Armco Inc. and Cyclops Industries Inc., two companies that are posed to merge, are studying linking Armco's Baltimore operation with that of Cyclops' plant in suburban Pittsburgh.

Such a combination is seen as a way of bolstering the two struggling operations. But executives at the two companies said it was too early to say what form the arrangement would take or how it would affect the Baltimore work force.

The study involves the Armco subsidiary Baltimore Specialty Steels Corp. and Cyclops' Bridge- ville, Pa., operation.

Both plants make stainless-steel products, and both have been shrinking their operations in recent years.

Armco, a stainless-steel company based in Parsippany, N.J., agreed in September to purchase Pittsburgh-based Cyclops for $156 million in cash and stock.

Cyclops was set to close its Bridgeville plant at the end of March, eliminating the jobs of 110 workers.

But early this week, the company and the United Steelworkers union reached an interim agreement that might lead to a concessionary labor agreement at that plant and another stainless-steel operation in Titusville, Pa.

The agreement included a study of how the Bridgeville operations could be tied to the Baltimore operation, which has a work force of about 350 and produces stainless-steel rods, wire, bars and billets.

Robert E. Hein, president of Baltimore Specialty Steels, will be coordinating the study, which is to be completed by April 1.