Years ago, cryogenic treatment was first instituted for its use on tooling used in the manufacturing process. The only problem was that the first cryogenic treatments had these parts soaked in liquid nitrogen. As a result, these parts were subjected to thermal shock, leaving them in a brittle state. Needless to say, the parts were far less useful after the original form of this treatment.
Today, cryogenic treatment is computer controlled and does not rely on immersing parts in liquid nitrogen. Rather the parts are put in a chamber that is filled with gaseous nitrogen. This lowers the temperature to -300°F and allows the temperature to be held for 24 hours. Our ramps up and down to temperature are the slowest in the industry to maximize part stabilization.
The bottom line is tooling costs money. Some pieces cost a lot of money due to their complexity and design. The U.S. economy is slow and manufacturing orders are at the lowest they have been in 25 years. At this point you may be asking, why do I want to spend any more money on tooling? Cryogenic treatment extends tooling life significantly. Our customers normally see a 200% to 250% increase in tooling lifetime. However, you can always expect between 100% to 300% increase in lifetime after cryogenic treatment. Let’s say you have a particular CNC machine used just for drilling. The carbide drills you use last 40 hours of constant use. They cost $20.00 each. Now, you decide to get the drills cryo treated. Cryogenic treatment for each drill costs $4.00. Now they last 120 hours and you only paid $24.00 for each drill. Of course, there is shipping costs, but they are relatively inexpensive. But above all, think about all the down time you are missing. There are two setups that now do not occur, saving you even more money. Overall, you will save money on both tooling and downtime.
What kind of tooling should be cryogenically treated? Here at the Cryogenic Institute of New England, Inc. we have cryo treated thousands of pieces of tooling for many manufacturing companies. Tooling parts that have been cryo treated include dies, punches, cutting blades, saw blades, molds, broaches, end mills, heat sinks, electrodes, carbide tools, and other types of tooling. Spending just a little more money upfront will benefit you through the cost savings that cryogenic treatment offers.
For more information about cryogenic treatment, please visit
http://www.nitrofreeze.com/cryogenic_treatment.html. Another good site to visit is our engineering data sheet section at
http://www.nitrofreeze.com/datasheets.html.
If you have any other questions or comments about our services, please call 800-739-7949 or email me at
rtaylor@nitrofreeze.com.