CTI Adds New Heat Treating Capabilities

Compacting Tooling, Inc. (CTI; McKeesport, PA) is a specialized tool and die manufacturer with over 40 years of experience in compacting dies, powder metal compacting dies, compacting tooling, ID/OD grinding services, CNC grinding and precision machining used in building high quality tooling for the powder compaction industry. They employ over 24 highly skilled craftsmen to manufacture tooling sold to powdered metal (P/M) parts manufacturers all over the United States, Asia, Japan, Europe and Puerto Rico.

Some of the materials compacted into parts using P/M tooling are steel, stainless steel, iron, copper, brass, polymers (plastics), and ceramics. Some examples of the parts produced using CTI tooling are triggers, hammers and sights for firearms manufacturers; indexable inserts and cutting tools, gears for automotive, power tools, copiers, and cameras; high heat bearings and seals for aircraft and nuclear power plants; ceramic parts for faucets, electronics, and wear applications; also numerous products for the automotive and lawn and garden industries. Additionally, the expert machinists at CTI are highly accomplished at manufacturing automated machine components.

CTI does most of their heat treating in-house for faster turnaround time of customer orders. Lucifer Furnaces, Inc. (Warrington, PA) recently delivered a Model HS8-181224 dual chamber high temp furnace to CTI that is custom sized to meet the ISO 9001-2008 certified shop’s load requirements. This furnace will supplement the other Lucifer furnaces that are currently in use.

Powered with 42 kW, this new furnace is ideal to heat treat high speed steel and will be used to heat treat CPM (Crucible Particle Metallurgy) high speed steel. It reaches 2,450 deg F in the upper chamber and 1,200 deg F in the lower, tempering oven. A combined 6.5 in of ceramic fiber modules with mineral wood backup insulation allows for faster heating/cooling cycles. Silicon carbide heating elements operate off-the-line through an SCR power supply with a current limiting circuit that auto adjusts the voltage to elements as their resistance increases, resulting in longer element life. Heat treating recipes can be stored in the Honeywell digital temperature controllers with a 7-day timer. High limit controllers were added for safety.

www.compactingtooling.com, www.luciferfurnaces.com