Using a vertically integrated business model, this specialist in chrome-plated bar and tube delivers perfectly round, straight, corrosion-resistant products for high-performance applications.

By Corinna Petry,
Managing Editor

Companies that use hydraulic and pneumatic cylinders or piston rods in the equipment they make, such as forklifts, construction equipment and farm machinery, cannot afford to have parts fail. That’s why many manufacturers, such as Caterpillar Inc., have come to rely on Industrial Hard Chrome in Geneva, Ill., for its case-hardened, corrosion-resistant, chrome-plated steel bar and tubing.

IHC is actually the centerpiece of three vertically integrated companies, each playing a distinct role in producing and delivering parts to customers with consistent quality despite short lead times.

The feedstock for IHC comes from sister company Bar Technologies, whose plant is located about 100 feet west. Bar Technologies purchases hot-rolled and cold-drawn carbon steel round bars, then turns, grinds and polishes the bars to customer specifications. The bars can be made in imperial and metric sizes, from one-half-inch to 6-inch diameters, with extremely tight tolerances on size, roundness and straightness.

Bar Tech purchases its raw bar inventory from Macsteel, Chaparral Steel, Nucor Steel, Gerdau Ameristeel, Timken Co. and Steel Dynamics Inc. The company also purchases tube stock, which it centerless grinds just like bar stock.

The bar goes through a processing line that begins with pre-straightening to enhance dimensional accuracy in the centerless turning operation. Saw-cutting and chamfering the lead edge of each bar helps it through turning and grinding with minimal tool wear. The next step, turning, removes surface imperfections and leaves bars uniformly round. Then the bar is straightened once again before grinding, which simultaneously sizes the bar and polishes it to a consistent microfinish of 25 RA or better.

IHC’s grinding operation, which includes 11 grinders, uses laser measuring to ensure that the bar’s final dimensions meet customer specifications.

Full statistical process control documentation is available on every bar in every order, which means Bar Technologies can guarantee repeatability on its jobs for each customer, whether they enter six orders a month, or one order per year. The company sells to many outside customers—including distributors—as well as IHC.

Three times a day, Bar Tech loads a special barge truck and delivers product to IHC for plating. Thus IHC has no need to hold raw material in inventory. IHC began as a plating repair company, but has since developed into a primary plating house, particularly for rod and bar serving the fluid power industry.

Setting the standard
Steven M. Schaus, vice president-sales, engineered products; Fred W. Parker, vice president and general manager; and James F. Segerson, vice president-sales, describe the company’s leadership as continually unsatisfied with the status quo.

Every three years, the industry holds an international fluid power exposition, and every three years Industrial Hard Chrome unveils a new standard for corrosion resistance—currently 96 hours for standard coating and 200 hours for heavy coating. The new standard then has to be met by IHC’s competitors, says Segerson.

Schaus recalls a time when “there used to be a lot of double plating. A wasteful amount of coating was done. Today, less is more,” he says, yet the rigorous performance demanded of the chrome plating has improved.

In the past, the overall goal of chrome plating was a 5.7 percent reject rate or better. Now, IHC’s in-house reject rate is well below 0.5 percent.” The reject rate of bars that make it to customers is “statistically insignificant,” Schaus says.

Striving to surpass the status quo has led the company’s engineers to pioneer “selective hardening.” Induction hardening involves the application of heat to harden the outer layer of a bar so no dents or dings can affect the surface. “You can hit it with a hammer and make no mark,” Segerson says. IHC began hardening selected sections of a typical 24-foot-long bar so that there are spaces between with a softer surface that a customer can machine.

IHC’s plant is divided in half—east bay and west bay. Each side has its own induction hardener, steel polisher, chrome tanks and separate power substation, so that if one side has to shut down, the second operation keeps running.

The company operates two German-made surface finishing machines that make the bars highly polished and smooth even before the chrome is applied. Schaus explains that a mirror finish on glass is 0 RA. The machines produce a finish of 6 RA maximum. After chrome plating and a further polishing, the finish is 2 RA—shiny enough for a person to clearly see his reflection.

The chrome plating operation is automated, plating a load of bars every seven minutes. All plated bars are rinsed and polished, then buffed and waxed. After inspection by hand, specification readings are recorded on every bar bound for a customer.

In addition to standard 12- and 24-foot lengths, IHC cuts bar and tubing to meet specific customer orders, and manufactures finished piston rods. The company inventories standard commercial sizes, as well as customer parts.

Cleaner environment
Chromic acid is a hazardous material used in the plating process. IHC does not employ the traditional hazardous waste disposal method used in the plating industry. Instead, the company filters the acid bath each day. An Ecotech system acts like environmental dialysis, dissolving and removing contaminants.

The closed-loop system allows zero contaminants into the air or down the drain. In fact, IHC has no drains in the chroming area. All air/vacuum systems are duplicated, providing redundant backup.

Although this treatment of the chromic acid and air quality systems was a very expensive investment, it turned out to be very cost effective in the long run, says Parker. “We worked to set the benchmark for EPA compliance,” he adds. “We still exceed current California emission standards.”

IHC is also very keen on setting high standards for corrosion resistance. Its ChromeXL rods can last up to 1,200 hours under the ASTM-B117 standard for use in harsh corrosive environments. IHC has two in-house stations for salt spray tests and an in-house certification system for corrosion resistance.

The third leg of the stool
The third company in this integrated business is Fluid Power Machining, created in 1999 by IHC. Before it was formed, IHC outsourced machining for various customers. Today, IHC and FPM produce hundreds of part numbers for Caterpillar alone.

The company, located inside IHC’s plant, performs value-added sawing and cutting, and operates 12 Okuma Crown CNC lathes for customers who need finished bar blanks. The operators set up the lathes, which then perform all the operations automatically. When finished, the lathe’s doors open and the operator removes the finished product and inspects it by hand.

FPM produces more than 40,000 blanks per month. The preparation includes machining, weldment preparation, turning and threading. Products range from 0.5-inch to 4.25-inch diameters; FPM also offers metric sizes. The rods are mostly used in hydraulic cylinders, but also sometimes in pneumatic cylinders. Some products are bound for export markets such as the United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico and South America.

Because of these capabilities, Bar Tech, IHC and FPM together can provide engineering and technical expertise. “We help solve application problems,” Schaus says.

“Although it’s a commodity product, we market our service and quality,” Segerson says. “We have used our value-added [abilities] to gain market share. As customers’ business grows, and they run out of machining capacity, they buy finished rods from us. They use our capability as an extension of their manufacturing operations.”

IHC and FPM, working together, are creating a prototype for one major OEM customer, a product that will go into a piston rod. The IHC/FPM team is taking a bar and machining it, threading it, turning it, chamfering it, grooving it and facing it to length. Should this customer accept the prototype, orders for the product should blossom, company executives say.

The trio of companies use a vendor managed inventory system to track the flow and plan production so each part a customer needs is available in as little as 24 hours. IHC maintains customers’ part numbers rather than using generic designations to avoid miscommunication and errors.

IHC has kept changing and growing since it was founded nearly 50 years ago. With its fully automated and integrated production system and its focus on quality and customer service, the three-pronged company is likely to remain one of the fluid power industry’s leading suppliers.