Metalark

The Heat Treat QMS/MES

The vantage point that sees
every cycleevery riskevery client commitment
— from a single perch —
See every feature
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Why Metalark

Built by heat treaters, for heat treaters.

Most shop software was written for machine shops and bent to fit. Metalark starts from the furnace: the job, the load, the cycle, the pyrometry behind it and the certificate that ships with the parts, all in one system your auditors can follow end to end.

01 · OPERATIONS

From quote to shipped

RFQs, quotes, work cards, scheduling, scan stations, shipping and invoicing on one record. No re-keying between systems.

02 · QUALITY

Evidence you can prove

Pyrometry pass/fail re-checked on the server against the class limits, hardness tester verification, NCM and CAPA, and a tamper-evident audit trail.

03 · VISIBILITY

See the whole floor

Live furnace data, a furnace wall board, department utilization and a customer portal that shows the actual cycle trace.

Features

Everything the shop runs on.

Every item below is in the product today and can be shown in a live demo.

Sales & quoting

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  • RFQsCapture customer requests and turn them into quotes.
  • Quotes with one-click acceptReview and approve quotes with their pricing basis, then accept one to create the work order with the quoted job carried over.
  • AI quoting copilotSuggests pricing and process context right on the RFQ.
  • Nitriding estimator & cost calculatorEstimates case depth and nitriding hardness depth (core + 50 HV) per DIN 50190-3, now ISO 18203, handles two-stage cycles (an estimate; confirm by traverse), and prices cycle time against depth. Grades without measured growth-rate data are clearly marked.
  • RFQ inboxRequests emailed to your RFQ mailbox land in a review queue; a person accepts each one into a real RFQ.

Orders & work cards

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  • Work CardThe job on one screen: parts, process, characteristics and print history, in a process-driven (API) or specification-driven (Nadcap) layout. Part drawings and photos attached to the part appear as buttons on every work card for that part, with an in-app viewer and print. Quench and Furnace Data buttons open the job's quench records and its furnace chart.
  • Material picturesUpload a picture of the material, or take a photo with a tablet camera, right on the job. Pictures (N) opens a viewer with print and download, the work card and the invoice show the same pictures, and every upload and removal is recorded in the audit trail.
  • Your letterhead on every documentWork cards, bills of lading, invoices, certificates of conformance and furnace charts carry your logo, name, address and phone upper left, the customer upper right, the work card number and a bold centred title, on US Letter. Each shop enters its details and uploads its logo in Settings → Company Information; changes apply immediately.
  • Work-card audit trailWho created, changed or viewed each job, and when, for administrators.
  • Work orders & new order entryOrder list and detail with parts, cert lines, charges, quality and scans; customer program and flow-down checks as orders are entered.
  • Search by the customer's own work-order numberFind a job the way the customer refers to it.
  • Outside testing & outside processingLab tests per purchase order and chain of custody for subcontracted work.
  • MicrohardnessTraverse entry, with an optional tester-verification gate.
  • Shipping & receivingReceiving, ready and shipped queues, a pre-invoice verification step before release, and bill-of-lading printing.
  • Print logEvery printed document is logged.
  • Delivery runsPlan driver runs with pickup and delivery stops, and record who signed or why a stop could not be completed.
  • Document approvalA new revision must be approved by someone other than the person who filed it; the last approved revision stays in force until then.

Shop floor

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  • Schedule boardA Gantt view by furnace, with jobs that link straight to their work cards.
  • Scan stationBarcode lifecycle scans sized for gloved hands, with undo and a live feed.
  • Load stationOperators scan what went into each batch.
  • Furnace wall board & TV modeA live mimic of every furnace, and a full-screen view for the shop-floor TV.
  • Furnace dataBatch and trend from any control interface you use. SSi, Honeywell, UPC, Future Design and more.
  • Furnace trend chartsView a cycle in 1, 5, 10 or 15-minute increments for AMS 2750 review. Drag to zoom, drop as many place-cursor lines as you need with their readings, replay the cycle, and read temperature and carbon. Actual and set point are colour-coded, and the chart prints as shown.
  • Data-logging & system archivesBatch, trend and alarm history from SpecView data logging, plus UPC 9800 and Nitrex PT9800 systems on one screen with a Source column, with an attested CSV export for audits.
  • Departments & utilizationGroup furnaces the way the shop runs them, and report scheduled against measured utilization. A furnace with no instrumentation shows a dash, never a false 0%.
  • Load plannerProposes furnace loads packed against each furnace’s capacity; accepting one passes the same furnace gate as the schedule.
  • OEE & lead timeOEE per furnace, with anything not measured shown as unknown rather than 100%, and a lead-time estimate for new work.
  • Quench recordsTransfer delay and bath temperatures recorded against the job, with out-of-limit advisories. Quench corrections go in the audit trail: who, when, old value to new.

