In 1953 Mr. Edward McCrink founded Hi-Temp, Inc. and rapidly grew the company to become one of the largest thermal processors of martensitic stainless steels in North America. While running Hi-Temp, he became interested in structural uses of these materials but found that no manufacturer was implementing this technology. This led to Mr. McCrink's founding of KVA STAINLESS™, whose aim is to promote his vision of new applications utilizing these materials.
As a result, KVA STAINLESS™' technical staff with a combined 60 years experience in production thermal processing, metallurgy and mechanical design, has developed numerous proprietary and patent-pending processing, joining, and manufacturing methods concerning the use of martensitic stainless steels. These novel developments enable the use of high-strength, lightweight, corrosion-resistant, high-speed seam-welded, hardened stainless steel components throughout industry.
Our initial efforts have been concentrated on reducing weight--typically achieving a 30-45% mass reduction while maintaining or exceeding current strength levels--in automotive structural applications. KVA STAINLESS™' technology has been very well received by all major auto manufacturers and we have completed several successful component development and testing trials with better-than-expected mechanical, environmental and cost performance.