As an engineering student, he expected he would be doing a lot of design work on the field, but he states the work he does now with heat treating provides “more immediate satisfaction. We can help the company save money. GKN already has a top-notch heat treat department. I didn’t arrive and make any huge improvements — just a few tweaks here or there, like increasing checks, decreasing possibilities of a spill.”
The North Carolina facility employs over 1,800, with 25-30 in the heat treat department. Michael said the next new project in line at GKN Driveline is in Non-Destructive Testing using their first NDT equipment recently purchased from Forester Instruments (Pittsburgh). The heat treat department hopes to develop a new way of testing gears to eliminate inconsistencies, save money, and free up the metallurgy labs to do more exploratory work.
Asked what he would advise the next generation of heat treat professionals, Michael offered: “The possibilities are endless with heat treating, an industry that is instrumental in every aspect of life. There are broad opportunities and many different fields to work in. It’s very satisfactory being a part of making things better.”
He added, “I couldn’t do anything without all the support and training from Jack, and also Greg Cook, GKN maintenance manager for the heat treat department who nominated me for the 40 Under 40.”
Click here for the 2018 recipients. To nominate someone for the Class of 2019 40 Under 40, please click here.
