Technicians with a combined 100+ years of metallurgical and heat treating experience . . . one of the largest commercial nitriding departments in the country . . . and the recipient of the 2022 Master Craftsman Award . . . All of these attributes characterize The Cincinnati Steel Treating Company (CST), a heat treater serving clients in multiple industries, a few being the large gear, automotive, and industrial knife, as well as hundreds of general-purpose machine shops.
Source: Cincinnati Steel Treating
The company was founded in 1941 to accommodate the gear industry’s metal-treating needs in the Cincinnati, Ohio, area. By 1950, they had diversified and moved to 5701 Mariemont Avenue in Cincinnati. Now, after two major expansions, the 45,000 square-foot facility provides heat treating services nationwide. Some of these heat treat services include: carbonitriding, FNC, sub-zero metal treating, and tool steel processing. The dimensional capacities of their furnaces accommodate large loads of smaller parts as well as parts too large for most furnaces. For example, their pit furnace vertically processes parts up to 120” to prevent warpage, and the max capacity of their car bottom and nitriding furnaces is 8’ x 17’ x 6’ and 57” x 107” respectively.
In addition to their heat treatment services, CST also provides metallurgical lab testing services and failure analysis for both in-house and outside treated parts. A fully equipped metallurgical laboratory includes a metallurgical cutoff saw, metallographs, microscopes, stereoscopic equipment, and more. The lab includes capabilities for macro-etching, quench oil testing, and other chemical testing for metallic parts. Some applications of metallurgical analysis include tool steel industrial knives, highly alloyed rolling mill rolls, flat-rolled carbon sheet steel products, and carburized and hardened gears. With experience analyzing various types of materials, such as stainless steel, brass, aluminum, titanium, and cast iron, the company’s lab analysis has saved CST’s clients thousands of dollars, both by helping them to improve their processes and determining the root cause of a failed component.
Cincinnati Steel Treating is proud of the difference that it has made in terms of the parts it has heat treated over the years. Two specific jobs stand out; first, heat treating the armor plating of the military’s Humvee for combat. The client emphasized that the job was an integral part of saving lives, and the company saw letters from soldiers and their families expressing their gratitude.
Source: Cincinnati Steel Treating
The second job was solution treating and aging an aluminum mounting bracket for the external booster rockets affixed to a space shuttle for NASA. These parts were designed to withstand being jettisoned from the space shuttle (with the external booster rockets) once the rockets’ fuel depleted. Made of aluminum, the components could more easily disintegrate during re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere. CST even purchased a high-speed crane and affixed it to the bridge of their existing overhead crane to maintain the desired quench delay time specific in the military specifications for aluminum. This program ceased when the space shuttle program ended, but the high-speed crane is still used for jobs requiring specific quench delays.
Plans for the future are looking bright as Cincinnati Steel Treating rounded out 2022 with the Master Craftsman Award for Commercial Heat Treater of the Year. At the beginning of 2023, CST added a new IQ furnace and continues to increase capacity and capabilities as needed.
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