Un tratamiento térmico por inducción fiable depende de algo más que la metalurgia: requiere un desempeño preciso y repetible de cada parte del sistema de inducción. En este artículo, Heat TreatTodayAaron Goodwin, ingeniero de desarrollo de negocios de Inductoheat, explora cómo las bobinas de inducción, las fuentes de alimentación, los sistemas de temple y el monitoreo del proceso en tiempo real trabajan en conjunto para lograr de manera consistente la dureza, la profundidad de capa y la microestructura que demandan los componentes automotrices actuales. Conozca cómo la confiabilidad del equipo, el mantenimiento preventivo y el control del proceso ayudan a los fabricantes a reducir la variabilidad, mejorar la calidad y mantener la producción funcionando eficientemente.
Este artículo informativo se publicó por primera vez enHeat Treat Today’sAugust 2026 Annual Automotive Heat Treating print edition.
Existe una relación fundamental entre el diseño de un componente automotriz y los requisitos de su tratamiento térmico. En la fabricación moderna de vehículos ya sean camiones, SUVs o crossovers, el margen de error es extremadamente reducido. Componentes como ejes, engranes, flechas de transmisión y otros elementos del motor y del tren motriz, están sometidos a elevadas cargas, altos niveles de torque y condiciones de operación cada vez más exigentes. Estos vehículos deben ofrecer un equilibrio entre durabilidad, eficiencia, operación silenciosa y desempeño. Además, deben responder de manera confiable a una amplia variedad de escenarios de conducción, desde el tráfico urbano con constantes arranques y paradas, hasta el remolque de cargas, la conducción todoterreno y los recorridos de larga distancia.
Independientemente del tipo de vehículo, existe una constante. Si bien la selección del material y el diseño de ingeniería son fundamentales, la consistencia y confiabilidad del tratamiento térmico son las que determinan si un componente cumplirá con el desempeño esperado en condiciones reales de servicio. El calentamiento por inducción para el endurecimiento superficial de componentes automotrices es una de las tecnologías preferidas por los ingenieros de diseño, y contar con equipos fiables de calentamiento por inducción es fundamental.
Desde la bobina de inducción hasta la fuente de potencia y el sistema de temple, cada elemento debe operar con precisión y repetibilidad en cada ciclo de producción. El endurecimiento superficial por inducción depende de un conjunto de variables estrictamente controladas que deben trabajar de manera sincronizada. Cuando el proceso permanece estable, se obtienen componentes tratados térmicamente de calidad; cuando esto no ocurre, surge la variabilidad y, con ella el riesgo.
La Relación entre el Equipo de Inducción y la Metalurgia
Los componentes tratados térmicamente se evalúan principalmente por tres características: la dureza, la profundidad de capa endurecida y la microestructura del acero después del procesamiento. Cada componente cuenta con una especificación de tratamiento térmico que define estos parámetros. Algunos componentes requieren capas endurecidas poco profundas para maximizar la resistencia al desgaste superficial, mientras que otras demandan capas mucho más profundas para soportar elevadas cargas de torsión; también existen situaciones intermedias.
Eje cementado, seccionado y atacado químicamente, mostrando estrías de gran tamaño | Crédito de la imagen: Inductoheat
Los equipos de tratamiento térmico por inducción controlan de manera confiable diversos parámetros críticos para producir las propiedades metalúrgicas requeridas. Entre las más importantes se encuentran, la potencia suministrada y la frecuencia, el tiempo de calentamiento, la geometría y posición de bobina de inducción, sincronización, y el caudal del sistema de enfriamiento.
Cada una de estas variables desempeña un papel fundamental; incluso pequeñas desviaciones pueden modificar significativamente los resultados obtenidos. Por ejemplo, una ligera fluctuación en la potencia suministrada puede disminuir la profundidad de capa endurecida o generar perfiles de dureza no uniformes. En componentes para camiones, esto puede traducirse en una menor vida útil a fatiga bajo cargas elevadas. En vehículos tipo SUV o crossover, puede manifestarse como desgaste prematuro o incluso la falla del componente. Los equipos confiables garantizan que todas estas variables permanezcan estrictamente controladas ciclo tras ciclo y pieza tras pieza. De esta manera, el tratamiento térmico deja de ser un proceso susceptible a variaciones y se convierte en un proceso de manufactura repetible y controlado.
El Rol de la Bobina de Inducción
La bobina de inducción es el punto donde la energía interactúa directamente con el componente automotriz. Su diseño y estado de conservación influyen de manera directa en el calentamiento y, en consecuencia, en el patrón de endurecimiento obtenido. Una bobina correctamente diseñada y con un mantenimiento adecuado proporciona un acoplamiento electromagnético uniforme, una distribución uniforme del calor sobre la superficie y una penetración subsuperficial suficiente, permitiendo alcanzar la profundidad de capa endurecida y el perfil de dureza especificados.
Al recibir energía, la bobina de inducción genera un campo magnético. Esto provoca que el componente automotriz experimente un calentamiento por efecto Joule debido a la corriente inducida, fenómeno conocido como corrientes de Eddy. Los tiempos de calentamiento varían, generalmente basta unos pocos segundos para alcanzar la temperatura necesaria para la formación de austenita (rango de 750 a 850°C [1382–1562°F] dependiendo de la composición del acero).
Bobina de inducción con sistema de enfriamiento por rociado integrado para el endurecimiento superficial | Crédito de la imagen: Inductoheat
Las bobinas de inducción son componentes de herramiental sujetos a desgaste. Con el tiempo, los ciclos térmicos repetitivos, la oxidación superficial, el desgaste y la fatiga mecánica reducen gradualmente su desempeño. Pequeñas modificaciones en la geometría de la bobina, su alineación o sus condiciones superficiales pueden alterar el campo electromagnético e introducir variabilidad. Lo más complejo es que estos cambios suelen producirse de forma gradual y no resultan visibles de inmediato. Una bobina puede continuar funcionando mientras afecta la distribución del calor sin que el problema sea evidente. Inspecciones periódicas, la limpieza y el reemplazo programado de las bobinas son fundamentales. En la manufactura automotriz de alto volumen, una gestión proactiva de las bobinas es esencial para mantener la estabilidad del proceso y garantizar la fiabilidad de los componentes tratados térmicamente.
Estabilidad de la Fuente de Alimentación
La fuente de alimentación del sistema de inducción controla la forma en que la energía se suministra a la bobina y, por lo tanto, al componente que será tratado térmicamente. Una salida de potencia estable es fundamental para lograr un calentamiento repetible y resultados metalúrgicos consistentes. La selección de la frecuencia de salida adecuada es esencial para equilibrar la profundidad de calentamiento requerida y la temperatura superficial del componente. En procesos de endurecimiento superficial, las frecuencias más utilizadas se encuentran en un rango de aproximadamente 1,000 Hz hasta 200 kHz. Aunque una sola fuente de alimentación no puede cubrir todo ese rango de frecuencias, la mayoría ofrece cierto grado de flexibilidad en cuanto a la frecuencia.
Las fuentes de alimentación proporcionan un suministro de energía preciso y programable a una frecuencia estable. Además, proporcionan una respuesta rápida ante las variaciones de carga a medida que la temperatura del componente automotriz aumenta, atraviesa el punto de Curie y alcanza la temperatura objetivo. Esta fuente de alimentación ofrece un rendimiento fiable durante ciclos de producción prolongados. Esto es fundamental cuando miles de componentes deben cumplir con especificaciones muy estrictas y con una variabilidad mínima. Si la fuente de alimentación presenta fluctuaciones, estas afectarán la velocidad de calentamiento y las propiedades finales de endurecimiento. Para los fabricantes, esto se traduce en piezas rechazadas y disminución de la rentabilidad.
Estos equipos requieren un programa de mantenimiento preventivo. Después de todo, un suministro confiable contribuye directamente tanto a la calidad como a la productividad. El personal debe:
Medidor analógico de la Fuente de alimentación, % potencia–kilovatios | Crédito de la imagen: Inductoheat
Verificar periódicamente que las conexiones eléctricas de las barras conductoras y de las terminales de cableado estén firmes.
Revisar que todas las conexiones de las mangueras del sistema de enfriamiento estén firmes, especialmente a medida que las mangueras envejecen.
Verificar que todos los interruptores de protección funcionen correctamente.
Asegurarse de que el agua del sistema de enfriamiento esté limpia y comprobar su conductividad mensualmente.
Consultar el manual del fabricante para obtener más información.
El Temple: Finalización del Proceso
El calentamiento representa solo la mitad del proceso. El temple comienza una vez que el componente ha alcanzado la temperatura de austenización a la profundidad deseada. El medio de enfriamiento se rocía uniformemente sobre la superficie de la pieza, extrayendo el calor de forma rápida y controlada. Este enfriamiento permite la formación de martensita, proporcionando al componente automotriz una capa superficial endurecida. Todo el proceso se lleva a cabo dentro de límites de operación previamente establecidos para garantizar la repetibilidad del tratamiento térmico.
El fluido de temple suele ser agua con aditivo polimérico. Es fundamental mantenerlo a la temperatura adecuada y con la concentración especificada de polímero. El sistema de temple suministra este fluido con una sincronización precisa respecto al ciclo de calentamiento. Asimismo, la bomba y las válvulas deben garantizar caudales y presiones constantes. El intercambiador de calor del sistema elimina el exceso de calor del fluido de temple; de lo contrario, su temperatura aumentaría progresivamente después de cada ciclo.
Monitor de concentración (izquierda) y válvulas de la tubería del sistema de temple (derecha) | Crédito de la imagen: Inductoheat
Con el paso del tiempo, parte del agua del fluido de temple se evapora, incrementando la concentración del polímero. Además, el fluido se contamina con residuos de aceite, virutas metálicas y otras impurezas. Los filtros tipo bolsa del sistema se saturan y los múltiples orificios de las boquillas de aspersión pueden obstruirse debido a la acumulación de incrustaciones y partículas. Por ello, el sistema de temple debe recibir mantenimiento periódico para garantizar un enfriamiento controlado y repetible. Solo así el proceso de tratamiento térmico puede completarse de manera consistente y confiable.
Confiabilidad basada en datos
Los equipos de inducción deben operar con un alto nivel de precisión para lograr el tratamiento térmico especificado. Cuando estos sistemas incorporan monitoreo en tiempo real y adquisición de datos durante el proceso, se incrementa aún más la confianza en los resultados obtenidos. El monitoreo mediante “firmas” de proceso mide las múltiples variables del tratamiento térmico por inducción en cada ciclo. Esta “firma” puede incluir parámetros eléctricos como la potencia del inversor, la corriente, el voltaje y la frecuencia a lo largo del proceso. Asimismo, puede registrar la temperatura del medio de enfriamiento, el flujo y la presión del fluido de temple, así como la velocidad de escaneo de la máquina y la velocidad de rotación del husillo. Para cada una de estas variables se establece un rango de variación permitido, el cual se representa gráficamente en función del tiempo. Cualquier desviación fuera de estos límites durante el ciclo, hará que la máquina genere un fallo de proceso.
