Cryogenic treatment of metals, plastics and polymers is a cryogenic process utilizing ultra-low freezing cold temperatures where vapors of nitrogen are released just above their boiling point (-320.4°F / -195.8°C) through a methodical computer controlled process invented by 300 Below, Inc.  Our process is a function of temperature and time, and typically descends to -300°F, hence our company name.  We ensure temperatures fall and rise at the thickest part of a material in equilibrium with the ambient chamber temperature.  On most metal materials, we add a triple heat tempering cycle ascending to +325°F for one hour per each cross-sectional inch of thickness. The combination of cryogenic processing plus heat tempering is called cryogenic tempering, and helps lock in our lifetime guaranteed results.

300 Below helps clients improve materials by realigning the molecular structures of their components, resulting in items which last significantly longer and perform far better than they were previously designed. 300 Below specializes in the science of cryogenics and we engineer various liquid nitrogen (LN2) based cooling and freezing systems that are used worldwide to perform cryogenic processing.

As our company name implies, we treat metal components and parts at minus 300 degrees Fahrenheit to improve their properties. Computer technology allows us to regulate temperatures to 1/10th of a degree, accurately adjusting temperatures optimal for proper cryogenic treatment (or “Cryo-Treatment”) in accordance with the mass of the object we are treating. By reducing the temperature of an object to around -300ºF, we seek to manipulate and rearrange its molecular structure without damaging the item. By rearranging the molecular structure of an object, and realigning the molecules so that they become more uniform and evenly spread out, we then change various properties associated with the object, such as its wear resistance.

Perhaps the easiest way to understand what actually happens during the process is to picture a group of people walking around a shopping mall. We take these individuals (the molecules) and cram them into one huddled mass in the parking lot (the freezing process) and hold them there for multiple hours. We then tell this group to take one step out, one at a time, (the thawing process) so that they become equidistant from one another. Depending on the product, we may also add various stages of heat treatment using ovens that we maintain in-house to conquer various other stress factors which we seek to eliminate.

Deep Cryogenic Tempering allows for a significant increase in abrasive wear resistance and durability for many metal-based objects. There are also a few other materials which benefit from the process and we’re always experimenting with companies around the globe to see if we can help improve all sorts of products. The increases we’ve seen in tensile strength, toughness and stability may couple with the release of internal residual stresses for different components, and some metals respond better than others. The typical end results observed by our clients include increased product life, increased durability, reduced breakage, easier cleaning abilities, and some very specific enhancements that are dependent entirely upon the project. Many changes are dependent upon the type of steel or metal used in a product, in addition to how a product was formed or created.

Our one-time, irreversible treatment lasts for the life of an object and improves the entire structure, not just the surface, giving you unmatched improvement over any other heat-treating or cold-treatment methods. We offer treatment options for a wide variety of different products in several industries, and we offer an unconditional lifetime money-back guarantee for almost everything we treat where results on specified metallurgies are known.  For unknown projects, we offer flexible research and development (R&D) processing paths.