Quality

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  • Nonconformance (NCM)Investigate and close out nonconformances, each linked to its work order and customer.
  • CAPAProblem, root cause, the linked NCM, and containment, corrective, preventive and verification actions on one page.
  • Voice of the OperatorSurfaces recurring problems from operator notes.
  • Equipment & predictive maintenanceEquipment records, calibration schedules and a maintenance forecast.
  • Library: specifications, processes & documentsYour specifications, processes, controlled documents and customer documents in one searchable place. Upload and download from the same screen. Scanned PDFs are read with OCR on upload, so Ask Metalark can search them.
  • Mill certificatesIncoming material certificates, with every reading judged against its specification range by the system, never typed.
  • Operator competencyA qualification matrix with expiry dates, grants, revocations and the gaps that need attention. The matrix and each operator's individual record print as PDFs for audits.

Pyrometry & compliance

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  • PyrometrySensors, instruments, SAT, TUS, work zones and calibrations. Pass/fail is re-checked on the server against the furnace-class limits, not taken from the PASS or FAIL that was typed or imported.
  • SAT drift forecastForecasts thermocouple drift between system accuracy tests.
  • C3 compliance statusLive status from C3 Data with the evidence behind every verdict, combined with paper calibration logs for furnaces managed on paper.
  • Hardness tester verificationTester verification judged against ASTM E18, with an optional gate on microhardness entry.
  • Daily readinessA signed daily check that can be amended without erasing what was signed.
  • Nadcap audit preparationChecklists and assessments from a built-in baseline. The baseline is a starting point, not the Nadcap AC7102 checklist. Click a readiness status to filter; each item opens a panel with its live evidence and the records behind it.
  • Certificates of conformanceCertificates and cert packages built from the job's own data, with one certification page per job. Each certificate prints the customer and the saved certification date. A certificate with nothing to certify is refused, and who may issue one is your setting.
  • Audit binderA read-only auditor view with evidence grouped by record type, with AMS 2750H section references, and a downloadable PDF binder.
  • AC7102 checklist importImport your own Nadcap AC7102 checklist into daily readiness.

Finance

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  • Invoice entryPrice a job in units × unit price without invoicing it (Save pricing), or date and invoice it in one step (Save & invoice). Re-saving never changes a line nobody edited.
  • Sales tax & printed invoiceState sales tax by your rule, ship-to or billing state, on a printed invoice. Furnace chart prints can be queued as billable charges for billing to accept.
  • Invoices & AR agingInvoice list and accounts-receivable aging.
  • Email from the screenA Mail button on invoices, certificates and furnace charts lists every email address on record for the customer. Tick the recipients and send, with the PDF attached. A Message sent confirmation follows, and every send is recorded in the audit trail with the date and time, recipient and sender. Certificates require an e-signature and pass the same furnace and hardness gates as printing. Works with your own mail server.
  • Customer delivery preferencesInvoices and certificates are each routed to email or physical mail, per customer. Nothing is sent to an address you did not choose.
  • QuickBooks exportExport to QuickBooks as an IIF file.
  • Commercial intelligenceMargin by job and customer, win/loss, and the jobs that leak margin.
  • Measured job costingJob cost from actual start and stop scans, each line labelled measured or estimated. Managers and admins only.

Customer portal

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  • Order statusCustomers see their orders, shipments and quotes without calling the front office.
  • Live cycle traceThe actual furnace trace for their parts, straight from the cycle data.
  • RFQ submissionCustomers send new requests through the portal, filed under their company.

AI assistance

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  • Ask MetalarkAsk questions about your jobs and data from any screen. It searches your shop's reference library, including the EMJ Blue Book materials reference (chemistries, hardenability, mechanical properties and tool steels), and every answer ends with its sources. Metallurgist and Pyrometrist experts answer from reviewed alloy data and your live furnace records. Your licensed specifications are cited by title and page; their text never leaves the server. With no internet connection, it answers from Metalark's own records.
  • AI agents with human approvalAgents propose; a person approves, and every agent action is logged.
  • Metallurgical toolsSoak-time estimates, a metallurgical twin for process masters, sensor-burnout warnings and NCM root-cause suggestions.
  • Your choice of model, including on-premiseRuns against a local model first, with cloud providers optional, and can draw on the authoritative sources you license.