Firma de proceso del sistema QAS de Inductoheat, mostrando los límites superior e inferior permitidos y el registro de variables como la potencia del inversor (kVA), la velocidad de escaneo y el caudal de temple de los husillos izquierdo y derecho | Crédito de la imagen: Inductoheat
Esta funcionalidad constituye un elemento fundamental dentro de un sistema de aseguramiento de la calidad (QAS por sus siglas en inglés), ya que garantiza la confianza durante cada turno de producción. En el caso de componentes automotrices identificados mediante códigos de barras u otros marcadores únicos, también permite garantizar la trazabilidad de los componentes tratados térmicamente, almacenando la firma del proceso y asociándola a cada componente tratado térmicamente. Este paso permite obtener datos clave para aislar un lote de piezas si fuera necesario, evitando la necesidad de poner en cuarentena más unidades de las estrictamente necesarias.
Equipos Confiables. Mejores Componentes. Vehículos más Resistentes.
En toda la industria automotriz, desde camiones de servicio pesado hasta los SUVs y crossovers de uso cotidiano, el desempeño de un vehículo se construye capa por capa. A medida que las plataformas vehiculares continúan evolucionando, los procesos de tratamiento térmico deben avanzar al mismo ritmo de diseños de componentes cada vez más complejos. Contar con equipos de inducción confiables es fundamental para afrontar estos desafíos. Cada elemento del sistema debe operar con precisión y consistencia. El mantenimiento preventivo, incluido el reemplazo periódico de componentes sujetos a desgaste, como las bobinas de inducción, contribuye a mantener la estabilidad del proceso, obtener resultados consistentes y garantizar una producción confiable.
Para muchos fabricantes, preservar la confiabilidad también implica modernizar sus equipos existentes. Con frecuencia, los sistemas de inducción de mayor antigüedad pueden reacondicionarse mediante la incorporación de controles modernizados, nuevas fuentes de alimentación y componentes críticos actualizados, lo que permite prolongar su vida útil al tiempo que mejora el rendimiento y el tiempo de actividad. Asimismo, estos equipos pueden reacondicionarse para adaptarse a nuevos programas de tratamiento térmico.
Al invertir en tecnología de inducción confiable, los fabricantes pueden seguir produciendo componentes de alta calidad capaces de satisfacer las exigencias de los vehículos actuales.
Acerca del autor:
Aaron Goodwin Ingeniero de Desarrollo de Negocios Inductoheat
Aaron Goodwin cuenta con más de 32 años de experiencia en la industria del calentamiento por inducción, durante los cuales ha desempeñado diversos cargos técnicos en Inductoheat, ubicada en Madison Heights, Michigan. Actualmente se desempeña como Ingeniero de Desarrollo de Negocios, brindando soporte técnico tanto al equipo de ventas como de ingeniería. Entre sus principales responsabilidades se encuentra la dirección del equipo de simulación mediante análisis por elementos finitos (FEA) para el diseño de bobinas y procesos de calentamiento por inducción.
Además, Aaron colabora con las empresas hermanas del grupo Inductotherm alrededor del mundo, impulsando el desarrollo tecnológico, el intercambio de conocimientos y la implementación de soluciones enfocadas en las necesidades de los clientes.
Reliable induction heat treating depends on more than metallurgy — it requires precise, repeatable performance from every part of the induction system. In this Technical Tuesday installment, Aaron Goodwin, business development engineer for Inductoheat, explores how induction coils, power supplies, quench systems, and real-time process monitoring work together to consistently achieve the hardness, case depth, and microstructure demanded by today’s automotive components. Learn how equipment reliability, preventive maintenance, and process control help manufacturers reduce variability, improve quality, and keep production running efficiently.
This informative piece was first released in Heat Treat Today’sAugust 2026 Annual Automotive Heat Treating print edition.
There is a critical partnership between an automotive component’s design and its heat treat requirement. In modern vehicle manufacturing — whether trucks, SUVs, or crossovers — the margin for error is very small. Components like axles, gears, shafts, and other engine/drivetrain elements are subjected to demanding loads, high torque, and complex operating conditions. These vehicles must balance durability, efficiency, quiet operation, and performance. They also need to successfully handle a wide range of driving scenarios, from stop-and-go urban traffic to towing, off-road use, and long-distance travel.
Across these vehicle platforms, one reality remains constant. While material selection and engineering design are critical, consistency and reliability of the heat treating process determine whether components perform as intended in real-world conditions. Induction heating for case hardening of automotive components is a common choice among design engineers, and reliable induction heating equipment is key.
From the induction coil to the power supply and the quench system, each must operate with precision and repeatability for every cycle. Induction case hardening depends on tightly controlled variables working in harmony. When performance is stable, quality heat treated components follow. When it is not, variability is introduced and with it risk.
The Link Between Induction Equipment and Metallurgy
Sectioned and etched case-hardened shaft with large splines | Image Credit: Inductoheat
Heat treated components are evaluated based on hardness, case depth, and microstructure of the steel after processing. Each component has a heat treat specification that defines these metrics. Some components require shallow case depths while others have very deep case. Shallow case is needed for surface wear resistance, while deep case is specified for strength under high torsional loads, and there are scenarios in between.
Induction heat treatment equipment reliably executes several tightly controlled variables to produce the required metallurgical properties. Key variables include power output and frequency, heating time, coil geometry and position, quench timing, and flow rates.
Each variable plays a critical role: even small deviations can significantly alter results. A slight fluctuation in power delivery, for example, may reduce case depth or create uneven hardness profiles. In truck components, this could result in reduced fatigue life under high loads. In a crossover or SUV, it may show up as premature wear or component failure. Reliable equipment ensures that these variables remain tightly controlled cycle after cycle, part after part. It transforms heat treating from a “variable process” into a repeatable, engineered system.
The Role of Induction Coil
The induction coil is where the energy meets the automotive component. Its design and condition directly influence heating and resulting hardness case patterns. A well-designed and properly maintained coil provides consistent electromagnetic coupling, uniform heat distribution along the surface, and sufficient penetration sub-surface for creating required case depths and hardness profiles.
When energized, the induction coil produces a magnetic field. From this, the automotive component begins to experience Joule heating from induced current, known as eddy currents. Heat times vary but are often only a few seconds in duration to reach the temperature required for the formation of austenite (range of 750–850°C [1382–1562°F], depending on chemical composition of steel).
Induction scan coil with integrated spray quench for case hardening | Image Credit: Inductoheat
Induction coils are perishable tooling components. Over time, thermal cycling, surface oxidation, and degradation, along with mechanical fatigue can reduce performance. Minor changes in coil geometry, alignment, or surface conditions can alter the electromagnetic field and introduce variability. What makes this especially challenging is that these changes are often gradual and not immediately visible. A coil may continue operating while quietly affecting heat distribution. Routine inspection, cleaning, and scheduled replacement are essential. In high-volume automotive manufacturing, proactive coil management is critical to maintaining process stability and reliably heat treated components.
Power Supply Stability
The induction power supply governs how energy is delivered to the coil and thus the component being heat treated. A stable output of power is critical for repeatable heating and consistent metallurgical results. Selection of the proper output frequency is important to balance the required depth of heating and the surface temperature of the component. For case hardening, the most common frequencies utilized fall in the range of 1,000 Hz up to 200 kHz. While a single power supply cannot cover this entire frequency range, most will provide some range of frequency flexibility.
Power supplies have precise and programable energy delivery at a stable frequency. They provide rapid response to variations in load as the temperature of the automotive component increases, passes through the curie point, and reaches the target temperature. This power supply gives reliable performance across long production runs. This is important when thousands of components must meet specifications in a narrow margin of variability. If a power supply introduces fluctuations, these will affect the heating rates and final hardened properties. For manufacturers, this leads to scrap parts and reduced profitability.
Power supply analog meter, % power–kilotwatts | Image Credit: Inductoheat
These work horses need scheduled maintenance. After all, reliable power delivery directly supports both quality and productivity. Personnel must:
Periodically check the power supply for tight electrical connections on bus work and wire terminals.
Check all cooling water hosing connections for tightness as the hoses age.
Verify that all protection switches are working.
Ensure that the cooling system’s water is clean and check its conductivity monthly.
Refer to the manufacturer’s manual for more information.
Quenching: Completing the Process
Heating is only half of the equation. The quenching process is initiated after the component has reached its austenitizing temperature at the desired depth. Quench fluid is sprayed uniformly onto the surface of the component, which removes heat in a rapid and controlled manner. This produces the formation of martensite giving the automotive component a case-hardened surface layer. All of this is done within proper limit set points to produce repeatable heat treated components.
Quench fluid is typically water with polymer additive. It needs to be maintained at the appropriate temperature and with the required percentage of polymer quench additive. The quench system delivers it with precise timing relative to heating. The pump and valves must provide consistent flow rates and pressures. The heat exchanger in the quench system will remove excess heat from the quench fluid. Otherwise, the temperature of the fluid will continue rising after each cycle.
Over time, quench water evaporates raising the concentration of polymer quench. It also becomes contaminated with oily residue, metal chips, and more. Quench system bag filters become full, and the many orifices of quench spray devices get clogged with scale and debris. The quench system needs to be maintained to ensure that cooling is controlled and repeatable. This completes the heat treating process with consistency and reliability.
Data-Driven Reliability
Induction equipment must function with precision to achieve the required heat treatment. When this equipment includes real-time monitoring and data collection during the process, further confidence is provided. Signature monitoring measures the many aspects of induction heat treatment for every cycle. This “signature” can record electrical parameters like inverter power, current, voltage, and frequency over the process time. It can also include quench fluid temperature, flow, and pressure, along with machine scan speed and spindle rotation speed. Each of these is given a percentage of permitted variation, graphed over time. Any deviation outside of these boundaries during the cycle, and the machine will initiate a process fault.
Inductoheat QAS process signature with high/low boundaries; graphing interverter KVA scan speed, quench flow-left spindle, quench slow-right spindle | Image Credit: Inductoheat
This can be an important part of a quality assurance system (QAS) and ensure confidence during each production shift. For automotive components with barcodes or other unique markings, traceability becomes possible, saving the process signature from the machine and assigning it to the heat treated component. This step can provide critical data to isolate a batch of parts should the need arise, avoiding the tendency to quarantine more pieces than necessary.
