ASM International is a premier professional society of metallurgists, material scientists and technologists with a membership of over 30,000 worldwide. It offers invaluable opportunities to interact & learn from fellow material engineers across the globe and sharpen creative vision. ASM offers excellent networking link, gives an instant access to insights and wealth of information through its technical books, acclaimed handbooks, engineering software and CD-ROMs and information sharing network for anyone who works with metals, alloys, composites, ceramics, polymers and electronic materials.
India Chapter is one of the most active chapters of ASM International. Established in the year 1979, by a visionary Dr. H.M. Mehta along with a handful of dedicated volunteers. It has been continuously pursuing the mission of ASM of collecting and disseminating knowledge on Materials & Processes. This is being done through technical courses on subjects like Metallurgy for the Non-Metallurgists, Failure Analysis, Metal forming, Heat Treatment, Welding, Non-ferrous metals, Thermal spraying etc. Yet another activity started in the year 1990, is organizing the Exhibition Heat Treat Show, which has also become a trade mark of the chapter and is looked forward to eagerly by the heat treating and related industry. The show is being held biennially. Other activities include arranging Conferences, Workshops, and Exhibitions on recent developments in Material Processing, Material Application Engineering, Equipment etc.
Idea of holding mega Materials show was started in the year 2004 on completion of silver jubilee of chapter formation with a Transport Materials show TRANSMAT 2004, which included the materials related development in all the modes of transport namely Road, Rail, Aviation and shipping. The show which comprised of International conference & exhibition, and was supported by various ministries received wide acclaim from the industry.
Technical meetings, is one more forum for knowledge sharing, where eminent speakers from Industry, R&D, National Labs and Academic Institutions are invited to give lectures on topics relevant to local industry, and are held every month. These talks also include those arranged under the aegis of ASM-IIM lectureship wherein the awardee speaker selected by ASM HQ from across the globe, delivers talks on new innovations in the field of Material Science.
Chapter also boasts of a reference library which has complete range of ASM Materials handbooks and many source books & handbooks on not only Materials but also on subjects like productivity, QC tools, Zero defect etc.
The process of dissemination of knowledge is also extended to include aspiring engineers namely students. This is being rigorously and systematically carried out through Materials Camp an idea mooted by the ASM Education Foundation. The activity is targeted to excite young minds typically students of 11th & 12th standard, towards material science. This is conducted in collaboration with Engineering colleges having Materials Science branch and are equipped with required materials testing & experimentation facility. Chapter, has been conducting materials 5 days’ camp comprising of 3 days’ hands on experiments by the students followed by the visits to industries in the field of transforming materials into usable products. Over the last eight years Chapter has conducted camps in Mumbai, Vadodara & Jaipur. The activity has definitely increased the fascination of students towards material science and its future potential with many students opting for this branch of engineering.
Chapter is also aggressively promoting growth of ASM membership across the country and form new chapters. The regions selected on the basis of industrial segment present in the region, include Kolhapur, Rajasthan, Hyderabad, Northern India & Kolkata. Current membership of the chapter which includes corporates like Mahindra & Mahindra, Larsen & Toubro, Pradeep Metals, Siemens, Godrej MSMEs particularly in the business of heat treatment & furnace manufacturing & individuals from research and educational institutes like BARC, IITs, Regional Research laboratories etc. giving it a look of multi-dimensional professional body.