Crucible Industries
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| Limited liability company | |
| Industry | Steel |
| Headquarters | Solvay, New York, a suburb of Syracuse |
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Area served
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Global |
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Key people
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James D. Beckman, president |
| Products | Specialty steels: CPM High Speed Steel CPM Stainless Tool Steel CPM Tool Steel High-speed steel Stainless steel Tool steel |
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Number of employees
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550 (2009) |
| Website | CrucibleIndustries.com |
Crucible Industries, commonly known as Crucible, is an American company which develops and manufactures specialty steels and is the sole producer of Crucible Particle Metallurgy (CPM) steels. The company produces high speed, stainless and tool steels for the automotive, cutlery, aerospace and machine tool industries.
Crucible's history spans over 100 years, and the company inherited some of its ability to produce high-grade steel from England beginning in the late 1800s. Thirteen crucible-steel companies merged in 1900 to become the largest producer of crucible steel in the United States, and this company evolved into a corporation with 1,400 employees in several states. Crucible declined in tandem with the automotive industry during the 1980s, recovering over the next decade. Although the company entered bankruptcy in 2009, a Cleveland corporation revived it as Crucible Specialty Metals Division to continue producing specialty steels at its original site.
The CPM process produces uniform steel at the molecular level by spraying the liquid metal into quickly cooling droplets, forming a powder which is then heat-pressed into ingots. This and other steels are used in many industries and by production and custom knife manufacturers.
The Crucible Steel Company of America was formed from the merger of thirteen crucible-steel companies in 1900. This, known as "the great consolidation of 1900", inspired other steel companies to form U.S. Steel a year later. From 1900 through the 20th century, Crucible developed and patented new steels and brought new steel-production methods to the United States. C. H. Halcomb, Jr. was Crucible's first president and general manager. Two years later he left Crucible, building the Halcomb Steel mill next door (where he installed the first electric-arc melting furnace in the U.S.).
In 1911 Crucible acquired Halcomb Steel, merging the Halcomb plant with the new Sanderson plant to form the Sanderson-Halcomb Works. In 1955 it began producing vacuum-arc-remelted steels, becoming the first company to use this process commercially. By 1939 Crucible was the largest producer of tool steel in the United States, making over 400 products (more than any other steel company). It had nine mills in four states, two coal mines, a water company and a half-interest in a Mesabi ore mine.
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Wikipedia