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Cascade Metallurgical, a Kent, Wash.-based commercial heat treater, owes its existence to the tool industry. Current owner Bill Blackburn founded the company in 1991 (originally, it was named Ramtreat Metal Technology) to provide heat-treating services for his other business, Ramco Construction Tools. Ramco needed a reliable source to handle all of its thermal-processing needs.
Ramtreat began with an SBA loan that provided the capital to purchase a 30,000-square-foot building and a Surface Combustion Super Allcase 36-inch x 72-inch x 36-inch line, complete with a companion charge car, endothermic generator, two Unidraws and a spray dunk washer. The IQ furnace and Unidraws had Casemate and Tempmate controllers with data-acquisition software that allowed full recipe control of the furnaces as well as historical data collection and retrieval. Ramtreat started with two employees, Eddie Ortiz and Bob Berry, both of whom...