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October 3, 2024

Heat Treat Today is privileged to oversee the 40 Under 40 recognition awards highlighting a group of rising young leaders in the North American heat treat industry every year. The Class of 2024 is a high-achieving, motivated, and heart-felt group of significant contributors to the heat treat market. Here are two highlights from this year’s class. 

Scott Brady is the general manager of industry supplier Mercer Technologies, Inc, with over 15 years of experience selling, designing, engineering, building, repairing, troubleshooting, and installing vacuum furnaces, hot zones, vacuum pumping systems, and control systems. Scott started out in the heat treat industry at the age of 17, working part time to build and insulate vacuum furnace hot zones for the southern California company. After high school, he graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with degrees in Physics and Applied Mathematics and was employed as a maintenance technician for an aerospace manufacturer with in-house heat treat in the Southwest. Eventually, Scott rejoined Mercer Technologies in Indiana as a field service technician before being promoted to manager of Business Development and then finally general manager in 2018. Throughout the past six years in these varied positions, Scott managed sales, service, engineering, production, and personnel for the company. Read more about Scott here. 

Chris Sullivan has been in the vacuum furnace, heat treat industry for 10 years and is currently a project manager and aftermarket engineer for SECO/VACUUM Technologies. A highly skilled engineer with a deep understanding of heat treat furnaces and industry principles, he has designed and engineered a number of custom heat treat furnaces, which have reduced costs and saved significant processing time for clients. Whether programming and cutting components on the plasma table, reverse-engineering and installing replacement furnace hot zones, vacuum leak checking with helium mass spectrometer, or developing state-of-the-art solutions and drawings based on specific client needs, Chris has continuously impressed as an engineer and complex problem solver. Some of Chris’s other notable responsibilities include creating 3D equipment models for design analysis and development of detailed mechanical drawings, providing aftermarket support and spare parts for existing and new clients, introducing and implementing lean manufacturing concepts, developing detailed procedures and work instructions for equipment manufacturing and assembly, as well as capital project management, to name a few. Read more about Chris here. 

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