The last two issues of Outlook featured insights from Lynn Davis, Group President of ATI Primary Metals and Exotic Alloys, and Gary Micheau, ATI Wah Chang’s Vice President of Operations. This installment of Senior Management Insights features Ron Graham, ATI Wah Chang’s Vice President of Technology, who gives our readers a peek into what makes ATI Wah Chang unique; it’s ability to provide a high level of value-added technical services, support and innovation to our customers and partners.

As VP of Technology, Graham is the head of Process Engineering, Quality Assurance, and Research and Development (R&D). All three groups work hand in hand with the Operations group on the shop floor to ensure that the products coming out of ATI Wah Chang consistently meet environmental and customer requirements. Built in to each of these groups are functions that add value, customers and markets, the ATI Wah Chang product mix serves.

Process Engineering

The Process Engineering group is responsible for material allocation, specifying process routings and variables, and making sure product is in place to meet customer needs. “Integrating with Sales, Quality Assurance, and Operations is a primary function of the Process Engineering group. We assist engineers in operations by developing joint process improvement teams to work on projects related to specific product lines,” says Graham. “Two projects currently underway are the improvement of the nuclear tubing and nuclear strip product lines.” This initiative is just one of many efforts underway at ATI Wah Chang to support the anticipated demand in various markets like Nuclear Energy.

Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance (QA) handles the overall quality system including internal and external system and process auditing, as well as product certification. According to Graham, “The QA group consists of four main areas: the Product Certification Group, the Analytical Lab, the Mechanical Testing Lab, and Inspection. The Analytical Lab is responsible for all of the analytical chemistry activities that go into certification testing and environmental compliance. The Mechanical Testing Lab is responsible for performing the metallographic, mechanical, and functional tests necessary to certify the product. Inspection performs all of the physical examinations like dimension, flatness, and surface quality.” Graham further explains: “Inspection also performs all of the Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) like ultrasonic, radiography, eddy current, and dye penetrant testing. They also coordinate with production to ensure that there is ample time for final inspection so ship dates can be met. The certification groups review customer requirements during order review, review processing documents where fixed-practice agreements are in place, and assemble lab and inspection data into the certificates of conformance.”

Research and Development

R&D is where ATI Wah Chang goes above and beyond to enhance the customers’ experience with the company. Their primary focus is providing materials and metallurgical support that looks at longer range activities like new product development. R&D can quickly turn around alloy and process development initiatives using small scale equipment that replicates production equipment and processes.

The last 24 months has been an exciting time for R&D at ATI Wah Chang with alloy product development occurring in the aerospace, medical, and chemical processing arenas.

One notable success was the adoption of OmegaBond® tubing technology by GPIC for use in a fertilizer production complex in the Kingdom of Bahrain. OmegaBond® tubing technology was developed and actively supported by R&D and is a product platform that enables the use of dissimilar metals in the same tube or pipe by use of advanced materials joining technologies, such as extrusion bonding or inertia welding. The commercial adoption of OmegaBond® tubing was a joint effort with Snamprogetti, S.p.A., based in Milan, Italy, a company of Saipem.

ATI Wah Chang’s Business Development and R&D groups collaborated with Snamprogetti to commercialize new materials solutions for Snamprogetti-licensed urea plants. OmegaBond® tubing products are designed to increase urea plant efficiencies, reduce plant maintenance costs, improve plant operating costs, and eliminate corrosion and erosion problems. GPIC is the first company to adopt the OmegaBond® technology for a full-scale plant application. Since the initial adoption by GPIC, two other companies have also adopted the technology for use in their urea plants.

R&D has also been working to further the adoption of ATI 425® titanium into the commercial aerospace market by gathering the appropriate material property information for further certification by AMS, ASME, and ASTM. In 2006, the alloy was adopted by ASTM as Grade 38 titanium. In 2008, ATI 425® titanium strip was adopted for use in a new prototype replacement tail rotor blade manufactured by Tempe, Arizona-based Van Horn Aviation (VHA) for use on commercial helicopters. Still under development, the VHA 206 series replacement tail rotor blade features a titanium root fitting and abrasion strip made from ATI 425® titanium. ATI 425® titanium was also adopted in 2007 for use in analytical componentry on the Phoenix Mars Lander that successfully landed on the Red Planet in May of 2008.

