Largest Commercial Heat Treaters 2011

Largest North American Commercial Heat Treaters. Before we get into our list of the largest North American commercial heat treaters we need to clarify our criteria for this list as well as posting a very clear disclaimer. Our criteria for this list was sales for 2011 but even this is not as clear cut as one might think. For instance should sales for services outside of heat treating be considered? All commercial heat treaters offer services outside of "standard heat treating" such as coatings, shot peening, packaging-should these services be included in total sales? At the end of the day we decided that these associated processes should be included. 

Disclaimer time; The most important point to keep in mind with this list is that as the vast bulk of these companies are privately held no reliable sales figures are available which means that to come up with a 100% correct list is virtually impossible. For this reason we do not claim for a second that this list is 100% accurate but we do say that all of the companies mentioned deserve to be on our list of the largest in North America-the only question mark is the order. Sales figures for the publicly traded companies are relatively easy to come by, for the privately held companies we relied on what the owners told us and personal observation (having visited all of the companies on the list). Over half of these firms freely gave us their sales figures based on this information not being shared (which we of course respect) , a minority declined to share sales figures which is their prerogative and we respect this.

We will undoubtedly receive flack for the fact that our list does not agree with MTI (the largest organization in the world of commercial heat treaters). MTI does a fine job of telling their members of their relative status in terms of sales but MTI is handicapped by the fact that not all commercial heat treaters belong to the organization. As an example the largest commercial heat treater in North America, Bodycote is not a member of the organization.

Our final point is that while we set out to find the ten largest, we were having so much fun that our list grew to the largest 18 as you can see. We welcome your feedback, comments and corrections.

1) Bodycote International. http://www.bodycote.com/ With roughly 45 locations in North America not counting their "hipping" plants and estimated North American sales of over $200 million USD there is not a shadow of a doubt but that worldwide commercial heat treater Bodycote is the largest in North America. Publicly traded the company has been making very respectable profits of late. Over the years I have seen at least 30 Bodycote plants around the world and a number I have seen would compare very favorably to any in the world in terms of technology and cleanliness.

2) Bluewater Thermal Solutions. http://www.bluewaterthermal.com/ Just as Bodycote is clearly the largest in North America Bluewater Thermal Solutions with 17 locations in the US and Canada is the second largest in North America and the largest US based commercial heat treater in North America. This is a company which is being very aggressive these days and I would expect to see quite a bit of future growth from Bluewater.

3) Paulo Products. http://www.paulo.com/ Our first two choices are pretty clear cut and we feel pretty confident that family owned Paulo Products with 5 plants in Cleveland, OH., Kansas City, MO., Murfreeboro, TN., Nashville, TN., St. Louis, MO. Paulo is a good solid company with a firm hand on the wheel in the form of Ben Rassieur, President and CEO. Conservatively run in our opinion but very well run.

4) AL-Fe Heat Treating. http://www.al-fe.com/index.html Privately held AL-FE Heat Treating is generally considered to be the largest aluminum processor in North America with 6 locations in Charlotte, NC., Wadsworth, OH, Wabash, IN., Columbia City, IN., Defiance, OH. and Saginaw, MI. Like many of the companies on this list Al-Fe generally sticks with what they are good at (aluminum) and man do they do a good job at it.

5) Metal Improvement Company.  http://www.metalimprovement.com/ As part of Curtiss Wright Corporation Metal Improvement Company is one of the few publicly traded companies on our list. With 9 plants in Fort Wayne, IN., Wichita, KS,, Lafayette, LA.,  Roselle, NJ., Columbus, OH, Salem, OH. and Emigsville, PA. MIC is certainly one of the largest in North America and pretty well covers all processes.

6) Atmosphere Annealing. http://www.gerdau.com/specialsteel/ Atmosphere Annealing as part of Gerdau Special Steel North America pumps through mammoth amounts of annealing work. From their website we get this summary; "Gerdau Special Steel North Americas an engineered bar producer headquartered in Jackson, Michigan with worldclass steel manufacturing mills in Jackson, Michigan, Monroe Michigan, and Fort Smith, Arkansas, and metal processing facilities in Huntington, Indiana, Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, Lansing, Michigan, Canton, Ohio, and North Vernon, Indiana." From our standpoint we are most interested in the heat treating locations of which there are four, Canton, OH., Lansing, MI., (2), and North Vernon, IN.

7) Woodworth Heat Treating. http://www.woodworthheattreat.com/index1.aspx Our pick of the seventh largest commercial heat treat in North America is undoubtedly going to earn us some flack, however we are fairly comfortable naming Woodworth as the seventh largest with 5 locations in Flint, MI., Detroit, MI., Ashland, VA., Plymouth, MI. and Southfield, MI with a further location in Mexico coming on line in 2013. Based in Michigan Woodworth concentrates on very large volume work (mainly automotive) and with the large volume work their prices are very attractive based on the volumes they process.

