(Editors Note; Times have not been good for commercial heat treaters in the UK for some time and this is yet another example of a UK heat treater being forced to close down).
The company, spanning three generations, had provided industrial heat treatment and precision engineering services to other businesses. However, CBS ceased trading on October 17, with 15 employees made redundant as a result of its closure. The directors of CBS Engineering Holdings Limited and CBS Engineering & Heat Treatment Limited appointed Gareth Rusling and Phil Nunney from Begbies Traynor after what the joint liquidators described as a “prolonged downturn”.
Gareth Rusling, partner at Begbies Traynor, said the business had collapsed despite its “rich history”. “Over time, the business grew into a well known local firm, built on the long-standing customer relationships and practical experience of its founders,” Mr Rusling explained. “The company specialised in CNC milling/turning, in-house metal treatments, along with manual turning and grinding and, as it evolved, it expanded overseas.” Mr Rusling, along with his fellow appointed liquidator, has been tasked with winding down the company and seeking the best outcome for creditors, which includes employees.
Explaining the decline that resulted in the end of CBS, he added: “For a number of years it had experienced a downturn and this was further accelerated by increases to running and material costs.”
(Also called; “Why does a manufacturer bring heat treating in house”)
We can now report that this location now has a new, completed heat treat department featuring vacuum furnaces which are replacing the antiquated fluidized bed furnaces the company previously operated at this location.
For more details about the company and their recent financial reports we would suggest this link “Earnings call transcript: Exco Technologies sees Q3 2025 sales dip 4%” . “The Monty Heat Treat News” has reported several times over the years about “Exco”, each of the stories can be found below and they all make for fascinating reading at to why such a large manufacturer would decide to bring heat treating in house. (Editors Note; these photos show the firm’s location in Canada)
Over the years “The Monty” has reported on several of the firms heat treat investments including this news item from 2023, today we mention another heat treat investment the company is making at their facility in Chesterfield, Michigan, USA. The current heat treating department operates fluidized bed furnaces (as a number of the other Exco locations did in the past), however the plant is in the process of phasing out the fluidized bed furnaces and replacing them with vacuum heat treatment. This brings up the obvious question; is there anybody left in North America who still operates fluidized bed furnaces? The project is expected to be completed by the 3rd quarter of 2025.”
It was reported to “The Monty Heat Treat News” recently that furnace builder “Cremer Thermoprocess Systems GmbH” of Düren, Germany entered bankruptcy protection November of this year. Some diligent searching turned up the fact that the company was included on a list of “Insolvencies in North Rhine-Westphalia: November 8th to November 21st, 2025”.While we don’t know a great deal about the company we have run across several of their furnaces at a powdered metal auto parts maker in North America. What we saw were some very impressive sintering furnaces with some very intriguing design features which were quite “novel”. Certainly the end user was very pleased with the quality and support which they received.
We will provide more details as they become available.
“Macclesfield-based listed company, Bodycote, has completed the sale of ten non-core sites to French asset management company, Arcole.
The provider of heat treatment and specialist thermal processing services said the sites are based in France and are focused on heat treatment for automotive and industrial markets.
The cash consideration for the deal is €22m.
The completion of this deal marks an important milestone in the execution of the group’s Optimise programme, which at full run-rate in mid-2027 will deliver an operating profit benefit of at least £15m, with net programme cash costs of £10-15m.
Chief executive, Jim Fairbairn, said “This transaction brings in considerable proceeds and is a key step in the delivery of our Optimise programme.
“It accelerates our efforts to transform the group’s portfolio and to create a higher quality, more resilient and faster growing Bodycote.”
In a trading update earlier this week the group said it is building a pipeline of mergers and is confident it will accelerate growth through attractive bolt-on acquisitions.
The group said it expects to deliver a stronger profit performance in the second half of the year driven by further growth in Aerospace & Defence, improved Specialist Technologies trading and increasing benefits from the Optimise programme.”
Earlier this year “The Monty” had an in-depth article entitled “Why are so Many North American Commercial Heat Treaters Closing?”, the article can be found further down on this page.
Included in our list of commercial heat treaters closing were four firms which specialized in large volume continuous work; “Commercial Steel Treating” in Michigan, “American Steel Treating” in Perrysburg, Ohio, “Elm Plating” in Michigan (which will be ending production the end of 2025) and “AMAC Industries” of Cleveland, Ohio.
Together these 4 firms represented an enormous amount of continuous heat treating, to counter balance this loss of capacity only one firm that we know of added mesh belt capacity, “B & D Cold Heading” in Michigan “Manufacturer Brings Heat Treat in House-A Case Study”.
“The Monty” has long felt that this lack of capacity would be felt and that another heat treater would add capacity; this has turned out to be correct.