Across the full spectrum of vehicle manufacturing, from heavy-duty trucks to everyday SUVs and crossovers, performance is built layer by layer. As vehicle platforms continue to evolve, heat treating processes must keep pace with increasingly complex component designs and performance requirements. Reliable induction equipment is essential to meet these challenges. Each aspect must operate with precision and consistency. Routine maintenance, including the replacement of wear items such as induction coils, helps ensure process stability, consistent results, and dependable production.
For many manufacturers, maintaining reliability also means modernizing existing equipment. Aging induction systems can often be rebuilt with updated controls, power supplies, and critical components, extending service life while improving performance and uptime. They can also be re-tooled for new heat treat programs.
By investing in induction equipment, manufacturers can continue producing high-quality components that support the demands of today’s vehicles.
About The Author:
Aaron Goodwin Business Development Engineer Inductoheat
Aaron Goodwin has over 32 years of experience in the induction heating industry, having held a variety of technical positions with Inductoheat in Madison Heights, Michigan. In his current role as business development engineer, Aaron provides technical support to both sales and engineering, with responsibilities that include leading the finite element analysis (FEA) simulation team for coil and process design. Aaron also collaborates with global sister companies throughout the Inductotherm Group, supporting technology development, knowledge sharing, and customer-focused solutions worldwide.
Hybar LLC, a U.S. steel producer, is adding a second continuous minimill at its Osceola, Arkansas, operation that will integrate electric arc furnace (EAF) melting, ladle refining, continuous casting, induction equalization, and rolling to increase reinforcing bar production by 630,000 short tons annually.
SMS group will supply the CMT® 550 mill, which will be installed alongside Hybar’s existing CMT® 550 operation, creating a twin-mill configuration that will share existing site infrastructure. Groundbreaking is expected in late 2026, with startup scheduled approximately 24 months later.
The meltshop will feature an EAF based on SMS group’s EDGE DC design platform and a twin ladle furnace station. An X-Pact AURA electrical power system will supply the melting unit, which is designed for production rates exceeding 80 tons per hour.
The mill will connect steelmaking, casting, and rolling in a continuous production process. A high-speed, single-strand endless caster will connect the meltshop to the rolling mill through an induction equalization furnace, reducing the need for conventional fossil-fuel-fired reheating between casting and rolling.
The new facility will produce reinforcing bars ranging from 12.4 to 35 millimeters and will include provisions for future installation of vertical compact coiling technology. The rolling mill will include 14 housing-less stands and a six-pass high-speed finishing block, as well as laser measurement equipment for dimensional verification and process control.
The project will also incorporate plant-wide acquisition of real-time production data. The information will feed a digital platform designed to support equipment monitoring, operational analysis, and machine-learning models.
The second mill will use infrastructure associated with Hybar’s existing operation, including access to the site’s 105-megawatt solar installation and 160-megawatt-hour battery storage system. The configuration is intended to reduce energy us and emissions compared with conventional minimill production.
“Building on the success of our first CMT® 550 mill at Hybar’s Osceola site to produce long products, we see huge potential to expand our capacities here at Osceola by combining logistics and labor expertise already on-site with this CMT® twin solution,” said David Stickler, CEO of Hybar. “This enables us to effectively respond to the increasing demand for green long production by taking advantage of shared utility costs.”
Press release is available in its original form here.
Heat TreatToday offers News Chatter, a feature highlighting representative moves, transactions, and kudos from around the industry. Enjoy these 41 news items, including U.S. Steel’s investment in new quench-and-temper capacity, Steelhead Technologies’ acquisition of Visual Shop and Bluestreak, Bluewater Thermal Solutions’ third consecutive Nadcap Merit Accreditation, and more!
Equipment
1. Tenaris will modernize the electric arc furnace at its Koppel, Pennsylvania, steel mill with engineering and equipment from Tenova Inc., part of a broader investment to improve productivity, reliability, and safety. The upgrade strengthens a critical steelmaking process, supporting more efficient and competitive North American steel production.
2. U.S. Steel is investing $475 million to add a new quench-and-temper line at its Fairfield Tubular Operations in Alabama, expanding heat treating capacity for seamless tubular products used in the oil and gas industry. The project will increase production capacity, improve traceability, and strengthen the domestic supply of high-performance steel products.
3. Intalus has ordered two electron beam powder bed fusion (EB-PBF) systems from Freemelt to expand its metal additive manufacturing capabilities and support application development for titanium and other advanced materials. The investment strengthens U.S. additive manufacturing capacity while advancing production of high-performance components for medical and future industrial applications.
4. Kittyhawk Inc. has placed a purchase order for a new HIP vessel at its facility in Garden Grove, California. The planned investment is intended to expand processing capacity for commercial aerospace, space, defense, and other industries that rely on HIP technology to improve material performance and component integrity.
5. A new direct reduced iron (DRI) facility planned for U.S. Steel’s Arkansas-based steelmaking facility, Big River Steel Works, in Osceola, Arkansas, is expected to strengthen domestic steelmaking capabilities by linking iron ore production, ironmaking, and electric arc furnace (EAF) steel production within a single U.S.-based supply chain. The facility will produce hot direct reduced iron (HDRI) and hot briquetted iron (HBI) for use in downstream steel melting operations, supporting domestic steel production with a U.S.-based source of metallic feedstock.
6. Solar Atmospheres is preparing to expand vacuum heat treating capacity in the Northeastern United States as construction progresses on its newest facility in Berlin, Connecticut. The 28,000-square-foot operation remains on schedule to begin serving clients in the fourth quarter of 2026.
7. Outokumpu Stainless USA will upgrade its secondary metallurgy operations with a new 180-ton twin ladle furnace from Primetals Technologies at its Calvert, Alabama, facility. The project will add electrical heating capacity following argon oxygen decarburization processing, improving operational flexibility and supporting stainless steel production.
8. Bodycote is expanding its hot isostatic pressing (HIP) and thermal processing capabilities to support growing demand from the aerospace and defense sectors. The expansion adds HIP equipment and powder metallurgy capabilities designed to increase processing capacity for critical, high-performance components.
9. Hybar LLC has commissioned SMS group to supply the technology and equipment for a second steel rebar mini mill in Arkansas, a project that will double Hybar’s annual rebar production capacity to approximately 1.3 million tons. The expansion strengthens domestic electric arc furnace steelmaking capacity while increasing the supply of reinforcing steel for U.S. infrastructure and construction markets.
10. A Polish aerospace manufacturer has expanded its heat treatment capacity with a fourth dual-chamber CaseMaster Evolution vacuum furnace from SECO/WARWICK to support production of critical aircraft landing gear components. The investment strengthens the global aerospace supply chain by increasing capacity, process repeatability, and energy-efficient heat treating for flight-critical hardware.
11. Castings Technology has expanded its titanium casting capabilities with the installation of a new vacuum arc remelting (VAR) consumable casting furnace from Retech, as it relocates to a larger manufacturing facility. The investment increases capacity for aerospace castings while strengthening the supply of high-integrity titanium components for critical aerospace applications.
12. Mexican steel producer Talleres y Aceros S.A. de C.V. (TYASA) has awarded Primetals Technologies a contract to supply a twin vacuum degassing (VD) plant for its steelmaking facility in Ixtaczoquitlán, Mexico. The plant is scheduled to begin operation in October 2027.
13. AGF DEFCOM, a metal additive manufacturing company, has expanded its vacuum heat treating capacity with the addition of a second Mentor Pro furnace from Solar Manufacturing, increasing throughput for thermal processing operations while reducing scheduling constraints. The investment is expected to support growing production requirements and improve turnaround times for clients requiring vacuum heat treatment of additively manufactured components.
14. Kalírna Desire has launched a new commercial vacuum hardening operation using a SECO/WARWICK vacuum furnace, establishing the Czech Republic’s first local vacuum heat treating capability. The investment expands commercial heat treating capacity, giving nearby manufacturers access to shorter lead times and advanced vacuum hardening services.
15. Bodycote is investing several million dollars to expand vacuum heat treatment, hot isostatic pressing (HIP), and powder metallurgy capabilities across its U.S. East Coast facilities, including new equipment and upgraded processing capacity. The expansion strengthens thermal processing support for aerospace and defense manufacturers by increasing capacity for critical, high-performance metal components.
16. CAN-ENG Furnaces International has been awarded a contract to supply a continuous aluminum T6 heat treatment system that combines solution heat treatment, rapid quenching, and artificial aging to replace an aging production line. The new system will increase productivity, improve metallurgical consistency, and enhance energy efficiency for aluminum casting operations.
17. TTT Group is expanding its thermal processing capabilities with the addition of hot isostatic pressing (HIP) technology from Hiperbaric. The investment establishes a new business unit that will provide HIP processing for aerospace, oil and gas, and other industrial applications.
18. Centorr Vacuum Industries has secured multiple orders for high-temperature vacuum furnace systems supporting applications ranging from titanium heat treating and powder metallurgy to advanced ceramics and carbon materials. The demand reflects continued investment in strategic manufacturing sectors, including aerospace, defense, energy, and advanced materials, that rely on specialized thermal processing technologies.
19. Solar Atmospheres is preparing to commission a titanium solution heat treating system that will expand processing capacity for large titanium bars, forgings, and other components used in aerospace, defense, and industrial applications. The system combines a drop bottom furnace with an 11,000-gallon recirculating water quench tank designed to rapidly cool large workloads and achieve consistent metallurgical properties.
20. Tenova, a global industrial furnace and metals technology supplier with North American operations, will supply the electric arc furnace for the transformation of Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann (HKM) in Duisburg, Germany. The furnace, designed with a production capacity of 2.5 million tons per year, will be Germany’s largest electric arc furnace and will become the technological center of the plant’s transition under its new owner, Salzgitter AG.
21. Godrej Aerospace, part of the Godrej Enterprises Group, has ordered a SECO/WARWICK vacuum furnace to bring critical brazing and heat treatment of nickel, titanium, and stainless steel aerospace alloys in-house. The investment strengthens aerospace manufacturing capabilities by reducing supply chain dependence while expanding advanced vacuum heat treating capacity in India.
22. NEMO Industries has selected Tenova HYL to supply direct reduction iron (DRI) technology for a planned U.S. pig iron plant designed to produce low-carbon granulated pig iron. The project advances domestic ironmaking capacity while supporting a more sustainable supply of raw material for electric arc furnace steel production.
23. Ipsen has launched ICON, a new control platform for its vacuum furnaces that combines the company’s CompuVac and VacuProf systems into a single interface. The platform is designed to provide a more streamlined user experience while supporting furnace operation, production monitoring, and maintenance activities from one system.
