When Gwen Krenecki graduated from college in her home state of California, she set out to see where else a career in engineering would take her, moving east to work in software and plant engineering companies. But eventually, she felt the pull for home and rejoined her father Kevin Van Steenberge at the iron casting business that has been a part of her family since her grandmother Vickie Van Steenberge started at Lodi Iron Works (Lodi, California) as a clerk in 1947 and became president in 1962.

“I don’t know if I knew then whether I would return after I left,” Krenecki said. “But I did come back and have been here now for nine years.”
In those nine years, Krenecki spearheaded investments in machining at the foundry, became a director on the board of the Lodi Chamber of Commerce and started a family.

Her father is happy to have her home.

“I began working here as a little boy cleaning up the pattern shop,” Lodi Iron Works president Kevin Van Steenberge said. “I’ve been coming here all my life, really. My brother Michael has worked here for over 45 years and is recently retired. He still comes in for a few hours a day. And now Gwen is the next generation coming in, and she’s interested in growing the business.”

Lodi Iron Works has been making castings for 72 years, and Van Steenberge and Krenecki are now in the process of steering it to survive for future generations by streamlining operations, maintaining good customer relations and making strategic investments.

Lodi Iron Works makes gray and ductile iron castings on three automatic molding lines as well as a nobake casting line at its foundry in Lodi. In addition, it runs a stainless steel nobake casting plant in nearby Galt, California. Van Steenberge said the metal split currently nestles at about 80% iron and 20% steel. Of the iron, 60% poured is ductile iron. Lodi Iron Works also offers super alloys in small batches. The mix of metals has been a value-add for customers.

“If you are a steel foundry, you are going to sell steel castings,” Krenecki said. “Well, we are an iron foundry that pours steel, so we can sell ductile, iron and steel. Sometimes the ductile iron pricing will be more competitive than steel, and we can offer customers the option to switch from steel to ductile iron.”

The iron molding lines have flask sizes of 16x20, 20x26 and 30x32. The nobake molds measure up to 60 x 60 inches. While many metalcasting facilities with automatic molding machines similar to Lodi Iron Works prefer higher volume work, Krenecki said the foundry has become efficient enough at smaller volumes to fill a void.

“The 100-piece or 50-piece orders…a lot of foundries with automatics like ours don’t want to touch that,” Krenecki said. “We do like the high-volume, but we are very efficient with our changeovers and going from one job to the next. We can do the low volumes well. We are especially competitive on our 30x32 Hunter molding line.”

A recent example of this competitiveness occurred in March. A prospective customer had contacted the metalcaster in a panic for an order that needed to be filled as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, the customer was having trouble finding a foundry capable and willing to quote the job for the existing pattern. The pattern fit Lodi Iron Works’ equipment and it had open capacity to get started right away.

“The sales rep called us out of the blue. He air-freighted us the pattern and within two days we had it prepared on the machine and air freighted a few samples back to them,” Van Steenberge said.

Within a couple of weeks, the foundry was molding and pouring the full order.

“We definitely have the flexibility in equipment, metal and experience to react,” Krenecki said. “With three automatic lines, plus the pep set line, we have four options to put metal.”

In 2010, at Krenecki’s urging, the company brought machining in-house.  Lodi Iron Works had provided fully machined components to its customers already through relationships with other machine shops, but Krenecki saw an advantage in having it as part of the foundry operation.

“We have a lot of customers who ask for turnkey products and having it here gives us more control,” Van Steenberge said.

In 2014, Krenecki expanded the machine shop to also machine components from blanks. This has helped diversity even more—adding another option for customers as well as another entry point for new casting sales.

“We have had customers come from the machine shop side to the foundry,” Krenecki said. “For example, we had a customer in the agriculture processing industry, who was buying machined plates from us but they ended up designing a new press. They decided to design the press plate as a casting, and we were able to help them with that.”

Lodi Iron Works makes castings for a variety of markets, including food processing, pumps and valves, medical and semiconductor. Due to its proximity to Silicon Valley and the entrepreneurial energy of the area, Van Steenberge and Krenecki find themselves working often on new product launches for start-up companies with engineers who are unfamiliar with metalcasting and other manufacturing processes. It’s an educational process to show the different options and their advantages or disadvantages.

“When we get a quote, we can look at it and offer some alternatives,” Krenecki said. “Does it make sense to cast or machine it from blanks or to make it out of steel or ductile iron? We often see with new buyers, there is a steep learning curve and we can definitely help in their education.”

Krenecki’s teaching moments aren’t limited to Lodi Iron Works customers. Recognizing a need for motivated, quality employees for her company and the local manufacturing industry at large, Krenecki is working with other Lodi leaders to encourage careers in the trades. As a member of the Lodi Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, she is working with the local school district to reinstate industrial arts instruction.

“There are so many students in college prep classes that could care less—not everyone wants to be working with computers,” Krenecki said. “And we are at risk of losing so much knowledge when people retire, so we have to educate this generation.”

Looking ahead to the near future, Krenecki and Van Steenberge are keen to see their efforts in streamlining and refurbishing their entire operations come to fruition. Lodi Iron Works recently added an automated CNC grinder to the shop floor, upgraded its nobake molding equipment, purchased new mixing and coremaking machines, and refurbished its three automated molding lines so they are working efficiently and smoothly.

“Rebuilding was our best option, so we wouldn’t be shut down for as long,” Van Steenberge said. “We would shut a piece of equipment down for a week, work on it for a bit and then get it back up quickly.”   

The recent maintenance overhaul has made the facility more efficient and opened up more capacity to fill. Krenecki feels like the operation is primed to roar back from the last couple of lean years caused by the limping oil, gas and mining markets.

“After our transition, we are now at a place where we can absorb a lot more work, so we are quoting a lot of jobs right,” she said. “We are ready to rock and roll now.”   

Click here to see this story as it appears in the April 2018 issue of Modern Casting