Articles: Industry News

AFS Corporate Member Saguenay Foundry (Chicoutimi, Quebec) was presented with a regional distinction Quebec Performance Award. 

The Québec Performance Awards are the highest distinction awarded annually by the Québec government to private companies and public organizations that stand out for the quality of their management and overall performance.

Saguenay Foundry is an iron casting facility that produces large heavy duty parts weighing from 200-16,000 lbs. The company has also made moves for its future.

Grede (Southfield, Michigan), a developer, manufacturer assembler and supplier of ductile, gray, and specialty iron castings and machined components for automotive, commercial vehicle and industrial markets,  announced its first day of operations as an independent company. 

The Springfield (Ohio) Art Museum has scheduled a three-month exhibit of David Knapp’s paintings.

The exhibit will begin around mid-July and run until September and is expected to show at least 20 pieces of Knapp’s work, which depict foundries.

Knapp enjoyed a long and successful career in the metalcasting business and is also an accomplished artist.

Following successful material development and product development with the SinterCast Mini-System 3000 since 2010, First Automobile Works (FAW) has ordered a fully automated System 4000 Plus to support the series production of a new heavy-duty Compacted Graphite Iron (CGI) cylinder block. 

AFS Corporate Member Wellman Dynamics announced that the US Army Contracting Command has selected Wellman as the recipient of a Defense Production Act Title III award of $15.7 million. As a condition of the award, Wellman is required to fund a matching investment of $7.9 million. The total investment of $23.6 million will be used for plant modernization in response to the growing demand for Wellman’s products.

AFS Corporate Member Mueller Water Products announced it is adding a Kimball, Tennessee, facility that is expected to bring 325 jobs.

Mueller is investing $41 million in the project, which will use a 233,000 sq. ft. building that was vacated when another company closed this spring.

“The new location in Marion County supports the expansion of our manufacturing capabilities around our Chattanooga operations,” Mueller Water Products president and CEO Scott Hall said in a news release.

The facility is expected to open in 2020.

AFS Corporate Member Aristo-Cast (Almont, Michigan) announced the company is now fully AS9100D certified, in addition to its existing ISO9001:2015 certification.

The AS9100 standard expands the requirements of ISO9001 to meet demands of the defense and aerospace industries.  

“This milestone was achieved with the dedication of the whole Aristo-Cast team,” the company said in a news release.

Aristo-Cast, which won the 2017  Casting of the Year, is an investment caster that serves industries such as defense, construction, marine, mining, and electronics.

AFS Corporate Member Mueller Water Products (Atlanta) broke ground on its new, state-of-the-art foundry in Decatur, Illinois.

Alloy Die Casting Co. (Buena Park, California), a provider of value-added manufacturing and supply-chain solutions for engineered metal components, announced an investment from PWP Growth Equity.

In a news release, Alloy Die Casting said the investment “will enable the company to further invest in people and equipment to provide additional value-added services to its customers.”

“This partnership will allow us to accelerate our investments in people, state-of-the-art equipment, and technology to support our customers’ growth,” ADC CEO Rick Simpson said.