ATI 425® titanium and OmegaBond® tubing are great examples of R&D projects that have come to fruition and are on the road to product maturity. Before an alloy or product can reach this point, months of research and development must take place. Often times, further R&D is performed on mature materials to make the product even better. Today, R&D is working on two projects involving mature products that will have a positive impact on the medical and aerospace markets.

The first product is nickel titanium (NiTi). NiTi has been produced by ATI Wah Chang for years and is used by one of our customers in the production of shape memory stents that are used to support collapsed blood vessels and arteries. Given the critical nature of this application, ATI Wah Chang believes it is necessary to continually invest resources into product process improvements and R&D for NiTi materials in an effort to further enhance the overall performance of the material.

Another exciting project being worked on is the development of orthorhombic titanium aluminide (TiAl) for use in the aerospace industry. TiAl has the potential to be a material of choice for honeycomb applications and noise dampening agents on commercial and government aircraft. Similar to ATI 425® titanium, adoption of this alloy into aerospace applications involves extensive testing and trials to ensure that the material is ready for the mission-critical aerospace applications it is slated for.

When it comes to added value ATI Wah Chang takes the concept to another level, consistently going above and beyond to ensure that the alloys produced at our facilities meet and exceed our customers’ expectations. Outlook asked Ron Graham how he dealt with the constant demand for the services his group provides and he explained “The demand for our services is heavy, but we try to evaluate each project to identify if the R&D opportunity presented is a win for the customer, the company, and the industry. Having the metallurgical support group in place to work with customers on reactive and refractory metals and alloys is a value added service we provide; we want our customers to work with our Analytical Lab and R&D so we can help them qualify their products.”

Long term vision, sustainability, and customer focus are all words that describe the management approach Lynn Davis takes when addressing the challenges and opportunities facing ATI Wah Chang. “The world has changed; we now operate in a global marketplace so we must be very competitive,” he says. “Part of being competitive is modernizing and perfecting our equipment so it is reliable and minimizes maintenance. We need to have the right equipment in place to meet the predicted customer demand to give us the ability to diversify into the relevant markets.” Today, Davis focuses on three major themes that he believes will sustain ATI Wah Chang well into the future: diversification, anticipation, and knowledge transfer.

Diversification

The first of the three themes focuses on “diversification in the six to eight specialty metals that our equipment is geared for” says Davis. Currently, the company’s product mix consists of titanium, zirconium, niobium, hafnium, tantalum, vanadium and tungsten alloys for the Aerospace, Chemical Processing, Nuclear Energy, Government, Medical and Superconducting markets. It is critical that ATI Wah Chang’s equipment and processes have cross functional capabilities that can provide the necessary capacity to meet the demand for all product lines produced.

Anticipation

It is no secret that world’s energy demands are substantially increasing everyday. ATI Wah Chang has been faced with the challenge of deciding which alternative energy sources its product mix can best support. Today Davis is “making sure the proper equipment is in place so we can meet the need for materials when the nuclear renaissance begins.” He went on to say, “We cater our improvements to ensure that our materials are available for customers when they need them. Right now we are addressing the needs of the nuclear renaissance by making improvements and expansions to stay ahead of the customer need for our materials, particularly in the zirconium product line.” Zirconium is critical to the production of nuclear energy and is the ideal material of construction for fuel rod cladding, water tubes, channel boxes, and spacer grids.

Knowledge Transfer

Over the last fifty years, ATI Wah Chang has been fortunate to have some of the best scientists, engineers, and metallurgists in the world making breakthroughs in the development of new metals and alloys. The innovative alloys discovered by these seasoned professionals support applications that make air travel, medical procedures, and energy production safer, more efficient, and more cost effective. To ensure that the knowledge used to produce these mission critical metals is carried on to the next generation, manufacturers must have processes and procedures in place to safeguard this information. ATI Wah Chang is committed to making sure that innovation, one of the cornerstones of the company’s success, is secure and that a process is in place to safeguard that information. According to Davis, the company has been “preparing for the generational change coming by addressing our knowledge transfer needs over the next five years.”

ATI Wah Chang has been serving the world with its products for over fifty years, which is no small feat. In a world where companies, ideas, and people come and go, how does a company like ATI Wah Chang endure? When asked this question, Lynn Davis answered without hesitation, “people, market diversification, and local community support.” He explained that the support of the community has allowed ATI Wah Chang to grow and expand its manufacturing capabilities over the years, which in turn has allowed the company to employ the people that make the product. The expertise of the people that work at ATI Wah Chang is what allows the company to continue to innovate and serve a wide range of markets.