Exactatherm/Steelhead Technologies-The Entire Heat Treat Story
Jordan Montgomery, Jeff Halonen
In 2024 commercial heat treater “Metex Heat Treating Inc.” (one of the largest commercial heat treaters in North America “Top 52″ List Provides Insight Into North American Heat Treat Industry”) acquired a fellow commercial heat treater by the name of “Exactatherm” “Metex Heat Treating Ltd. Announces a Strategic Acquisition of Exactatherm Limited”.
A recent visit by Gord and Jordan Montgomery of “The Monty Heat Treat News” provides an update to the acquisition and also ties it into a recent story about an acquisition in the “ERP” heat treating software industry, a story which can be found at “Major Acquisitions for Heat Treatment Software Supplier”
Since “Metex” acquired “Exactatherm” the firm has grown to over 20 employees and added a tensile testing lab, both moves fueled by strong sales growth due to a number of factors including new investments, higher exposure caused by added marketing efforts and more conferences/trade shows. A lot of this increased exposure has been due to the strong efforts of Ms. Sheela Samy who after 36 years with the company, is adding sales to her other responsibilites. Sheela shared with us that future additions to the company might include more plasma and gas nitriding capacity along with aluminum aging although no time frame has been specified for these additions.
We quizzed “Mr. Raman Bawa”, President of “Metex” about what the acquisition of “Exactatherm” has meant for the company given that “Metex” has traditionally been very automotive oriented and “Exactatherm” is aerospace orientated-this is what he had to say;
Sheela Samy, Gord Montgomery
“Prior to our acquisition of Exactatherm we had, had little experience with aerospace (Nadcap) heat treating and quite frankly it was a challenge to us after our many years of concentrating on automotive heat treating. What we learned is that in aerospace heat treating you are more of a partner with your customers, probably because of the much smaller volumes it is more like “custom” heat treating. Automotive heat treat systems have been in place for so many years and involve such large volumes that it becomes more automated. Aerospace heat treating tends to more part specific-think 20 parts as opposed to 2 million parts.”
As we mentioned the history of “Exactatherm” is also tied to their decision to invest in an “ERP” system from “Steelhead Technologies” almost exactly one year ago-August of 2025 to be exact. The relationship between the two companies is strong enough that Steelhead chose to use “Exactatherm” in their press releases including this quote from Mr. Vraj Shah, Quality Manager, “Exactatherm”;
“At Exactatherm, a heat treater in Mississauga, ON, taking their shop floor digital has simplified training, tightened quality control, and enabled faster turnaround times. “With Steelhead, if we need a job pulled for review in a Nadcap audit, we can look it up and have all the data right there. We don’t have to train someone with a background in metallurgy or heat treat to enter a job anymore; anyone can do it. That efficiency shows up everywhere: our lead times used to run a couple of weeks, now we’re down to ten days, and parts we used to store for ten to twelve days now move through in five to seven.”— Vraj Shah, Quality Manager, Exactatherm”.
These photos show a visit to “Exactatherm” August 24, 2026 during which Mr. Jeff Halonen, CEO of “Steelhead” was in attendance. We thank the entire team at “Exactatherm” and “Metex” for their hospitality.
Vraj Sham, Quality Manager, “Exactatherm”, Jordan Montgomery “The Monty”, Raman Bawa, President “Metex”, Sheela, Samy COO, Exactatherm, Jeff Halonen, CEO, “Steelhead”