Applied Process has been a technology leader in the heat treating industry since 1978. AP and its affiliated companies use properly applied Austempering technologies to solve tough engineering problems. AP also continues to work on the development of ever more efficient Austempering systems. This experience and capability are available to you today.

The roots of Applied Process, Inc. were forged in 1962 when W. R. Keough, with several partners, founded the Atmosphere Furnace Company (AFC). Their introductory product was a controlled atmosphere continuous belt-type austempering line capable of processing 1,500 pounds (680 Kg) per hour of small parts. That development spawned the Atmosphere Group, which included several commercial heat treatment plants specializing in austempering. In 1967 AFC produced the first continuous austempering furnace that allowed hand-loading of the parts. In 1972 the pusher-type austempering furnace was developed. Also in that year, the process was first commercially applied to produce Austempered Ductile Iron (ADI) at an Atmosphere Group facility.

Each of these equipment and process developments increased the productivity of the austempering process and drove down the price, making it competitive with conventional heat treatments. By the 1970's the light stamping industry had "discovered" the austempering process and the conversion was on. Meanwhile, a variation of the austempering process, Carbo-austempering, was being explored.

By the 1980's Austempered Ductile Iron had become more than a laboratory curiosity. It had been discovered that the ausferrite matrix in ADI (Figure 4) delivered twice the strength for a given level of ductility when compared to conventional pearlitic, ferritic or martensitic matrices. The stage had been set.

Austempering is no ordinary heat treating procedure, and Applied Process has no ordinary people. Our staff includes metallurgists, consulting metallurgists, mechanical engineers and a dedicated R&D staff.