Reports, reference & admin

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  • Sales & operations reportsSales by customer, process and line; jobs in process; delivery statistics; charts; Scope 3 energy. Every report chart prints, legend included.
  • Perch ViewLive KPIs, integration health and a plain-language audit-chain status on one screen.
  • Parts, process masters & control plansPart history and pricing defaults, recipes with revision-controlled control plans.
  • Protected recipe changesChanging a process code requires re-entering your password and leaves a change record.
  • Rate cards, inventory & vendorsPricing rules, stock and supplier records.
  • Users, plants & furnace capacityRole-based users, multiple plants and furnace capacity settings.

Platform & security

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  • Tamper-evident audit trailA hash-chained log of every change and sign-in, with checkpoint verification and external anchoring.
  • Multi-factor sign-inOptional authenticator-app sign-in, per user.
  • Electronic signaturesA 21 CFR Part 11-style e-signature mode for regulated customers.
  • Confirm before irreversible actionsDestructive actions ask first.
  • Runs on your hardwareInstall on a Synology NAS as a package, or on your own Linux server or cloud, with automatic TLS.
  • Migration from your current systemData conversion from other QMS and MES systems, with every converted record traced to its source.
Standards

Evidence built into the data.

Metalark re-checks each pass/fail on the server against the class limits instead of trusting what was typed. Here is exactly what is implemented.

AMS 2750H

Built around AMS 2750 Rev H records. Pass/fail is re-checked on the server against the furnace-class limits for the recorded SAT difference and TUS deviation, in the survey’s own unit, and every finding cites the Rev H clause. SAT, TUS and calibration records are tracked with overdue alerts. For furnaces tracked electronically, SAT and TUS due dates are capped at the Rev H maximum interval for the furnace's class and instrumentation. Your own licensed copy is cited by title and page.

ASTM E18

Hardness tester verification judged against the standard's tolerance table.

ASTM E140 / E384

Hardness conversion and microhardness traverse.

DIN 50190-3 / ISO 18203

Nitriding hardness depth (core + 50 HV) in the nitriding estimator.

21 CFR Part 11-style

Electronic signatures and a tamper-evident, hash-chained audit trail.

Nadcap preparation

Audit-preparation checklists and assessments from a built-in baseline.

Integrations

Connects to what is already on your floor.

Every connection below is implemented in the product today.

C3 DataAPI, email intake, site reports SSi SuperDATAFurnace data SpecViewBatch and trend capture Nitrex PT9800Archive sync, on the UPC 9800 screen UPC 9800Batch and alarms, one screen with a Source column Metalark SCADAData acquisition from shop controls Other QMS / MES systemsData conversion QuickBooksIIF export Email & SMS (when configured)Notifications
ON-PREMISE

Synology NAS

Installs as a Synology package. Your data never has to leave the building.

YOUR SERVER

Linux or cloud

A portable install for RHEL-family Linux and the major clouds, with automatic TLS certificates.

YOUR RULES

Per-shop gates

Furnace and pyrometry gates are checked at scheduling, certification and shipping, in warn or block mode per shop, so a new rule never stops the floor by surprise.

On the roadmap

Coming soon.

Next on the roadmap. Listed separately so it is never mistaken for what ships today.

Coming soon
Portal certificate download

Customers download their own certificates from the portal.

Coming soon
Single sign-on (SSO)

Sign in with your company identity provider.

Coming soon
CMMC Level 2 controls package

Documented controls and evidence to support your own CMMC Level 2 assessment.

Coming soon
Prime-portal integrations

Exchange order and certificate data with your customers' supplier portals.

Coming soon
Call Home: proactive self-debugging

Encrypted error reporting gets software faults to the Metalark team within minutes, so fixes arrive as signed updates you choose to install. Your administrator turns it on or off at any time; it is off until you turn it on. It never sends customer or proprietary site information, and nothing is ever changed remotely.

Contact

See it on your own jobs.

Book a live demo on a working heat-treat shop, or ask us anything.

Book a demoRequest a live demo Emailinfo@metalarkqms.com Phone713-305-9749