Jones Metal Products-In House Heat Treating
From time to time we have a close look at captive heat treat departments, in this case we are looking at Jones Metal in West Lafayette, Ohio, USA. Jones Metal is a 97 year old metal forming company whose customers are mainly in the aerospace industry. Many years ago the company brought their heat treating in house and currently they have vacuum and aluminum heat treating furnaces along with cryogenic capabilities. While originally the heat treat department was entirely for their own products this has evolved over the years to the point that the firm now does between $500,000 and $1 million USD in commercial heat treating. Almost undoubtedly one of the reasons the company has been successful at commercial heat treating is because of their approvals which include AS/ISO, NADCAP and ITAR Registration.
Jones is a medium size manufacturer and their heat treat department would be considered small to medium sized however all of the equipment is relatively new, in very good condition and the entire facility is clean and well organized. All in all this is a good example of a typical captive heat treating department as you can see in these photos.