It seems that nothing confuses and frustrates people than cryogenics. When we ask our customers about their experiences, "inconsistent" is the universal response. They speak about improvements, inevitably followed by tales of total failure.

Since 1981, Material Technologies, Inc. has been a metallurgically-based company. Through the years, we have continually added the services and processes such as surface hardening, diffusion coatings and engineered microstructures, to name a few. To us, these are just some of the tools we use everyday. To us, "cold" is another tool. Just as you use a wrench in a multitude of ways, we too, use cold in many different ways. For example, it is very effective for pre-machining stress relief, critical shrink-fit applications, microstructure "repairs" and heat-treat diagnostics. To us, it is a very effective, reliable and consistent tool.

In engine and drivetrain applications, wear and fatigue problems are far more common than most people realize, but are very different conditions. Cold is very effective in fixing this problem, but is only the part of the solution. Let's look at a common gear that has chipping and flaking of the tooth surfaces. After cryogenic processing, the retained austenite (the most common problem) is now transformed to a very brittle structure that has poor wear and fatigue properties. We can only see the improvements after post-cryogenic thermal processing. But a word of caution here. There are many different steels and heat treatments used today, and to be effective a metallurgical understand of these materials are key to consistent results. Something that has been sorely lacking for years.

Cylinders, Heads & Pistons:
The objective here is deep stress relieving to maintain dimensional stability (rounder cylinders) in use. Cast and forged pistons tend to grow unevenly and those "high spots" are trying their best to weld themselves to the cylinder. Cylinders have a habit becoming "un-round" and this affects ring seal, compression and leak-down. Cranks and cams have both casting (or forging) as well as machining stresses that affect their stability and wear properties. Brake rotors share some of the same problems as well and all of these parts need to be processed differently than the typical gear does.

Engine & drivetrain parts:
We are usually looking to improve toughness, decrease breakage and increase wear. People quite often refer to surface pitting or flaking of a gear surface simply as wear. To us, it's an indication of a metallurgical problem. How do we know if it is and what to do about it? We do that by cutting a small piece of failed part and analyzing it in our metallurgical lab before we do anything else. Our opinion on this is, without having a way to diagnose the problem is like having a broken arm and going to a doctor that doesn't't have an x-ray machine.

Remember, cold is a powerful tool. And like all tools there's a right way and a wrong to use it. Used correctly, it can be used for a variety of problems. And, believe it or not, it can be very reliable and consistent.