8) Solar Atmospheres. http://www.solaratm.com/ 3 locations, Souderton, PA., Hermitage, PA., Fontana, CA. Bill Jones, CEO of Solar is as usual very forthcoming about sales for the company; "Combined sales, year 2011, for Solar Atmosphere Inc. plant A Souderton, Pa., plant B Hatfield, Pa., Hermitage, Pa. plant, and Fontana, California plant will exceed $32.5 million. Sales increase over year 2010 is up 30%. Growth can be attributed to an up tick in the economy, sales improvement in vacuum brazing for electronic instruments, heat treatment of titanium for aircraft, graphite aircraft brakes, power generation turbine blades, medical implants, dental and medical instruments, aerospace components, vacuum carburizing of helicopter power gearing and drives, vacuum nitriding, various tooling, annealing of SS stampings, annealing of brass, SS, aluminum tubing, and heat treatment of SS castings.An asset too was the start up of our California plant in year 2011 adding to sales this year. We project our California plant to grow !00% in 2012 and sales growth for our other plants to grow 12.5%. Solar Atmospheres Inc. is a privately owned family business with second and third generation management, including an experienced management team of metallurgists, engineers, and operating personnel." Solar is very impressive, a commercial heat treater which has the latest and greatest technology, largely because of their investments in new technology through their equipment division Solar Manufacturing. Their plants are amongst the most impressive commercial facilities in the world.

9) FPM. http://www.fpmht.com/ 3 locations, Elk Grove, IL., Milwaukee, WI., Cherry Valley, IL. I would consider FPM to be the "King" of fastener heat treating. Off the top of my head no other commercial heat treater processes as many fasteners as FPM.

10) ALD Thermal Treatment. http://www.aldtt.net/index.htm Port Huron, MI. For a single location heat treat to make our list is quite a feat but ALD has done it. This is a very specialized company, vacuum carburizing of transmission gears for GM but under the very competent guidance of Robert Peters the company is thriving.

11) Advanced Heat Treat Corp. http://www.ahtweb.com/ 4 locations, 2 in Waterloo, Iowa, Monroe, Michigan and Cullman, AL. Number 12 position is Nitrex due to the fact that they very successfully brought gas nitriding to the market, in the case of Advanced founder and owner Gary Sharp did the same thing with Ion Nitriding. Gary more than any other individual in North America is responsible for the growth of Ion (Plasma) Nitriding. An aggressive company that will continue to grow at a rapid rate.

12) Specialty Steel Treating. http://www.specialtysteeltreating.com/ 3 locations in Fraser, MI., Farmington Hills, MI., East Granby, CT. Privately held Specialty has seen phenomenal growth over the past couple of years, probably more than any other commercial heat treater on our list. Largely automotive and bearings the company has been adding equipment and facilities at an amazing rate over the past couple of years.

13) Nitrex Inc. (A subsidiary of Nitrex Metal Inc.). http://www.nitrex.com/ 5 locations in the US, San Jose, CA., Aurora, IL., North Las Vegas, NV., Mason, MI., Franklin, IN., (in addition the parent company Nitrex Metal Inc. has a facility near Montreal, QC). If FPM is the "King" of fastener heat treating Nitrex would be the "King" of gas nitriding. Founder and owner Michel Korwin has done an amazing job of bringing this technology to the market-without Michel gas nitriding would be no where near as popular.

14) Specialty Heat Treat Inc. http://www.specialtyheattreat.com/ Houston, TX. Texans live and die by the oil and gas industry and it is no surprise that Specialty concentrates on the oil and gas industry. To most heat treaters Specialty would come as quite a shock due to the fact that what they process requires furnaces far from the norm for most commercials. Again a family owned operation.

15) Lone Star Heat Treating Co., Ltd. http://www.lsht.com/ 2 locations, Houston, TX., Denver, CO (Metal Treating & Research Co.). You could certainly debate about whether Specialty or Lone Star is the largest in Texas but at the end of the day both are very similar and both are top notch operations. Lone Star has been very innovative in what they do and their decision to add "deep hole drilling" to their list of services has been an undoubted success. Owned by the Van Dorfy family this company goes back to the 1940's-a family business in the best sense of the word.

16) Braddock Metallurgical. http://braddockmt.com/ 7 locations, Tampa, FL., Jacksonville, FL., Bridgewater, NJ., Atlanta, GA., Daytona Beach, FL., Boynton Beach, FL., Bayamon, Puerto Rico. In Florida and the southeastern US Braddock are "the big boys on the block" and the company pretty well owns the Florida market.. Super nice people and the Braddock's have done a great job in expanding the company.

17) Therm-Tech of Waukesha. http://thermtech.net/waukesha/home.aspx Waukesha, WI. This is a single shop operation and the Wiberg family are to be complimented on the job they have done over the years. This is a family owned business but the amount of money the company has invested in new equipment and technologies a short period of time is mind boggling. There is nothing shy about this company and their investments in new equipment rivals any of the companies on this list.

18) Rex Heat Treat.  http://www.rexht.com/ 3 locations in Lansdale, PA., Bedford, PA., and Anniston, AL. A 75 year old company this has to be one of the longest running in the commercial heat treating field. Another family owned business that should be proud of what they have accomplished.