Induspec, a North Bay-based industrial engineering firm founded in 2010, has recently partnered with Deep Cryogenics International to offer deep cryogenic treatment locally.
"Deep cryogenic treatment (DCT) makes things last longer with processing temperatures as low as -310 ˚F, the option for multiple tempering cycles, and precision-controlled thermal ramps and dwells. DCT has the ability to take already highly alloyed and heat treated materials and make them last 20 -40 per cent longer saving industry millions of dollars in the process," says a news release.
"Hard rock mining, forestry, road maintenance and other heavy industry all have a common enemy: wear. Whether it affects ground engagement tools, chipper blades, cone crushers, brake rotors or snow plow blades, wear not only costs heavy industry millions of dollars in replacement parts, but far more in production downtime and maintenance labour," continues the release.
“North Bay seemed like an ideal location for this technology,” said Thorsten Brost, P. Eng., Induspec’s president. “Within just a few hundred kilometres we have large mines, pulp mills and forestry processing facilities. We are close to foundries, diamond-drilling equipment manufacturers and a multitude of industries that support our heavy industrial base.”
Induspec is working with Canadore College’s Innovation Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Prototyping to conduct applied research on reducing wear for customers. Innovation Initiatives Ontario North (IION) has provided funding support.
Jack Cahn, the founder and chief researcher with Deep Cryogenics International, and his team are providing the cryogenic technology to support Induspec’s new processor.
“We are certain that our partnership with DCI and the decades of deep cryogenics research that Jack and his expert team have developed will be an incredible benefit to our customers,” Brost continued. "Cahn has a number of DCT-related patents and has developed the deep cryogenic test procedures used on JPL’s Mars Exploration Rover. Cahn has also worked with researchers at the National Institute of Standard and Technology cryogenic processing labs and has served as the lead investigator in two US Army Cooperative R&D Agreements."
Brost noted that “when it comes to deep cryogenic treatment of metals, few come anywhere close to the expertise that DCI has developed and successfully used to reduce wear for their customers.”
