industry steel headquarters solvay new york a suburb of syracuse 1 area served global key people james d. beckman 2 president products specialty steels 3 cpm high speed steel cpm stainless tool steel cpm tool steel high speed steel stainless steel tool steel number of employees 550 2009 4 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 . 5 6 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 . 7 8 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 . 9 contents 1 history 1.1 company names 1.2 founding companies 1.3 timeline 1.4 sanderson brothers and company 1.5 halcomb steel 1.6 hoyt noe steel company 1.7 crucible 2 knife design and manufacturing 3 products 3.1 cpm process 4 publications 4.1 cataloged crucible 4.2 crucible 4.3 crucible and the u.s. air force 5 see also 6 further reading 6.1 history 7 references 8 bibliography 9 external links history edit iron ore pellets for the production of steel blast furnace steel plant in the united kingdom basic blast furnace process to obtain metal from ore 1 . iron ore limestone sinter 2 . coke 3 . elevator 4 . feedstock inlet 5 . layer of coke 6 . layer of sinter pellets of ore and limestone 7 . hot blast around 1200 c 8 . removal of slag 9 . tapping of molten pig iron 10 . slag pot 11 . torpedo car for pig iron 12 . dust cyclone for separation of solid particles 13 . cowper stoves for hot blast 14 . smoke outlet can be redirected to carbon capture & storage ccs tank 15 feed air for cowper stoves air pre heaters 16 . powdered coal 17 . coke oven 18 . coke 19 . blast furnace gas downcomer 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 . 10 from 1900 through the 20th century crucible developed and patented new steels and brought new steel production methods to the united states . 10 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. . 7 8 crucible steel next to a furnace room at the abbeydale industrial hamlet 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 . 11 from 1968 to 1984 crucible was owned by colt industries ; in 1985 its salaried employees bought it back . by then the company was known as crucible materials corporation . fourteen hundred employees worldwide worked for a number of companies including crucible specialty metals in solvay new york ; trent tube in east troy wisconsin ; crucible magnetics in elizabethtown kentucky ; crucible compaction metals operations in oakdale pennsylvania ; the cancer research center in pittsburgh and crucible limited in sheffield england . in 1989 the number of employees was reduced to 600 after a strike . 7 the 1980s saw layoffs and plant closures across the u.s. ; more than 200 000 workers lost their jobs and more than 400 mills and divisions of plants including crucible s midland plant closed . 12 in 1984 crucible made the titanium alloy used in the artificial heart implanted by robert jarvik and donated corrosive resistant steel used to help renovate the statue of liberty . 7 1941 electric arc furnace during the 1990s crucible expanded its operations to canada working with general motors and building a 35 000 square foot 3 300 m2 facility with newly patented smelting and processing equipment costing 25 million . although the number of employees increased to about 1 400 from 2001 to 2003 200 were laid off . 7 in 2004 crucible entered the knife market 7 and in may 2009 the company filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy . that october jp industries a private equity group purchased the operating assets of the crucible specialty metals division formed crucible industries and restarted the geddes steel mill . 7 company names edit inside roof of an arc furnace showing its three electrodes tapping an open hearth furnace 1967 1913 halcomb steel company advertisement a number of steel companies have operated in syracuse maintaining crucible s intellectual property and patents . 7 in 1870 william a. sweet founded the sweet iron works . sanderson brothers of sheffield england bought the sweet iron works for u.s. production in 1876 renaming the steelworks sanderson . in 1900 sanderson s syracuse steelworks merged into the crucible steel company of america . 13 in 1946 the sanderson and halcomb steelworks were renamed the sanderson halcomb works later becoming the syracuse works of crucible steel . in 1968 crucible became colt s crucible specialty metals division . colt consolidated its basic materials group into the crucible materials corporation in 1983 . founding companies edit according to explorepahistory.com by 1877 the region s fourteen medium scale crucible steel factories produced nearly three fourths of the nation s output . metal shaping factories across the country depended on cutting tools made of crucible steel through the 1920s when electric steel furnaces gained prominence . 14 three companies which merged to form crucible into the largest u.s. crucible steel producing company were 10 15 sanderson brothers began producing steel in sheffield england in 1776 . in 1873 it was using a gas fired crucible melting furnace . 