Certified Metal Craft started off with just a few small furnaces in a 6,000-square-foot facility. Today, 51 years after opening, the commercial heat treater operates eight vacuum furnaces and a range of other equipment from a 32,000-square-foot facility in El Cajon, Calif.

It all started in 1969 when the Wiederkehr family purchased the former Start Heat Treat and Fishing Supplies. The family saw a need for in-house heat treating in southern California at the time, and the company started off providing a variety of modest brazing and heat-treating services in the San Diego market.

Things started to change in the mid-1980s when Certified Metal Craft purchased its first vacuum furnace. Since then the MTI member has steadily expanded to house eight vacuum furnaces, aluminum drop-bottom furnaces, recirculating air furnaces, endothermic furnaces, a cryogenic processor and production blast equipment. The company uses this equipment to perform brazing, normalizing, annealing, stress relieving, hardening, aging, tempering, sintering, case hardening, carburizing and carbonitriding for the aerospace, automotive, military and medical industries.

Certified Metal Craft’s vacuum furnaces operated up to 2450°F in vacuum and argon atmospheres. It currently has three aluminum drop-bottom furnaces: two have a maximum temperature of 500°F and the third has a maximum temperature of 1100°F. Two endothermic furnaces operate up to 1950°F, and the heat treater also has two salt baths. Certified Metal Craft’s nine recirculating-air furnaces have a wide range of operating temperatures, with the highest being 1400-2250°F.

As mentioned, Certified Metal Craft operates production blasting equipment. Its in-house rubber-belt blast mill is capable of handling 600-pound loads with both sand and bead blasting capabilities. The company also owns several pieces of inspection equipment.

Now in its third generation of family ownership, Certified Metal Craft is a Nadcap-accredited supplier serving prime contractors throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. The list of contractors that have audited the company includes Aerojet Rocketdyne, Boeing, Bombardier, Eaton, GE Aviation, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Rolls-Royce and SpaceX.

With 40 employees, Certified Metal Craft strives to give customers a competitive edge through teamwork, communication, service and commitment. The company, which prides itself on providing quick turnaround, plans on continuing to grow to meet the needs of its customers and the industry.

Visit www.certifiedmetalcraft.com for more information on Certified Metal Craft.