Beyond these two photos no details are provided, but our best guess is that the furnace will have a capacity of 6,000 pounds/hour, will be gas fired with an endothermic atmosphere and oil quenching; designed for processing high volume automotive fasteners-we will see if our guess proves correct or not.
We are sure detailed press releases will be forthcoming and when they are “The Monty” will share them with you.
“JUNE 30, 2025; Two More USA Commercial Heat Treaters to Close; 2025 has seen an unusually high number of commercial heat treaters in the USA closing their doors, “The Monty” now has word that two more, medium sized facilities in the US Midwest will be closing down for good, one almost immediately, the other over the course of the coming year.
As more details become available, we will update this story.
A relatively complete list of the USA commercial heat treaters closing in the past year (along with one Canadian firm) can be found below in an article published by; “The Monty Heat Treat News” June 30th of this year; “Why Are So Many North American Commercial Heat Treaters Closing”? In this article we summarize the many and varied reason that commercial heat treats close down.
“JUNE 30th 2025; Why are so Many North American Commercial Heat Treaters Closing?; If it seems like commercial heat treatment firms in North America have been dropping like flies over the past year you can certainly be forgiven for thinking so. Over the course of the past year “The Monty Heat Treat News” has mentioned at least 12 firms that have closed, with at least two more to be mentioned in the next few weeks. This prompts the question “Why Ae So Many North American Commercial Heat Treaters Closing”?
There are three schools of thoughts on this rather depressing trend; the first holds that manufacturers are bringing more heat treating in house leading to lower volumes going to commercial operations. The second suggests that uncertainty in the automotive sector and an overcapacity in the commercial heat treat industry is leading commercial treaters to adjust to these new realities. And the 3rd school of thought offers that large government subsidies during the Covid Pandemic kept many commercial operations afloat long after they should have closed down.
(To bolster the views of those in the first camp who believe manufacturers are bringing more heat treating in house leading to a decline in volumes for commercial heat treaters we would suggest this article; “More Manufacturers Bringing Heat Treating in House?” written by Mr. Marco Baretti of vacuum furnace builder “TAV”. Granted Marco wrote this from a European heat treat perspective but we believe that many of the thoughts are applicable to North America also).
The list below shows some but not all of the commercial heat treaters in North America which have closed in the past year-the team at “The Monty”looked at each one to determine why they closed down and we came to some very interesting conclusions-basically that there are a wide variety of reasons why heat treats close down. Our conclusions are below this list (please note that two firms on this list will be announcing their closures in the next few weeks, at this point in time we choose not to identify them).
Commercial Steel Treating, Michigan; https://themonty.com/another-usa-commercial-heat-treater-closes-its-doors/?no_cache=1
American Steel Treating, Ohio: https://themonty.com/substantial-us-heat-treater-to-close-april-1-2025/
Cambridge Heat Treating, Ontario; https://themonty.com/cambridge-heat-treating-celebrates-40th-anniversary/
Weiss Industries, Ohio; https://weissind.com/
Elm Plating, Michigan; https://themonty.com/us-company-to-exit-commercial-heat-treating/ Elm Plating
AMAC Industries, Ohio; https://themonty.com/ohio-usa-metal-processing-company-to-temporarily-slow-down-halt-production/
Bodycote, California; https://themonty.com/usa-commercial-heat-treat-facility-to-close/
Katy Heat Treat, Texas; https://themonty.com/texas-heat-treater-closing-why-are-so-many-north-american-commercial-heat-treaters-closing/
Missouri Heat Treat, Missouri; https://themonty.com/another-usa-commercial-heat-treat-closes-its-doors/
MT Heat Treat/Quality Steels/Metallurgical Services; https://themonty.com/what-the-heck-is-happening-to-heat-treating-in-ohio-usa/
Commercial heat treats close down for any number of different reasons, using the above examples these are the conclusions we came to;
Retirement; In the case of two of these firms including “Cambridge Heat Treating” the owners with no family members to take over the business and unable to find a buyer decided to liquidate the businesses. In both cases hard assets such as land, building and equipment was greater than the value of the business as a going concern.
Tariffs; One of the companies on this list, “Amac Industries” closed because new US tariffs meant their largest customer found it made more sense to keep the heat treating in Canada as opposed to sending it to the US.
Consolidation; Three of these closures were the result of multi-location commercial heat treaters consolidating operations.
Older Technologies; We always had a high opinion of “Amercian Steel Treating” in Perrysburg, Ohio which at one time was an industry leader in automated pusher furnaces. However, the firm never moved beyond what has become an older technology and that combined with the fact that their fortunes were tied to the auto industry proved to be too large a challenge for the company.
Lack of Profits; In a couple of cases firms found that their margins on heat treating were so small that the decision was made to pivot away from commercial heat treating in favor of other business units.
Stupidity & Incompetence; And of course in at least two cases sheer incompetence, stupidity and greed led to the demise of what were once good solid businesses.