16 sanderson sold its syracuse operation to crucible expanding its english company with the purchase of samuel newbould and company . 13 hussey wells and company of pittsburgh founded in 1859 was the first company in america to manufacture crucible steel . its partners were curtis g. hussey who formed the pittsburgh and boston mining corporation to mine copper and thomas marshall howe banker investor congressman assistant adjutant general of pennsylvania and the first president of the pittsburgh chamber of commerce . thomas son george helped form crucible . hussey and james m. cooper formed c. g. hussey and company to roll and market copper . before merging with crucible hussey wells and company became howe brown and company when george joined his father . park brother and company of pittsburgh founded in 1860 was the second company to produce crucible steel in the u.s. james park jr. and the elder david e. park began the company after working with their father for twenty years . in 1857 james jr. founded the lake superior copper works to sheath ship hulls . after encountering hussey howe and wells he followed them into manufacturing crucible steel . park built the black diamond park steel works and had interests in a suspension bridge company and several banks . david s sons david e. jr. william g. and james h. park led in forming crucible . in 1900 park steel was the largest producer of crucible and special purpose open hearth steels in the world . 10 the other companies which formed crucible were aliquippa steel company several miles north of pittsburgh on the ohio river anderson dupuy and company beaver falls steel works burgess steel and iron works crescent steel of pittsburgh founded 1865 cumberland steel and tin plate company isaac jones pittsburgh steel works later anderson deputy and company ; founded 1845 labelle steel company formerly reiter hartman and company of allegheny pennsylvania founded 1863 singer nimick and company of pittsburgh founded 1848 spaulding and jennings company timeline edit the following timeline provides references and events in the context of crucible s history . its primary source is the syracuse post standard archives with other sources noted . 7 sanderson brothers and company edit 1776 the naylor and sanderson steel mill was established in sheffield england and began producing tool steel with the crucible method . 13 by 1873 it was trading as sanderson brothers and company and using a gas fired crucible melting furnace . 16 in 1876 sanderson brothers and company bought sweet iron works which had been established in 1870 in syracuse . 17 sheffield was known for its hard durable steel and syracuse was known for its hard steel . contemporary u.s. tariffs gave sanderson an incentive for a u.s. operation . 8 in 1878 sanderson had 450 000 in capital and the following officers robert b. campbell of new york president ; samuel william johnson of new york secretary and william a. sweet of syracuse general manager . 17 in 1900 thirteen crucible steel manufacturing companies formed the crucible steel company of america . sanderson divested itself of its american operation offering 500 000 shares of stock for 50 million . 15 18 crucible s fifth annual report published in 1905 showed debts of 3.6 million 2.4 million less than the year before . 19 exterior and interior of an electric arc furnace 1905 h roult electric arc dc furnace halcomb steel edit in 1902 c. h. halcomb jr. sanderson s president and general manager left the company and built the halcomb steel mill next to the sanderson mill . halcomb installed the first electric arc furnace eaf in the united states in 1906 . 8 20 21 in 1911 the company was acquired by crucible which doubled the size of its western branch warehouse now in chicago in 1913 . hoyt noe steel company edit by 1913 thatcher hoyt and paul e. noe formed the hoyt noe steel company in chicago . hoyt had been representing crucible steels for twenty years ; his previous companies included the braeburn steel company singer nimick and company and the sanderson brothers steel company . 22 crucible edit crucible patented the first formally classified high speed steel aisi t1 german 18 0 1 in 1910 and its basic formula was used for the next forty years . after other high speed steels were produced t1 remained one of the most commonly used commercial high speed steels for the next century . 23 24 the next year crucible formed the pittsburg crucible steel company purchasing a 423 acre 171 ha site from midland steel on the ohio river near pittsburgh for 7.5 million to build a new plant . 25 midland pennsylvania became crucible s planned town . 12 26 during the 1920s and 1930s world war i financier horace s. wilkinson oversaw crucible president frederick b. hufnagel refusing to modernize and controlling the company s