I’m not sure anybody really knows, at least by the standards I was taught for scientific proof.
We have been looking at cryogenic treatment of tools (steel carbide, etc.) for years. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.
We are in the middle of another round of interest in cryogenics in the tool industry. C-2 carbide (grade and composition unspecified) can show a significant improvement in wear properties when cryogenically treated if it is used in connection with a Vortex cold air device that cools the tool during cutting. That is all the report and all the details there are.
There are reports of cryogenics making brass horns (trumpets, etc.) sound better. It is also reported to improve the properties of rubber and just about anything else.
I have yet to find a treater who can guarantee results. The best the promise is that if it doesn’t work they won’t charge me.
Personally I think cryogenics is about where hand washing was in medicine before they connected it with germ theory.
I think there is something there just because there is so much anecdotal evidence but I don’t think anyone has identified just why it works and I also think there are other, as yet unidentified factors, involved. E.G. If a doctor washes his hands before assisting in childbirth fewer patients die but some will die anyway for other causes.
Tom
Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.