While it would appear to be doom and gloom in the commercial heat treat industry in North America, at the end of the day we can’t lose track of the fact that there are over 500 commercial heat treat locations in North America and a failure of even 15 commercial heat treats represents a very tiny % of the overall market.”
(Editors Note: commercial heat treater “Aremac Heat Treating” was originally based in the western USA but back in 2017 moved to Eastman, Georgia. One of their larger customers has been “Kencoa Aerospace LLC” also in Eastman. According to this press release “Kencoa” recently bought “Aremac” and has renamed the company Kencoa Aerospace LLC.).
“Aremac Heat Treating has been acquired by Kencoa Aerospace LLC and will now be doing business as Kencoa Aerospace LLC moving forward. This acquisition represents an exciting new chapter for us—one that builds upon Aremac’s longstanding commitment to quality, reliability, and customer service while strengthening our capabilities as part of the Kencoa Aerospace family.”
About Kencoa Aerospace LLC; Kencoa Aerospace LLC, located in Eastman Georgia USA, is a premier Tier-1 supplier of multi-axis precision machined and/or sheetmetal fabricated components for spacecraft, aerostructures, jet engines, and major assemblies for commercial, military and business/regional jets worldwide. Since 1998, Kencoa has provided cost-effective aerospace solutions to our customers’ most challenging problems.
Kencoa fabricates, machines, finishes, kits and assembles machined and formed close tolerance Aluminum, Titanium and other hard metals, specialty exotic alloy such as Inconel, and composite components. Kencoa also provides engineering and program management services, supporting aircraft product lifecycles from initial product design, prototyping and flight certification hardware, to production manufacturing, to spare parts programs and Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) needs.
About Aremac Heat Treating; Aremac Heat Treating, LLC has been serving the Aerospace and commercial manufacturing industries in the western United States since 1968. We recently moved our facilities to the east coast to our current location in Eastman, Georgia and are now doing business as Kencoa Aerospace, LLC.
“YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – A local partnership’s purchase of P&L Heat Treating & Grinding will put the company back under the control of its founder. Voltage Valley Capital Partners, which was co-founded by Tim Petrey, Bobby Stackhouse and Tim Carney, acquired P&L in September, according to a news release. Last week, the local venture capital group announced that Bill Pociask, who founded the industrial heat-treating company in 1978, would return as president.
“I’m excited to step back into the president role and continue building on P&L’s 47-year legacy of excellence,” Pociask said in the release.
“He’s always loved the business. He’s always been passionate about it. This was his baby, and he was excited about the opportunity to get back involved,” Petrey, who also is CEO of HD Growth Partners and founder of White Glove Payroll, said during a phone interview. “He loves his team members, his clients, his customers, and he’s still healthy enough to be an active participant in the business.”
Founded in a 2,400-square-foot facility with two employees and four heat-treating furnaces, P&L now operates from a 32,000-square-foot facility in downtown Youngstown, with 20 employees and 24 heat-treating furnaces, according to the news release. It provides a broad range of industrial and commercial heat treatment services, specializing in nitriding, vacuum heat treating, forming dies and quick turnaround solutions for steel and tool steels, serving diverse industries including automotive, mining and tool and die manufacturing.
Petrey did not disclose the purchase price. The company had been acquired in 2018 by Thermal Process Holding Inc., and Pociask stayed on for a time under its ownership as general manager.
“It’s a great business. It’s been around for many years in the community,” Petrey said.
Petrey’s partners also praised the transaction in the release.
“This transaction perfectly aligns with our investment thesis of supporting established businesses in the Mahoning Valley that serve critical roles in the manufacturing ecosystem,” Carney said.
“We’re thrilled to bring P&L back under local ownership and partner with Bill, who built this company into the industry leader it is today,” Stackhouse said.
The P&L purchase represents Voltage Valley Capital Partners’ third investment in the Mahoning Valley, the news release reported. The venture capital group focuses on investing in local businesses that don’t have a succession plan or need the group’s expertise in areas such as operations, finances or marketing, “the things that we’re bringing to the equation to be able to ensure that business can live beyond the founder one day,” Petrey said.
The intention is to ensure that P&L provides the highest level of service to its customers and that the right people are on the team “to make sure that the business has a long future ahead of it,” he added. “We would love to eventually be able to expand. We would love to eventually be able to create new jobs. That’s something that we’re certainly excited about in the future.”
Carbon and Graphite advanced materials supplier “Americarb”in Niagara Falls, New York, USA is in the process of scaling up production of critical materials for the Space industry. Part of this “ramp up” of production includes the addition of two bottom load vacuum furnaces. This photo shows the furnaces being assembled in the Niagara Falls facility just last week. This additional capacity will be dedicated to the production of materials for Solid Rocket Motors for the DOW and commercial launch industries. Production is scheduled for early 2026.
To learn more about the company we would suggest these “Monty Heat Treat News” exclusive stories;