24. RASA ALÜMİNYUM has ordered a universal controlled atmosphere brazing (CAB) batch furnace with vacuum purging from SECO/WARWICK to expand heat exchanger production at its new manufacturing facility in Turkey. The investment will increase production capacity, improve brazing efficiency, and provide a scalable platform for future growth in industrial cooling and heat exchanger manufacturing.
Steel mill modernization in Koppel, PAIllustration of U.S. Steel’s planned expansionFreemelt’s e-MELT®-iM
Kittyhawk’s new HIP vessel in Garden GroveBig River Steel MIDREX plant modelVacuum furnace for Solar Atmospheres’ Connecticut expansionOutokumpu’s Alabama expansionThermal processing capabilities expansion at BodycotePolish aerospace manufacturer strengthening heat treat capacity with fourth SECO/WARWICK vacuum furnaceA new VAR installation from RetechOngoing collaboration between TYASA and Primetals TechnologiesThe second Mentor Pro furnace at AGF DEFCOMVector 15VP-669 from SECO/WARWICKColleagues at Bodycote’s Greenville facility discussing production planningAluminum roller hearth heat treatment systemMembers of Hiperbaric and TTT standing in front of a HIP 107 unit under constructionAn example of a vacuum hot press furnace available sold by CentorrA drop bottom furnace at the Solar Atmospheres’s Hermitage facilityLargest electric arc furnace (EAR) for HKM’s transformation SECO/WARWICK vacuum furnace for aerospace businessThe NEW DRI technology from Tenova HYLIpsen’s newly launched control platform, ICONUniversal CAB batch furnace for RASA ALÜMİNYUM’s Turkish facility
Company & Personnel
25. DSH Technologies has consolidated its debinding and sintering operations with sister company Elnik Systems in North Carolina, bringing thermal processing services and furnace expertise together under one roof. The move is expected to streamline support for metal injection molding and additive manufacturing customers while strengthening technical collaboration between the companies.
26. Continuum Powders has launched its Custom Foundry Runtime (CFR) program, giving manufacturers access to small-batch specialty alloy production using its melting and plasma gas atomization platform. The initiative is designed to accelerate alloy development and qualification for powder metallurgy and advanced manufacturing applications across aerospace, defense, medical, and energy industries.
27. SECO/WARWICK and Retech have completed a strategic investment project at Retech’s Buffalo, New York, facility, expanding plasma gas atomization and advanced materials processing capabilities. The investment strengthens U.S. infrastructure for aerospace, defense, energy, medical, and other industries that rely on high-performance metal powders and advanced metallurgical technologies.
28. The U.S. Department of War has suspended the Phase II rollout of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program, delaying mandatory third-party cybersecurity audits while continuing existing self-assessment requirements. The pause gives manufacturers and defense suppliers additional time to prepare for compliance as the Department reviews the program to reduce barriers while maintaining cybersecurity standards.
29. IperionX has been awarded up to $6.6 million in U.S. Department of War funding to expand titanium manufacturing at its Virginia campus, with Phase II funding expected to support manufacturing capacity and capital equipment purchases. The investment strengthens the domestic supply of titanium products for defense, aerospace, and other critical industries.
30. Steelhead Technologies, a software provider serving the heat treating and metal finishing industries, has acquired Visual Shop by CSI and Bluestreak, bringing together three providers of manufacturing execution, quality management, and job shop management software for North American heat treaters and metal finishers. The acquisition expands its software offering while retaining the industry expertise developed by each organization.
31. The Metal Treating Institute (MTI) announced the formation of its ERP Task Force as its Summer Board Meeting on July 21. The member-led group was established following Steelhead Technologies’ acquisitions of Cornerstone Systems, Inc., provider of Visual Shop by CSI, and Throughput Consulting, Inc., provider of Bluestreak and Bright AM. MTI said the acquisitions have prompted heat treaters to evaluate their long-term ERP strategies and better understand their options within the changing software landscape.
32. SECO/WARWICK USA has appointed Donald Marteeny as managing director, while former U.S. leader Piotr Zawistowski transitions to the SECO/WARWICK Group Supervisory Board to support North American strategy and sales. The leadership changes follow the consolidation of the company’s U.S. operations and are intended to strengthen coordination, operational efficiency, and heat treatment and vacuum metallurgy capabilities across its Meadville and Buffalo facilities.
33. AFC-Holcroft has promoted Jason Crook to general manager of Operations for Aichelin Americas, expanding his oversight to engineering across AFC-Holcroft, GM-Entreprises, and Nitrex Montreal. The appointment supports the continued integration of the three companies, strengthening collaboration, technical consistency, and heat treating capabilities across the organization.
34. ThermTech has partnered with Steelhead Technologies to implement an AI-powered heat treating platform integrating MES, QMS, ERP, financial, and customer service functions. ThermTech’s engineering team will also collaborate with Steelhead to develop specialized capabilities aimed at improving quality, responsiveness, and digital integration for commercial heat treating operations.
35. United Process Controls (UPC) has promoted Bill Ulrich to technical sales manager, where he will help lead strategic sales initiatives, customer engagement, and business development across the company’s thermal processing portfolio. The promotion reinforces UPC’s investment in technical leadership to better support manufacturers with process optimization, automation, and customer service.
36. Solar Atmospheres has appointed Ava Conolly as a metallurgical/R&D engineer, joining the company’s research and development team with a background in chemical engineering, materials science, and metallurgy. Conolly will support process optimization, metallurgical analysis, and R&D initiatives aimed at advancing the commercial heat treater’s thermal processing capabilities.
37. Super Systems Inc. (SSi) has appointed Steven Christopher as vice president of Business Development, expanding his responsibilities across North America while he continues to lead West Coast operations. In the new role, Christopher will connect customer needs with SSi’s engineering and R&D teams while identifying market opportunities and guiding the development of thermal processing products and services.
Consolidated debinding and sintering operations at the Pineville, North Carolina facilityContinuum Powders’ Custom Foundry RuntimeCommemoration of the expansion of Retech’s capabilities
The logos of Steelhead, CSI and Bluestreak/Bright AMLeadership transition at SECO/WARWICKThermTech and Steelhead staffBill Ulrich, newly promoted technical sales manager for UPCAva Conolly, newly appointed metallurgical/R&D engineerSteven Christopher, newly appointed vice president of Business Development
Kudos
38. Metalex Thermal Specialties has earned Nadcap accreditation for heat treating following investments in its equipment, quality systems, process controls, and workforce. The accreditation strengthens the commercial heat treater’s ability to serve aerospace and defense manufacturers requiring rigorous quality and special-process standards.
39. ECM USA has commissioned its 500th heating cell in North America, marking a milestone across furnace installations supporting processes including low-pressure carburizing, nitriding, brazing, sintering, and quenching. The milestone reflects continued investment by commercial and captive heat treaters in vacuum furnace technology, automation, and integrated thermal processing systems.
40. Aalberts surface technologies’ AST-PEM operation has achieved ISO 14001 certification following a successful audit, recognizing its environmental management practices. The certification supports continued improvements in environmental performance and sustainable practices within its reel-to-reel surface treatment operations.
41. Bluewater Thermal Solutions’ South Bend, Indiana, facility has earned Nadcap Merit Accreditation for the third consecutive audit cycle, maintaining its 24-month accreditation status for heat treating and materials testing. The achievement reinforces the commercial heat treater’s ability to provide compliant, repeatable thermal processing for critical aerospace applications.
An acquisition is expanding an industrial combustion technology portfolio to include complete burner systems for thermal processing applications, bringing combustion controls, fuel management, and burner technologies together under one supplier.
DUNGS, a combustion technology supplier with U.S. operations in Blaine, Minnesota, has acquired IBS Industrie-Brenner-Systeme GmbH, a German manufacturer of industrial burner systems headquartered in Hagen, Germany. The addition expands DUNGS’ offering beyond combustion controls, gas trains, and safety components to include complete industrial burner systems for high- and low-temperature process applications.
IBS brings more than five decades of experience developing, manufacturing, and servicing industrial burners used in thermal processing applications across a range of industries. The acquisition combines that burner design and application experience with DUNGS’ existing combustion controls and fuel management capabilities.
Daniel Dungs Chief Sales Officer DUNGS
“Our aim is to accompany our [clients] on the journey from component to system, from the individual valve to the complete burner system,” said Daniel Dungs, chief sales officer of DUNGS. “In this way, we take the complexity off our [clients’] hands and deliver engineered solutions so that they can focus on their process rather than the technology behind it.”
IBS will continue operating in its current form following the acquisition, with the IBS brand, product names, and existing points of contact remaining in place. Beginning the third quarter of 2026, IBS burner solutions will be offered through DUNGS’ global sales network.
Press release is available in its original form here. Additional information provided by Industrial Burner Systems here. Main image shows Bernard Machovsy of IBS (left) and Daniel Dungs of DUNGS (right). Image Credit: IBS Industrie-Brenner-Systeme GmbH
In this episode of Heat TreatRadio, host Doug Glenn sits down with Jeff Halonen, CEO and co-founder of Steelhead Technologies, to discuss the company’s recent acquisitions of Visual Shop and Bluestreak. Halonen explains what brought the deals together, what the acquisitions mean for current users, and how Steelhead Technologies plans to integrate the platforms and their heat treat-specific capabilities. The conversation also explores the company’s broader investment in technology, AI, and the future of software for commercial heat treaters.
Below, you can watch the video, listen to the podcast by clicking on the audio play button, or read an edited transcript.
The following transcript has been edited for your reading enjoyment.
Introduction (00:05)
Doug Glenn: Well, welcome everyone to another episode of Heat TreatRadio. I’m your host, Doug Glenn, the founder and publisher of Heat TreatToday.
Today I have the great privilege of speaking with Steelhead Technologies CEO, Jeffrey Halonen. We’re going to be talking with Jeff about his company’s recent acquisition of two competitors in the commercial heat treating sector of our market.
At Heat TreatToday, our primary market is not commercial heat treaters. It’s an important sector, but it’s about 15% of our total circulation. Most of the rest of it is in the captive market. But today, we’re going to be talking about this commercial market, and it should be a special interest to anyone in that commercial heat treating market, especially if you are a current user of Bluestreak or Visual Shop, or of course, a Steelhead Technologies product.
First, can you tell us about yourself and Steelhead Technologies?
Host of Heat TreatRadio Doug Glenn (left) and CEO and co-founder of Steelhead Technologies Jeff Halonen (right)
Jeff Halonen: Thanks for having me, Doug. I appreciate the differentiation between captive and commercial heat treaters. For commercial heat treaters, their products can by anything that flies, goes into space, data centers, computers, etc. So, I think that commercial heat treaters find themselves in one of the most important seats in manufacturing because of the pace of iteration. If you think about it, if you’re doing brake rotors, and it’s the same brake rotor for 40 years, you’re going to bring that in-house. It makes sense to buy the oven.
