Applications + Industries

McCreath Laboratories has such diverse inspecting, sampling and testing capabilities that the materials we service can be found throughout our daily lives.  Cars, appliances, cell phones, windows and critical infrastructure are all made from materials that McCreath tests on a daily basis.

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Steel

McCreath is most closely associated with the steel industry.  Andrew S. McCreath was one of the first chemists employed by a steel company in the United States to focus on the raw material side of steel making.  For the large integrated mills, McCreath can test the iron ore, coke and limestone that are the ingredients for making iron – the first step in the steel making process.  Any alloys added to the iron while making specific grades of steel are very familiar to McCreath’s inspection and testing staff.  For the mini-mills, those mills using scrap as a the base iron ingredient, McCreath can cut pieces from a scrap stockpile, melt it down into a homogenous sample and then test it using using XRF giving clients not only an elemental analysis of the scrap but a metallic yield of the scrap allowing the melt shop to know before production, how much metal should be recovered from the heat of metal.

Foundry

Another industry served is the foundry or metalcasting industry.  A highly modern industry with ancient roots, metalcasting is the backbone of the manufacturing economy. It is a $44.3 billion industry that provides nearly 200,000 U.S. jobs. The industry is central to a growing economy, modern infrastructure, and national defense. 

Highly engineered castings are part of 90 percent of durable goods. They are found in cars, trucks, aerospace, trains, mining and construction equipment, oil wells, appliances, pipes, hydrants, wind turbines, nuclear plants, medical devices, defense products, toys, and more. Most people are rarely more than 10 feet away from a casting.

Metalcasting is the process in which high-temperature molten or liquid metal is poured into a mold made of sand, metal or ceramic, to form geometrically complex parts. All major metals can be cast. The most common are iron, aluminum, magnesium, zinc, steel and copper-based alloys.  

Other Industries

Other minerals inspected, sampled and tested by McCreath can be found in pigments, abrasives, glass, fuel for power plants and concrete plants and anodes essential for the production of aluminum.  The end use products made from these materials are truly all around us.