Diamond Heat Treat is no stranger to growth.

Established in 1997, the Rockford, Ill.-based company started with one batch furnace and accompanying tempers in a 10,000-square-foot facility. Since then, Diamond Heat Treat has quintupled the size of its plant to 50,000 square feet and now operates eight batch furnaces (capacity up to 2,500 pounds), five gas nitriders (capacity up to 2,000 pounds), four vacuum furnaces (capacity up to 3,000 pounds) and two induction heating units. Additional equipment includes a cryogenic unit (capacity up to 2,000 pounds), straightening presses, and a complete blasting department and metallurgical laboratory.

Some things, however, don’t change. Heat-treat expertise has always been a vital part of this MTI member’s success. Dan Neiber and Bill Akre both had extensive heat-treating backgrounds when they founded Diamond Heat Treat 20 years ago, and today the company’s staff of 45 – including an on-site metallurgist – has over 150 years of combined thermal-processing experience.  This know-how comes in handy because Diamond Heat Treat take a consultative approach to projects, allowing the company to be an integral part of customer design and engineering.

Diamond Heat Treat, which was acquired by the Thermal Holding Division of Calvert Street Capital Partners in June 2017, serves the automotive, aerospace, military, mining, agriculture and heavy-equipment industries. The full-service facility provides a wide range of processes, including age hardening, annealing, brazing, carbonitriding, carburizing, ferritic nitrocarburizing (FNC), gas nitriding, neutral hardening, precipitation hardening, solution annealing and stress relieving. The company also offers vacuum processing and cryogenic treatments.

The 24/7 operation is small enough to provide personal care and service to customers, but it is also large enough to process higher-volume jobs quickly. Diamond Heat Treat specializes in distortion control. The company vertically racks most of the product it receives. A wide variety of special fixtures allow Diamond Heat Treat to keep parts as straight as possible. Equipment can handle parts up to 46 inches long.

Diamond Heat Treat sees both FNC and gas nitriding as huge growth opportunities. Usage of the processes has increased dramatically over the past few years. In response to demand, Diamond Heat Treat has five furnaces that can perform these treatments. The equipment varies in size based on part size and specification.

Speaking of growth, Diamond Heat Treat recently took delivery of an Ipsen vacuum furnace with 6-bar gas quenching. The furnace, which will help the company expand its capabilities, is capable of operating at temperatures of 1000-2400°F (538-1316°C) with ±10°F (±6°C) temperature uniformity.

This installation is a sign of things to come for the company, which plans on adding more equipment and qualified personnel to ensure continuous growth. Diamond Heat Treat doesn’t strive to be the biggest heat treater, just the best heat treater.

Visit www.diamondht.com for more on Diamond Heat Treat.