But if you’re changing your designs every six months, which is what happens in aerospace and data centers, etc., then commercial is the clear path.
My name is Jeff Halonen. I’m a mechanical engineer. My career started at General Motors. I got into some heat treating, but it was super mild compared to what everyone gets into, as in body structures — there’s a lot of thermal management components to assembling a vehicle.
I’m one of the co-founders of Steelhead, and we are a technology partner for job shops. We serve primarily commercial heat treaters, but also metal finishers, platers, powder coaters, Nadcap, wet paint, thermal spray, and also some fabrication shops as well. Our customers may have as low as three people, but typically it’s 20 to 300 people, somewhere in that range where they’re big enough to have a lot of problems, and then they’re also a job shop. Parts are coming in, phone calls, high-volume, fast-paced. These aren’t $10,000 invoices, $20,000 invoices — they are smaller, a few hundred or thousand dollars, and there’s high volumes of them.
Everyone is dealing with the problems of labor turnover and other challenges. It’s a very nerve-wracking business. The revenue volatility is kind of extreme a lot of times, and your visibility and your control over that revenue volatility is not high. There’re ways you can diversify, but there’s challenges.
We have a core philosophy that job shops are actually ideally suited to leverage technology to the hilt to compensate for all of these challenges.
It’s almost like you’re in an environment where the facts change every hour, every day. This means that knowing what’s going on and making decisions quickly becomes even more important. It’s like the F-35 fighter jets that have those goggles with all the quick stats. Why? Because in a dog fight, the faster you make decisions and have data, the better off you are. Whereas if you’re canoeing across a lake, you don’t really need a lot of real-time KPIs.
We’re huge on technology, and we work with job shops all day long.
The Product (03:53)
Doug Glenn: Are you an ERP (enterprise resource planning) system or how would you classify your product?
Jeff Halonen: We’re all in one, to the extent we can be. That includes ERP, financials, native accounting, MES (manufacturing execution system), spec management, QMS (quality management system), quality management, CRM (customer relations management), timesheet, payroll integration, maintenance, purchasing, receiving, etc.
We have found that smaller businesses do not like to jump into 20 different software programs because you’re shoveling data all over the place. Even something like purchasing — how is that related to maintenance? Well, you had to replace a motor, and then you had to purchase a motor, then you had to receive it, but it went to one of four buildings. You don’t know where it’s at. The magic is in the connectivity of everything, and then if adding AI on top of that, you’re a fully connected business.
The Acquisition Timeline (04:42)
Doug Glenn: So, enterprise-wide, top to bottom.
Now the big news is this acquisition that just recently took place, and that’s what we want to talk about today. First off, let’s just get some facts about the acquisition. When did it happen?
Jeff Halonen: Yeah, so there’s a separate story and arc and strategy of how it made sense for all parties with both of them. As far as timing, Bluestreak was a couple weeks ago, and then Visual Shop was three or four weeks before that.
The timing is relatively coincidental — it just happened. The conversations just so happened to move in parallel. Timing-wise, there’s no explicit link between the two acquisitions, other than the fact that they both picked up steam around the same time as each other.
Doug Glenn: That’s right. Can you describe the companies involved?
Jeff Halonen: Visual Shop is a Cornerstone Systems product out of Illinois. They’ve been around — they’re essentially the pioneers in heat treating and metal finishing, as far as having a commercially off-the-shelf product available with support and service for heat treaters.
And then Bluestreak out of Wisconsin, which is really similar in terms of focus, but Bluestreak’s a much more modern system, cloud-based offering. Both companies have a huge disposition towards high service, which is something we’re really happy to see as we kind of bring the companies together.
Our number one core value is customer obsession, and we understand that it’s not just software. If your business is completely static, you have 10 employees, and it’s just the same business for 20 years; you don’t need a ton of service. But most of these shops are growing and adding capabilities, and that’s a common ethos across the two of them.
Visual Shop has about 150 enterprises on the software today, and Bluestreak has about 90. Half of Visual Shop customers are commercial heat treaters, and 60% of Bluestreak are commercial heat treaters.
Doug Glenn: The other percentages that are not commercial heat treaters are outside the heat treat industry. Still probably job shops, but outside the heat treat industry.
Jeff Halonen: Correct. Highly tangential. The same parts are going in and out of heat treaters to blasting shops, copper plating shops, etc. It’s typically metal finishing for the remainder.
The Acquisition Arc (07:35)
Doug Glenn: You mentioned earlier about the arc of each acquisition, the timeline, and the reasoning. Can you tell us about the arc of each of those acquisitions?
Visual Shop
Jeff Halonen: With Visual Shop — this product was launched around 1992. It hit a point where continuing to improve essentially requires a complete rebuild. The position of the business, and the financial position of both Steelhead and Visual Shop, is that it’s a very affordable product.
It was the lowest cost product available for job shops, which was great, but the result of that was that there were not a lot of resources to invest in building the product and accelerating development. So, it was just at a juncture where there’s either a tremendous amount of investment — many, many millions of dollars — to start from scratch, essentially, on a brand-new product, or do we provide as it kind of gets towards the end of life, a structured transition over to a more modern system where there’s a definitive path. There’s someone you can call. Obviously, there are many paths that every shop can take, but it provides a smooth transition.
Now the entire Visual Shop team is now part of team Steelhead. Nothing changes for Visual Shop customers — they still call Visual Shop. It’s the same product, the same service. But now there’s a path for migration there.
Bluestreak
On the Bluestreak side, the company was actually growing. Bluestreak is a great product. It has great retention numbers, approximately 97% gross dollar retention, which is a common metric in software — that’s exceptional. So Bluestreak’s clients are loyal. They love the product. Todd and the rest of the Bluestreak team have built an incredible product for heat treating.
The product captures a lot of the nuance around specifications, certifications, and oven compliance, like blocking and tackling. That’s one thing we’ve come to appreciate over the years — you can have flashy AI tools, but shops cannot focus on the upside, on the growth, unless the fundamentals of how they run their business are rock solid.
They need to feel that they’re on rock-solid concrete. If they cannot create a certification, if Battelle Helicopter calls us and asks for documentation of something and they are not confident it can be provided — if they are not confident in the accuracy of instruction provided to operators or the ability to process parts correctly — the company cannot even focus on the nice upside of technology.
Related Reading: Click on the image above to see how digital tools can streamline Nadcap certification management and reduce manual data entry for heat treat operations.
All that to say, the partnership with Bluestreak is a really exciting one for Steelhead to be able to build absolutely bulletproof heat treating technology. Todd (Wenzel) and our engineering team — the Steelhead engineering and product team — are in close contact, and there are things that Bluestreak has built that are on its fourth generation. They have been working with heat treaters for many, many years. So, we’re working very closely as a single team to provide all the features that Bluestreak has developed over the years that are great for heat treaters and pulling those into Steelhead.
Bluestreak is a QMS and MES, and then Steelhead is the broader platform, including ERP and finance. We also have an MES, but they’re more specialized on the heat treating. We are kind of integrating and combining features and products to get a great rock-solid foundation in place.
Like doctors say, first do no harm, and then press the gas on AI. I was just at a shop yesterday, a large heat treater. When I walked into the office, there were employees doing invoicing, and it looked like 1997. Hey, the machine works, right? There were some profitability challenges that they were working to address, but for other business functions, that’s where it gets really exciting.
Some may wonder if they can even look at AI. Everyone is in a margin-pressed environment. Everyone has costs. If you look at the overhead it takes to run your shop, and you can reduce that meaningfully by tens of percent, that goes straight to the bottom line. Now you can go buy those $3 million ovens that you love to buy, or you can walk to the trade show with a little more swagger because you got a little extra net margin at the end of the day to invest back in the business instead of dumping that into processing paperwork.
Related Reading: How could AI connect heat treat data, tools, and operators? Click on the image above to learn more about the emerging role of AI and Model Context Protocol in thermal processing.
We have a couple AI products out today, AI order entry and AI analytics, to get your team to where you can literally chat with your business — have an AI agent that’s like a CFO or a quality manager — so your team can spend time solving the problems instead of digging through charts.
The exciting part is that’s these are the first of 10–15 AI products on our roadmap. But none of that works unless you have a rock-solid foundation.
Doug Glenn: Need to have the foundation.
Jeff Halonen: That is the number one priority. What we found is if we sit here and talk about AI, that’s fine. But how can I do furnace calibrations? How can I create this certification? What’s my operator’s experience going to be? And you know what — they’re right. They’re absolutely correct to focus on that. We’re taking the order of operations very seriously, but it’s still very exciting.
Acquisition vs. Competition (12:44)
Doug Glenn: Two more questions on the acquisition itself. Why buy as opposed to just competing them out of the market?
Jeff Halonen: Yeah, it’s a good question. I’ll take them separately because it is different for both of them. With Visual Shop, the product works. The business operates. It’s fairly common for us to meet with shops that have more financial challenges that are running on that system. That’s like an invisible, parasitic tax. But what they do see is, a) it works, and b) it’s a very low cost. You’ll have businesses doing $20 million in revenue, spending $6,000.
I know our products are a little more premium offering, and we would like to bring the absolute best we can bring. Even globally, as far as what businesses pay for technology, Visual Shop is a very low price. There’re a couple reasons this acquisition makes sense.
For one, it’s actually good for the customers. Visual Shop’s customer base and revenue have been decreasing. They had about $1.2 million in revenue and about 150 customers, and those numbers have been decreasing for about four years.
It just gets to a point where there’s just no good options. And with those options, the timelines are really compressed.
So, in many ways, we’ve extended the timeline and increased the stability that’s available. There were also many mental hurdles with the Visual Shop side. We’ve had many people send us all-caps emails saying, “Thank you for buying Visual Shop.” It would be from the lieutenants — the quality manager, the production manager, the general manager — because they suffer. They are the system. It’s like their nights and weekends, and their stress levels — that is the system.
Sometimes you have a situation where the finance decision is, “Hey, this low-cost system will work, so therefore take no action.” But they’re not seeing all the costs that are kind of hidden there. So that’s where this acquisition makes a lot of sense. It provides a stable path, but also a bit of an impetus for folks to reevaluate next-generation or modern options.
Steelhead has attracted a bit of investment. We are growing quite aggressively. I would say we’re pushing the limits of what technology can do for job shops, and that’s resulted in a lot of exciting growth. But the thing I’ve been pushing with our team is humility. Especially with commercial heat treating, there’s a tremendous amount of nuance. The vocabulary alone will humble you if you haven’t been in that environment for a while.
