Bodycote, a global thermal processing services provider, continues to invest in new Specialty Stainless Steel Processes (S3P) facilities.
The company’s S3P subdivision recently completed another round of expansions to its site in Ohio, North America, and recently opened a new Greenfield facility in France. Further to the company’s expansion program, another Greenfield plant is scheduled to open in Germany in 2016.
S3P is a process whereby the mechanical and wear properties of materials such as austenitic stainless steel, cobalt-chromium alloys, and nickel-based alloys can be improved without negatively affecting their corrosion resistance, through the use of a surface hardening solution. In effect, this process offers a unique solution to the challenge of galling, which is the form of wear caused by adhesion between sliding surfaces. This new technology is presenting engineering benefits for industries such as medical /pharmaceutical, automotive and chemical engineering.