US-based alloyed steel producer Timken Company has announced an investment worth $14 billion in a new thermal treatment facility at its steel plant in Canton, Ohio.
The new 34,000 square-foot facility, which will be operational in December of the current year, is slated to achieve an annual production capacity of 45,000 mt by mid-2009.
Timken has said that operations at the new facility will mainly involve quenching and tempering of steel bars and tubes, the sizes of which will vary in a range of 4 inches (101 millimeters) to 9 inches (227 millimeters) in diameter and 12 feet (3.7 meters) to 40 feet (12 meters) in length.
This process will allow Timken to produce steel for use in harsh environments such as those in the oil and gas industry. The new facility will also have the flexibility to produce steel bars and tubes with metallurgical properties suitable for other market sectors.
In 2007, Timken opened a new induction heat treatment line at its Canton steel plant on the back of an investment worth $5 million. Timken also announced in January 2007 that it would invest $60 million in its steel rolling mill operations in Canton. This investment will increase the company's capability to produce differentiated steel products, including steel bars down to 1-inch diameter (25 millimeters). Production at the small bar mill will begin later this year.