The messaging to our team was, “Hey, we need to approach this with humility.” That’s where the Bluestreak partnership is exciting, because it’s different from Visual Shop in the sense that Bluestreak was growing and in a good spot profitability-wise.
Todd was looking at retirement options as well — there were some time dimensions there. This acquisition wasn’t as acute as Visual Shop, as far as continuity plans for customers and creating predictability.
The reason why the Bluestreak deal made sense is because we believe heat treaters are a critical portion of the manufacturing ecosystem. There are all these oil tankers trying to get out to the open sea, all the fabrication shops, the space launches. I think they’re going from 110 space launches a year to 220. They’re literally doubling space launches from 2026 to 2027. And then you have all these startups, and that’s great. You have 500 oil tankers here, but now it’s got to get through this. That’s the role of commercial heat treating. It’s others too — anodizing, plating, and others — but heat treating is certainly a part of that constriction if you look at the manufacturing picture.
That’s why it made sense to combine Bluestreak’s rock solid understanding of how you run a heat treating shop reliably. This is how you pass your Nadcap audits every time. Then incorporate the larger business platform to try and boost the margin and growth opportunity and get on offense.
The Bluestreak product progress has been slowing over the last several years. We believe there’s an opportunity to step on the gas in terms of what technology can deliver. That’s where that partnership makes sense.
It puts us in a position to have a bulletproof offering. Here’s the source code for Bluestreak, here’s the source code for Steelhead, and here’s the developers that made both of them work together to make sure we’re putting the absolute best product in the hands of heat treaters.
The Financial Investment (18:17)
Doug Glenn: One last question about just the acquisition itself. Can you talk about the financial aspect of the acquisition?
Jeff Halonen: I’m one of six co-founders of the company. We bootstrapped it for a year. I’m an ex-automotive engineer from Michigan. We did get to a point where we realized that if we want to grow, we may have to pursue financial backing, and we did. We pursued venture capital.
For the first four years, we were venture-backed. Venture is a very aggressive type of investor. There’s a lot to read about there. They do serve a great role in society. There are not a lot of people that would give $2.5 million to a guy with a PDF who’s hollering at a webcam saying, “We’re going to go do this thing.” They have some downsides, too.
Last November, we transitioned to having four venture capitalists as part of the company. We’re down to one now. Then a growth equity firm stepped in called Mainsail. They have around 30 ERPs in their portfolio. This is what they do all day long. It was an $84 million investment that they made, and part of that was relieving the venture capitalists of their seat at the table. Part of that investment was operating capital to invest in growth. It’s right in the name, growth capital.
I’ve had shops ask me what their intentions are as investors. That’s a rock-solid question. Growth equity is a variant of private equity. They are looking for a financial outcome five years out on the horizon. However, ask yourself what leads to that outcome. This is capitalism, and just like every commercial heat treater in the world — if you provide a great product to your customer on time, you have a financial outcome.
A world where there’s a misalignment of incentives, specifically, almost doesn’t exist. If Mainsail is looking for a return on their investment five years from now, the next financial sponsor, whoever it is, will be looking at one number first and foremost, and that’s retention — gross retention.
We’re an ERP. We have one-year contracts with our customers. That’s a very modest contract length in the ERP world. That means our customers can choose a different path every single year. If we aren’t retaining customers, then we’re also not the cheapest. Every year customers have to say, “It’s still worth it.” That puts an immense onus on us to deliver.
So, the only path for us is to succeed and to provide a successful outcome for the financial sponsors — who, by the way, are financing a ton of development R&D, many millions of dollars of development going into heat treating.
There’s a lot of positivity here for everyone. There’s a ton of alignment here, and retention of customers is number one, and the only way we can retain customers is to provide unbelievable value year after year.
If we aren’t improving their margins and we aren’t helping them grow, then it’s going to be tough sledding for us. But that’s what we look towards every day. That’s why customer obsession is our number one core value. It’s really the only path forward.
The Clients (21:45)
Doug Glenn: I did want to talk about customers too, because I’ve heard a couple of different things just in talking with some people in the industry about the recent activity here. Will Cornerstone customers and Bluestreak customers be impacted essentially the same?
I’ve heard that Cornerstone customers are essentially going to have to abandon their system, more or less, but Bluestreak customers will be able to maintain their system. Can you tell us how it’s going to impact each of those two different clienteles?
Jeff Halonen: There’s some aspects that are the same for both. The first is that within the product portfolio now, we have Steelhead, Bluestreak, and Visual Shop, all under the Steelhead umbrella. All proactive R&D investment in technology is going into the Steelhead platform. We’ve already invested millions of dollars into heat treat technology in the Steelhead platform.
The CMMC Phase II rollout has been paused, but cybersecurity requirements remain. Click the link above to learn more about what the latest developments mean for captive and commercial heat treaters.
The architecture is very modern and advanced. The platform will actually have a FedRAMP-moderate-equivalent version available early next year. We’re targeting January of next year, which means if you’re CMMC, it’s extremely easy just to switch to the FedRAMP cloud product, and the burden of becoming CMMC Level 2 goes away.
Out of the three products, all new R&D, all the AI products, will be invested into Steelhead. However, we also want to make sure there’s business continuity for all the shops using the Visual Shop and Bluestreak product. All Visual Shop and Bluestreak customers are Steelhead customers. Customer success is number one priority. For Visual Shop, right now nothing has changed. You have the same product, call the same exact team. There’s no change at all.
However, we’re targeting the end of 2027 for the end of life on Visual Shop. Many Visual Shop customers have perpetual licenses, meaning they’ve been using it for free, essentially unsupported, into perpetuity. There are quite a few shops that have been doing that already for a long time. There are a few that are on subscription, but the vast majority are perpetual, which means its support. It’s the ability to pick up the phone and make a call, not like, “I have access to software,” and the software just went away the next day.
We are targeting the end of 2027 for Visual Shop. For Bluestreak, that timeline is extended beyond that. But the same — all new R&D is going into the Steelhead product, and the functionality that customers know and love inside of Bluestreak is being invested into the Bluestreak product, and that timeline’s out into 2028 for end of life on that one.
The Cost (24:29)
Doug Glenn: Is there a substantial cost differential, I assume, between what you guys will be charging Cornerstone customers and what they are/were paying?
Jeff Halonen: I’m happy to address this question. I just can’t stress enough — if you go out there and just say, “I’m not going to buy Steelhead, I’m going to go buy some other software,” you will not find another Visual Shop price. Ultimately, that did contribute to the outcome. As such, there will be a significant jump in price on the Visual Shop side.
What we’ve found, though, is that if you look at the cost of operating your business on Visual Shop — not just the dollars you pay for Visual Shop — you actually see a cost reduction for Steelhead. Steelhead is actually cheaper than running Visual Shop almost every time. But it requires you to consider counting the cost of the three employees doing order entry and the two employees doing invoicing. You have to consider the real cost of running Visual Shop. You have to count the whiteboard, the walking around. There’s the real price, and it’s a pretty big price jump.
Also, you benefit from the technology and the AI tools. We just released two AI tools in the last couple of months. Ultimately, it is a shift of saying, “Hey, I believe in technology, I believe technology can help drive my business,” versus saying, “I just need a system to do packing slips and invoices, and it should be as close to $0 as possible, and I don’t care about it getting better, and I don’t think AI applies to my business.”
That’s the mentality of some shops and that’s fine. But the reality is that it’s impossible for us economically to provide the same level of service. We’re on site all the time. I was on site yesterday. We’re on airplanes all the time. I’m out of Detroit, Minnesota, Texas, California, Pennsylvania, etc.
It’s not just a bunch of software, and you figure it out. It’s software, plus help getting it launched and implemented. When we have a new tool, we can provide that help. It’s very much a symbiotic relationship.
We specialize in the ERP and technology on the change management side. Our customers specialize in their business, and each business is different, so they’re teaching us, “Hey, this is how our business works; this is the requirements we have.” And we’re saying, “Okay, this is how we can use our technology to achieve that outcome.”
For Bluestreak, it’s similar. The gap is much smaller though. Bluestreak is directionally towards Steelhead pricing, but there’s still a gap there from Bluestreak to Steelhead. There are some efficiencies to be gained to close that gap, but it’s more about really leaning into leveraging technology for your business.
Companies also have to consider what they are paying for accounting software. What are you using for ERP? How are you running all these other ancillary systems surrounding your MES, QMS? It’s essentially an expansion of the footprint as well, which offsets a lot of the cost. There’s efficiency gain there, then there’s also access to the entire AI investment and much more modern product.
The Impact (27:48)
Doug Glenn: I have two more questions. We talked about the impact on customers. What is the impact to Steelhead Technologies? You’ve substantially increased the number of customers, and therefore the need for customer support. What type of changes are being made inside of Steelhead to meet that — the number of phone calls coming in, the number of emails coming in, and other challenges?
Jeff Halonen: Steelhead has around 310 customers, Visual Shop has around 150 customers, and then Bluestreak has around 90. In total, around 550 customers. In 2025, we successfully deployed around 95 accounts, meaning completed the handoff. They’re in support, steady state. There’s obviously always continuous improvement, but the surgery is done. They’re running completely flat out. The growth has continued to accelerate since then. I don’t know what the number is going to be this year, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it got closer to double that.
We have around 120 folks on the Steelhead team, and the Visual Shop and Bluestreak support is unchanged. It’s still there. There’s roughly eight and nine folks on the Visual Shop and Bluestreak teams, respectively — not only supporting the continued use of Visual Shop and Bluestreak products, but then during any integration, or if you do choose to essentially upgrade to Steelhead product, you now have an opportunity where both vendors are same vendor. Like with migrating data, and other aspects like that.
Steelhead’s investing a tremendous amount in automation because we have access to database structure on both sides. We have access to source code on both sides. We have access to engineering on both sides. So, the data you have in Visual Shop, the data you have in Bluestreak, can be mapped over at a much more efficient and granular manner than otherwise would be.
We are also growing our team. So, shoot us a note. We have a career page on our website.
We have a fairly substantially staffed team, and there’s some healthy growth going on there. If we’re in a position where we’re not 100% confident that it’s going to be successful for our customer, we’re going to use the calendar to our advantage and make sure we’re not overscheduling or overburdening, to a point that’s detrimental to the customer.
When we look at a customer or a partnership, 10 to 15 years is our ideal case scenario. Rushing to start a project when we’re not ready to capitalize on it, to save a couple of months, a couple of weeks or something like that, is just not smart. It’s very shortsighted, and we seek to avoid that.
