Our Story

Universal Heat Treating (Est. 1965) | Universal Black Oxiding (Est. 1990)

Universal Heat Treating was founded in 1965 by Richard L. Walter. It originated as a salt bath heat treater specializing in tool steel. UHT was originally located on Addison Road in Cleveland until 1976 when it moved to its current location, 3878 E. 93rd Street. Ernie D’Amato, Richard’s son in law, started in 1977 as plant manager and purchased the company in 1987.  He was CEO of the company until 2019 when he sold the company to his sons Mike and Kevin D’Amato.

Michael D’Amato joined UHT in 2009 from Key Bank and Pakmode Publications which he was a co-founder. He has a Bach­elor of Science in Business Administration from Eastern Michigan University.

Kevin D’Amato joined UHT in 2010 after studying Special Education at Bowling Green State University and Ursuline College.

In 1980 UHT, to meet customer demand, expanded its plant by 6,000 square feet. The newly added space was used to house our new Surface Combustion atmospheric equipment. This allowed us to diversify our operations to include carburizing, carbonitriding and atmosphere alloy hardening.

In 1990 came the edition of our sister company Universal Black Oxiding which is now under the Universal Heat Treating brand. The new company was formed to improve our customer’s turnaround time for parts that needed both heat treat and black oxide.

In 1990, we added a vacuum furnace to the plant in order to heat treat tool steel in a controlled atmosphere. The controlled atmosphere allowed for the tool steel to have a cleaner finish after the heat treat process.

Our most recent expansion came in 1999, when we added 8,000 square feet to the plant. This was mainly used to house our shipping and receiving department. Along with the 8,000 square feet we also added a fleet of trucks to the mix. The new fleet allowed us to expand our footprint and save our customers time and money with our new pick-up and delivery services.