Released on March 20, 2009

Job shop Non Ferrous Cast Alloys Inc. (NFCA), Norton Shores, Mich., recently completed capital improvements in excess of $1 million.

Over the past year, the nobake and green sand metalcaster spent $1 million on a 15,000-sq.-ft. expansion and two automatic grinders, approximately $75,000 on two core machines, and another $75,000 on a new electric furnace.

“Our biggest goal was increasing throughput in the plant,” said Corey Swiftney, business manager. “We continually do lean initiatives. We’re always driving for continual improvement and trying to do things different.”

NFCA added the floor space in order to accommodate the new core machines and finishing cells. The expanded core room and machinery have allowed the company to produce 75-80% of its cores in-house, up from 15-30%.

According to Swiftney, the new finishing machines have increased NFCA’s grinding speed and quality, while increasing capacity. For one part that is now ground on the automatic line, the finishing time has been reduced by at least a factor of four.

“[The automatic grinders] fit us well,” Swiftney said. “They aren’t perfect, but they are good. You don’t have to have one part with significant volumes to justify the purchase. At least for us it’s worked that way.”

NFCA, which operates two automatic molding lines, a squeezer line and its nobake line, also replaced its two 2,000-lb. furnaces with one 1,200-lb. unit without reducing casting production capacity.

Swiftney said that the capital expenditures were more than the company generally spends on an annual basis, but that a growth year justified the improvements.

“[After the expansion], we have the ability to add another automatic line and another manual molding line when we’re ready for that,” he said. “We haven’t had the need to do that, but it provides that opportunity should the need arise.”