The Message (31:00)
Doug Glenn: One last question for you. One of the advantages of doing this interview is that you can send out a main message. What message would you like to communicate to current customers of Steelhead, of course, and customers of Cornerstone and Bluestreak?
Secondly, what message do you want to give to the untapped market — the companies that you don’t have right now that you’d like to reach?
Jeff Halonen: We don’t serve injection-mold job shops; we don’t serve machining job shops. There’s a lot of job shops we don’t serve, because we understand that the nuance and the depth and detail matters. So, serving heat treating, as an example, was not just like whim, right? It’s a very intentional move, but the message is very simple: investment. Steelhead has historically invested a ton into technology for job shops, and these acquisitions represent another very material investment.
They would only make sense if you planned to continue investing. As you pay attention to the news and you see AI in every other headline, you may wonder what you are going to do about AI. We use AI a lot internally, and what we found is if you just go buy a bunch of random software and try to patch AI on top of everything, it’s okay for one-off little errands. Everyone can do that. You’re going to get five or ten percent more efficient by using AI in a one-off, à la carte method.
But to truly leverage AI — which equates to a new material that’s 90% cheaper or 40 times stronger — you have to bake it into the bones of your business, into the operating system of your business.
That’s what we’re really excited to continue investing in. One fear that job shops might have is about leveraging AI. There’s this new superpower that’s out there, and it’s tough just to be on your own and bolt it all together yourself.
It’s actually quite complex to leverage it to its maximum. What we’re looking to provide to job shops is a turnkey product and service. Someone that literally comes on site, helps your operators adopt the system, configured just to your industry, and then bolts a ton of AI on top of it. It’s got your finance, your inventory, your certifications, your operator training, your scheduling — everything in one and then bolts AI on top of it.
Our mission is that job shops in the United States of America have technology that puts them actually at the front. We want these job shops to be some of the most profitable manufacturers. If you’re a job shop, go look at your biggest customer, with 12,000 employees, and 2,000 employees. Good luck. They will change, but they’re going to move so slowly. Our vision is that you wake up some day and look around and think, “I have the best setup on the planet. I’m actually way ahead of all my peers in terms of larger technology.”
We want to make that super easy, so we view ourselves as a technology partner on that, and that’s what we’re focusing on. A key takeaway is investment in technology, and this is emblematic of us doubling, tripling, quadrupling down on investing and being the absolute best technology partner we can and the same for our customers. If you’re an existing Steelhead customer, same thing. We have our foot on the gas, and we’re really excited to be the best technology partner we can be.
Doug Glenn: Super. Alright, Jeff, thank you very much. Appreciate your time. Anything we can do to be helpful to you guys, let us know.
Jeff Halonen: Excellent. Thank you, Doug. And thank you for everything that you guys do as well.
About the Guest
Jeff Halonen CEO and Co-Founder Steelhead Technologies
Jeff Halonen is the CEO and co-founder of Steelhead Technologies. Before Steelhead, Jeff worked as a mechanical engineer at General Motors, gaining experience with complex manufacturing systems and large-scale production environments. Throughout his career, Jeff has walked countless job shop floors around the country, listening firsthand to owners, managers, and production teams as they work to solve bottlenecks, improve profitability, and achieve sustainable growth.
This exposure has shaped the vision for Steelhead: to provide practical, modern tools that streamline operations, reduce overhead, and help shops get ahead. Jeff pushes an aggressive AI roadmap to enable shops to double revenue without adding a single front-office headcount. His conviction is that the right technology partner can make job shops some of the most profitable manufacturers in the country.
Jeff lives in southeast Michigan with his wife and four sons. Outside of work, he hunts, fishes, and frequents the local farmers market.
For seven decades, a family-owned heat treater in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has stood as a model of innovative craftsmanship and quality stewardship. Established in 1955 by Danish immigrant Jens Hansen, the company began as the J. Hansen Steel Treating Company, serving the tool and die shops that powered West Michigan’s post-war manufacturing boom. From its modest start with two muffle furnaces, two tempering furnaces, and a flame hardening unit, the company’s foundation was built on technical know-how and hands-on commitment to every job.
Image Credit: Hansen/Balk Steel Treating Company
A young college student named James (Jim) Balk joined the company part-time that same year — an opportunity that grew into a lifetime career. By 1973, Jim and his wife, Shirley, purchased the business and renamed it Hansen/Balk Steel Treating. Two years later, they invested in their first vacuum furnace and vacuum tempering system, helping the company stay ahead of a rapidly modernizing tool and die market. Continued growth led to a move to its current facility in 1980, where the business still operates today under the leadership of the second and third generations of the Balk family.
Through these transitions, the company’s values have remained unchanged: a commitment to high-quality heat treating, responsiveness to client needs, and a deep dedication to employees and community. Today, the heat treater is a trusted partner to industries ranging from aerospace and automotive to medical, defense, mining, and heavy equipment manufacturing.
As a Nadcap- and MedAccred-certified and AS9100-registered commercial heat treater, Hansen/Balk Steel Treating offers a wide range of services that make it a true one-stop shop for metal processing. Capabilities include vacuum hardening and tempering with high-pressure quenching up to 15 bar, as well as gas and ion nitriding, carburizing, martempering, and normalizing. Additional specialties, such as cryogenic treatment, flame hardening, and induction processing, enable the company to meet diverse and complex client requirements across North America.
Both vacuum and atmosphere processing are central to its operations, providing the flexibility to handle jobs of nearly any size and specification. The company’s fleet of trucks serves clients in the Midwest, ensuring fast turnaround and dependable delivery, an essential advantage in time-sensitive industries.
What makes the company truly stand out, however, is the expertise behind the furnaces. With 14 retirees each bringing more than 40 years of service and several multi-generational employees, the operation exemplifies the stability and prowess that define the best of American manufacturing. That dedication extends beyond the shop floor, supporting numerous charitable initiatives throughout West Michigan and maintaining a strong connection to the local community.
Over the years, the company has been recognized with industry honors, including the Metal Treating Institute’s (MTI) Master Craftsman, aka Commercial Heat Treater of the Year, award in 2000, and has been a proud member of MTI since 1979 with two YES graduates.
Among the many projects that mark its history, one stands out from recent years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the team worked with a local mold builder to rapidly heat treat components for ventilator production. It was a defining moment that reflected both technical capability and a spirit of service.
Looking ahead, the company plans to continue reinvesting in the latest heat treating equipment and technology while refining its quality systems. With 70 years of experience, it remains focused on what has always defined its success: precision, responsiveness, and a culture of care that turns clients into long-term partners.
For more information:
Hansen/Balk Steel Treating Company
1230 Monroe Ave. NW Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505
info@hansenbalk.com www.hansenbalk.com
Main image: 12-bar vacuum furnace | Image Credit: Hansen/Balk Steel Treating Company
A new industry task force will provide heat treating companies with educational resources and peer guidance as they evaluate enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems amid recent consolidation among software providers serving the industry. The initiative is intended to help companies assess shop management systems based on their individual operational requirements rather than recommend a particular software platform.
The Metal Treating Institute (MTI) announced the formation of its ERP Task Force as its Summer Board Meeting on July 21. The member-led group was established following Steelhead Technologies’ acquisitions of Cornerstone Systems, Inc., provider of Visual Shop by CSI, and Throughput Consulting, Inc., provider of Bluestreak and Bright AM. MTI said the acquisitions have prompted heat treaters to evaluate their long-term ERP strategies and better understand their options within the changing software landscape.
ERP systems can support production scheduling, inventory, client orders, quality documentation, accounting, compliance, and reporting across heat treating operations. Selecting, implementing, or transitioning between systems can affect productivity, operational efficiency, customer service, and profitability. The task force will include member companies with ERP implementation experience and heat treating industry expertise.
“Technology is transforming every aspect of our industry, and ERP systems are becoming increasingly critical to operating efficient, data-driven businesses,” said Deidra Minerd, operations manager at Euclid Heat Treating and 2026 president of MTI. “The recent acquisition of Visual Shop and Bluestreak has created understandable questions throughout our membership.”
“Rather than allowing companies to navigate these decisions alone, MTI is bringing Members together to learn from one another, share experiences, access options and make better-informed decisions,” Minerd added.
Tom Morrison, CEO of MTI, emphasized that the task force will remain vendor-neutral.
“The ERP Task Force is not intended to recommend one software platform over another,” Morrison said. “Instead, its mission is to provide unbiased education and practical guidance so Members can evaluate the solutions that best align with their individual business needs, growth objectives, and operational requirements.”
The task force will begin providing educational resources, peer discussions, and additional programming over the coming months. MTI said it will communicate additional details to its membership as the initiative develops.
Press release is available in its original form here.
Heat Treat Today has gathered the four heat treat industry-specific economic indicators for August 2026. The results suggest continued growth across the heat treat industry, with suppliers anticipating healthy business conditions as the industry moves toward the latter part of the summer.
August’s data reinforces expectations of continued expansion, with all four indicators remaining well above the growth threshold. Inquiries are projected at 63.5 (from 64.3 in July), indicating continued client activity despite a slight moderation. Bookings are expected to strengthen to 64.5 (up from 60.6 in July), while the Backlog index is forecast to increase to 61.5 (up slightly from 60.0 in July). Meanwhile, the Health of the Manufacturing Economy index is projected at 64.5 (up from 60.7 in July), reflecting growing confidence in broader manufacturing conditions.
August’s indicators suggest suppliers continue to anticipate favorable business conditions in the month ahead. The improvement in bookings and backlog points to sustained demand and a healthy pipeline of work, while inquiries remain at a level consistent with continued expansion. A stronger outlook for the broader manufacturing economy further reinforces expectations that heat treaters will continue to benefit from stable market conditions as the second half of the year progresses.
The results from this month’s survey (August) are as follows: numbers above 50 indicate growth, numbers below 50 indicate contraction, and the number 50 indicates no change:
Anticipated change in Number of Inquiries from July to August: 63.5
Anticipated change in Value of Bookings from July to August: 64.5
Anticipated change in Size of Backlog from July to August: 61.5
Anticipated change in Health of the Manufacturing Economy from July to August: 64.5
Data for August 2026
The four index numbers are reported monthly by Heat Treat Today and made available on the website.
Heat TreatToday’sEconomic Indicatorsmeasure and report on four heat treat industry indices. Each month, approximately 800 individuals who classify themselves as suppliers to the North American heat treat industry receive the survey. Above are the results. Data collection began in June 2023. If you would like to participate in the monthly survey, please click here to subscribe.
