Cryogenic treatment

[Larry Frankenstein]

I’m looking for input on anyone’s experience or knowledge of cryogenic treatment of parts/assemblies. I ran into a local provider (and racer) and what he said sounded knowledgeable and reasonable. Have any of you used it? Did you test, in any way, the differences between treated and untreated parts? Were there any improvements in part reliability, strength, longevity or performance?

One of the points I have heard, from several sources, in relation to cryo treated spark plugs, was an increase in horsepower (over the same un-treated plugs), and mileage. Anyone here ever tested this?

Thank you,
L

 

[Gary Wittman]

I have heard of increasing brake rotor life with cryo-treatment. I have no personal experience with it. I have tried cryo-treatment on crankshafts and am back to nitriding. The cryo crankshafts journals did not wear nearly as well as with nitriding. The guy that does my crankshafts also tried the cryo-treatment on differential gears. He did not have good success with that. Apparently they where too brittle.

As to the spark plugs, I have a hard time believing that. I think cryo-treatment has its place but spark plugs don't seem to be that place.

 

[loopracing]

I've tried cryo treated hubs and front disks. I didn't experience any appreciable difference in wear or breakage. Disks cost little more than the treatment anyway, so that wasn't very cost effective. The hubs still broke after the same number of races anyway.

 

[R. J. Sorensen]

My experience with cryogenic treatment was with tool steels used in progressive stamping and forming dies making brass and steel electromechanical components. Retaining cutting edge, and abrasion resistance were important criteria, not fatigue resistance.

Cryogenic treatment was claimed to promote fine grain growth and increase durability.

We acquired several product lines from G.E. including finished product inventories, component part inventories, tooling, tooling components, and full documentation. All drawings for tooling used in blanking and forming specified cryogenic treatment, and the G. E. Tool Engineers involved said it was an absolute must. All the acquired tool components were cryogenic treated. What an opportunity for an A-B evaluation.

We fabricated some new tooling from the sintered powdered metal tool steel we normally used, and TIN (titanium nitride) coated all form tooling, and ran consecutive life tests with the G.E. cryogenic treated tooling vs. our sintered powdered metal / TIN coated tooling. TIN coating is VERY wear resistant and can be applied after all other processes due to uniformity of application, thinness (0.0001"), and relative low application temperatures.

NO measurable difference between steels used in blanking operations. Maybe a hint that sintered powdered tool steel lasted longer than cryogenic treated steel.

4-5 times greater life of TIN coated tooling over cryogenic treated tooling.

We weren't impressed with the cryogenic treated components, and we ultimately replaced all the original G.E. cryogenic treated tooling with sintered powdered metal / tin coated tooling.

Of course, it was an obsolete product line for G.E. and they may not have bothered to keep up with more modern tool steels / treatments.

RJS