When Martin Straus started a plating company on the south side of Chicago in 1979, not even he could have envisioned the success the business would have in the years to come.

In the 37 years since its founding, Chem-Plate Industries has grown from one building and four employees to three plants totaling over 280,000 square feet and over 200 employees, including Martin’s son, Aaron, who serves as executive vice president. Today, the company operates three heat-treating and metal-finishing facilities in Elk Grove Village, Ill. This new MTI member serves the automotive, construction, military and agriculture industries. Its services include heat treating, induction hardening, electroplating, mechanical plating, dip-spin painting, sorting and packing.

Chem-Plate Industries’ atmosphere heat-treating operations include neutral hardening, carburizing, carbonitriding, stress relief and annealing. The ISO/TS 16949-accredited company has seven furnaces, each capable of handling parts as large as 1.25 inches in diameter and processing anywhere from 4,000 to 7,500 pounds per hour. Chem-Plate Industries currently has four automatic induction lines capable of handling fasteners as large as M14 and as small as M4 in diameter. Fasteners are heated by electromagnetic induction then immediately quenched to increase the product’s surface hardness and strength.

As proof that it is indeed a “one-stop shop,” Chem-Plate Industries has an in-house metallurgical laboratory with Rockwell hardness testers, Vickers and Knoop microhardness testers, metallographic systems, cross-section and mount polishing systems, and microscopes with 50x-1,000x magnification capabilities. It can also perform tensile strength testing on site. The lab’s A2LA accreditation is proof of Chem-Plate Industries’ dedication to quality.

But this company does far more than heat treatment. Chem-Plate Industries, a supplier to both Ford and GM, perfected a durable black finish for automotive fasteners called Tuff-Black™ 2500. The company’s chemical experts and sorting department worked out the optimal combination of black finishing technology and appropriate sorting procedures that would preserve the corrosion protection and color of its black finished fasteners.

Chem-Plate Industries has also introduced ArmorGalv®, a  technology that involves thermal diffusion coating. Steel fasteners are heated in a closed cylinder to at least 650°F with a special blend of dry zinc powder. The heat transforms the zinc powder from a solid to a gas, which then diffuses into the surface of the fasteners and results in a consistent, corrosion-resistant zinc/iron alloy coating. ArmorGalv is environmentally friendly compared to other methods of barrier protective coating.

The Strauss family is not afraid to invest in new technology. Chem-Plate Industries says it is the first company in the U.S. to install a planetary motion coating machine, which works by rotating baskets of parts around each other while they are dipped in paint.

According to Martin Strauss, Chem-Plate Industries is constantly upgrading and improving its processes in an effort to meet customer requirements. Perhaps this has been the key to his company’s success over the years.

Visit www.chemplateindustries.com for more information on Chem-Plate Industries.