Nitriding offers a unique combination of surface hardness, wear resistance, fatigue performance, and dimensional stability, making it a preferred thermochemical treatment for a wide range of industrial components. Readers will learn about the key benefits of nitriding, as well as the strengths and limitations of gas, plasma, and salt bath processes. In this Technical Tuesday installment, the aim of this guide by Daniel H. Herring, aka The Heat Treat Doctor®, and Dr. Edward Roliński, a senior scientist and recognized authority on plasma and ion nitriding, is to help engineers and heat treaters evaluate which nitriding technology best aligns with material requirements, case depth targets, and performance objectives.
This informative piece was first released inHeat Treat Today’sAugust 2026 Annual Automotive Heat Treating print edition.
Why Choose Nitriding?
Nitriding is a unique process that offers design engineers the ability to both predict and control the outcome of the heat treating process. The key advantage is that it significantly increases surface hardness, wear resistance, and fatigue life of component parts while minimizing dimensional change due to the low temperature nature of the process.
#1 Minimal Post-Processing
Nitriding can be used on a variety of component parts and metal forming tools made of steel or cast irons for applications in which wear, fatigue, or corrosion resistance is an important consideration. Steels, stainless steels, tool steels, powder metallurgy parts, and many other materials can be nitrided.
Table A. Recommended Ranges of Nitriding Potential (SAE International Aerospace Material Standard AMS 2759/10), latest revision Notes: 1. Class 0: No white layer permitted on the surface of a nitrided part. 2. Class 1: 0.0127 mm (0.0005 inches) maximum white layer, 15% porosity or less. 3. Class 2: 0.0254 mm (0.001 inches) maximum white layer, 10%–50% porosity of the thickness of the white layer.
Dimensional change in nitriding is primarily governed by composition, tempering temperatures, time/temperature of nitriding, relative thickness of case/core, shape of the part, and areas masked off to prevent nitriding. The amount of growth is typically constant for identical parts nitrided in different batches by a fixed processing cycle. Most parts are nitrided in a two- or three-stage process and not ground after nitriding (Table A). This affords them excellent dimensional stability (Herring 2011). Once the amount of growth for a particular part has been established, allowances can be made during final machining (prior to nitriding) to ensure repeatable results.
By contrast, heat treating processes such as hardening or carburizing are performed at higher temperatures and result in dimensional and/or shape changes often requiring post-heat treat manufacturing steps (Roliński 2014). As such, the nitriding process has become an ever more popular choice.
#2 Case Depth Control
Nitriding as a thermochemical process is capable of producing a variety of case depths, an attribute affected by temperature, time, and nitriding potential (if there is not a compound zone formed). Caution should be used when stating a required case depth since a number of definitions for total case depth are in use. For this article, authors will use Table B to show how case depths are typically total case depths (core hardness + 50 HV0.5) that vary by material.
Table B. Typical Case Depths and Case Depth Ranges for Steels
For example, on an M2 tool steel, the case depth might vary between 25–100 µm (0.001”–0.004”). By contrast, 4140 or Nitralloy® can produce case depths in ranging from 100–500 µm (0.004–0.020”), with 305–380 µm (0.012–0.015”) being typical. For low/medium carbon steels and powder metal, white layer thickness may vary from 5µm–25 µm (0.0002”–0.001”) and is the overriding consideration.
#3 Enhancing Tribological Properties
Nitriding enhances various key tribological properties related to friction, wear resistance, lubrication interaction, and texture. These include improvement in sliding motion and reduced energy losses; wear characteristics involving resistance to adhesion, abrasion, fatigue, and corrosion; and lubrication, especially as it relates to load-carrying capacity, surface roughness, and surface texture/hardness.
#4 Nitriding Applications
The nitriding process can be used for surface hardening of both very small and very large parts (see lead image above and Figure 1). Typical examples are gears and shafts, stamping dies, piston rods, springs, pump housings, and welding tables. Dies are typically made of cast iron or tool steels, while gears and other powertrain components are made of alloy steels. All applications require precise control of the compound zone (i.e., white layer) thickness. If selective nitriding is required, areas are masked using a stop-off paint, or in plasma processes, mechanical masking is an option.
Figure 1. (a) A Bluco DD2040 modular welding table (double density hole pattern, 2m x 4m x 0.2m) after completion of gas nitriding heat treat cycle and post-processing; (b) A Bluco HD2040 modular welding table (high density hole pattern, 2m x 4m x 0.2m) being removed fro ma pit furnace following a gas nitriding heat treat cycle | Image Credit: BlucoFigure 2. Typical nitrided surface appearance | Image Credit: Heat Treat Doctor®
Once finished, nitrided surfaces are typically smooth and grayish in appearance (Figure 2). If a “shiny” or “bright” surface or one of extremely low roughness is required, polishing methods can be used (e.g., superfinishing). The surface has high hardness, and is under residual compressive stress, which is critical in increasing bending fatigue and rolling contact fatigue (RCF) properties.
Gas, Plasma, Salt Bath
Table C. Comparison of Gas, Plasma/Ion, and Salt Bath Processes (Hemsath 2019)
There are three types of nitriding, each with their own strengths and limitations: gas, plasma/ion, and salt bath. Table C highlights these differences for immediate comparison. For a further breakdown of each process’s strengths, the authors have written unique articles exploring the three processes in greater depth, available on www.heattreattoday.com under each of the names:
Nitriding is a key technology to achieve heat treated results that modern manufacturing expects. But between gas, plasma, and salt bath, there are pros and cons to whichever method is chosen. Engineers need to assess what material needs and process outcomes are most significant to the outcome in order to select the right technology.
References
Boßlet, Jochim. n.d. Melonite®/QPQ Process Brochure. HEF Durferrit.
Hemsath, Mark K., and Daniel H. Herring. 2019. “Nitriding—Growth and Tribological Benefits for Surface Engineering.” In Heat Treating Progress 2019 Conference Proceedings. Materials Park, OH: ASM International.
Herring, Daniel H. 2011. “Principles of Gas Nitriding, Parts 1–4.” Industrial Heating, April–May.
Herring, Daniel H. 2013. “Masking Techniques, Part One.” Industrial Heating, April.
Herring, Daniel H. 2020. “An Overview of Nitriding—Technology and Tribological Benefits.” Industrial Heating, March.
Mittemeijer, Eric J., and Marcel A. J. Somers, eds. 2026. Thermochemical Surface Engineering of Steels. Elsevier.
Pye, David. 2003. Practical Nitriding and Ferritic Nitrocarburizing. Materials Park, OH: ASM International.
Resnick, Michael. n.d. “Private Correspondence.” HEF Durferrit USA. https://www.hefusa.net/salt_bath_nitriding_liquid_nitriding/overview.html
Roliński, E. 1987. “Effect of Plasma Nitriding Temperature on Surface Properties of Stainless Steel.” Surface Engineering 3: 35–40.
Roliński, E. 2004. “Ion Nitriding and Nitrocarburizing of Sintered PM Parts.” Industrial Heating, October: 33–35.
Roliński, E. 2005. “When and Why Ion Nitriding/Nitrocarburizing Makes Good Sense.” Industrial Heating, August: 67–72.
Roliński, E. 2005. “Negative Effects of Reactive Sputtering in Industrial Plasma Nitriding.” Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance 14 (3): 343–350.
Roliński, E. 2014. “Plasma Assisted Nitriding and Nitrocarburizing of Steel and Other Ferrous Alloys.” In Thermochemical Surface Engineering of Steels, chap. 11, edited by E. J. Mittemeijer and M. A. J. Somers, 413–449. Cambridge, UK: Woodhead Publishing.
Roliński, Edward. 2024. “Practical Aspects of Sputtering and Its Role in Industrial Plasma Nitriding.” ASM Handbook Online Update, Vol. 5: Surface Engineering. Materials Park, OH: ASM International.
Roliński, E., J. Arner, and G. Sharp. 2005. “Negative Effects of Reactive Sputtering in Industrial Plasma Nitriding.” Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance 14 (3): 343–350.
Roliński, E., G. Sharp, and A. Konieczny. 2006. “Plasma Nitriding Automotive Stamping Dies.” Heat Treating Progress 6 (5): 19–23.
Roliński, E., and G. Sharp. 2004. “Ion Nitriding and Nitrocarburizing of Sintered PM Parts.” Industrial Heating, October: 33–35.
Roliński, E., and G. Sharp. 2005. “When and Why Ion Nitriding/Nitrocarburizing Makes Good Sense.” Industrial Heating, August: 67–72.
Roliński, E., and G. Sharp. 2017. “Controlling Plasma Nitriding.” Materials Performance and Characterization 6 (4): 698–716.
Roliński, E., J. Ludeman, J. McCain, V. Popovski, and M. Woods. 2021. “Nitriding Mechanisms of Ferrous Powder Metal Products in Gas, Salt, and Plasma Methods.” In Proceedings of PowderMet2021/AMPM2021/Tungsten2021, 330–337.
SAE International. n.d. AMS 2759/10Aerospace Material Standard (latest revision).
Senatorski, J., J. Tacikowski, E. Roliński, and S. Lampman. 2017. “Tribology of Nitrided and Nitrocarburized Steels.” In ASM Handbook, Vol. 18: Friction, Lubrication, and Wear Technology, edited by George E. Totten, 638–652. Materials Park, OH: ASM International.
Spies, H. J., and A. Dalke. 2014. “Case Structure and Properties of Nitrided Steels.” In Comprehensive Materials Processing, edited by G. Krauss, Vol. 12, 439–488. Oxford, UK: Elsevier.
Winter, K. M., and J. Kalucki. 2013. “Gas Nitriding and Gas Nitrocarburizing of Steels.” In ASM Handbook, Vol. 4A: Steel Treating—Fundamentals and Processes, edited by Jon I. Dossett and George E. Totten, 647–679. Materials Park, OH: ASM International.
About The Authors
Dan Herring (The Heat Treat Doctor®) The HERRING GROUP, Inc.
Dan Herring, who is most well known as The Heat Treat Doctor®, has been in the industry for over 50 years. He spent the first 25 years in heat treating prior to launching his consulting business, The HERRING GROUP in 1995. His vast experience in the field includes materials science, engineering, metallurgy, equipment design, process and application specialist, and new product research. He is the author of six books and over 1000 technical articles.
Dr. Edward Rolinski, affectionately known as “Doctor Glow,” is a distinguished senior scientist having spearheaded research on plasma/ion nitriding since the 1970s. He holds advanced degrees in manufacturing technology and metallurgy, including a PhD and Doctor of Science. His focus has been on plasma nitriding processes, especially involving titanium alloys and powder metallurgy. Over his career, Dr. Rolinski authored numerous influential technical chapters and articles, including for ASTM International and the ASM Handbook, and is a prolific contributor to industry publications. After decades of leadership and innovation in surface engineering and heat treating, he is now a consultant in the heat treating industry.
