Brandon Boose is a young executive vice president at BQC Foundry (formerly Boose Quality Castings and Boose at Cornwall) in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, but he’s no stranger to foundry work. “I was always told that if I wanted to have the rights of business ownership, I had to first work inside the business,” said Boose. “I started at a very young age, and now I’ve performed every job in the operations here at one time or another.” 

The 35-year-old, fourth-generation foundryman has been working full-time in the business since turning 18, shoveling sand, grinding, casting, making squeezer molds, pouring metal, working in quality assurance, and shipping castings, among other tasks. In 2019, Brandon, along with his father, Joe Boose, and mother Leann, became successors to the foundry known as Boose at Cornwall, Inc., which was originally purchased from Cornwall Aluminum Foundry in 2006. 

“At that time, we were constantly fixing equipment and incurring a lot of downtime and expense,” said Boose. “It became my mission to be proactive in advancing our foundry.”

To build the vision for investing in new equipment, Brandon identified current equipment limitations and focused on removing bottlenecks that limited sales volumes using existing equipment. But his vision was for more than an upgrade—it was for a complete modernization. 

Growing up, Brandon always heard, ‘we’re just a job shop’ and ‘we’re just a small company.’  But Brandon’s vision calls for significant growth by increasing efficiency and taking on higher volume production work.

Part of the evolution involved the company adopting Magmasoft foundry software for casting simulation and virtual optimization of casting processes. The result was reduced scrap, improved yield, and faster production part approvals (PPAPs) for customers. “Overall, we needed to increase our capacity and reduce our lead times to be more cost competitive,” said Boose. “With higher volume work, automation becomes easier.” 

Core Room Modernization

In casting, cores can make or break the quality and functionality of the final product. The first area at the foundry to receive an upgrade was the core room. In 2021, the company removed three older machines and added six new ATD core blowing machines (two HS-22 models and four HS-16 models.) “This effectively doubled our capacity,” said Boose. “The HS-22s in particular allowed us to handle larger cores, whereas previously we had only a single machine for those sizes.” The newer machines were fully automated and repositioned so that a single operator can run two machines simultaneously. 

To further improve efficiency, the company outsourced 3D sand-printing of assembled cores and difficult-to-blow cores to Kore Mart and Humtown Products, effectively doubling output in half the time. Outsourcing allowed the company to focus on core manufacturing and molding—choosing to make cores that best fit their processes. This allowed them to better manage mold schedules to meet production demand. 

Molding Improvements

 Molding operations became the next area of focus. To improve the production rates for the high-density, horizontally parted, green sand molds, the company added a third molding line featuring the DISA Match 16 x 20 high-speed automatic molding center with a custom Summit Foundry Systems mold handling line. In 2023, they replaced an older molding machine with a new 20 x 24 DISA Match high-speed molding machine. “With the new DISA machines, we could consistently hit benchmarks of 187 molds per hour—volumes we simply couldn’t reach before,” said Boose. “Efficiency and quality gains came with the new machines as well.”

As a result of increasing the pace from 130 to 187 molds per hour, the company was able to reduce the need for multiple shifts (they were operating 15-hour days), as well as reduce the frequency of changeovers and time spent on changeovers. 

Automated Pouring 

Capacity gains from mold and core production led to the next modernization effort, an automated pouring machine, which was installed in July 2025 and is now fully operational. According to Boose, they knew they wanted to purchase an automated pouring solution two years ago, but the innovative technology was not mature enough at that point, and other investments were prioritized. 

“With faster molding machines, we have the ability to make more at a time, which demands more of the individual pouring the metal,” said Boose. 

As a result, the company needed to add direct labor to pour metal, which significantly increased safety liability. The hazards of the job, along with the hot environment, also made it an increasingly difficult role to fill at the foundry. In fact, management often had to take on the role to keep production flowing. In 2025, it reached a point where an investment in an automated solution was justified. 

But BQC wasn’t looking for what’s typically employed in foundries, a stationary unit that pours the metal from a non-adjustable location. Instead, they wanted to be able to move the pouring spout to varying sprue locations in the mold. They also wanted more control over the metal quality. 

“A lot of the systems have their auto-pouring hooked up to die-cast or permanent mold processes, which use a steel mold with very high solidification rates,” said Boose. 

The slower solidifying sand mold requires higher base metal quality. “We wanted to be able to treat the aluminum separately from the furnace that’s pouring the metal to achieve and maintain the purest material possible,” he added.” Space limitations also came into play. 

An extensive search narrowed their choices down to two companies, neither of which had ever before designed a system that could hit the targeted molding rate, and maintain pouring location versatility. 

Ultimately, Pyrotek answered the call with a custom designed furnace, pump, and auto-pour system that would fit within their limited footprint of 300 sq. ft. Two existing furnaces were removed and replaced with the auto-pouring system that can be moved by hand to different locations and locked into position.

How It Works 

The AutoPour system uses a two-stage approach to prepare and pour the cleanest metal possible with a programmable logic controller (PLC). The PLC controls the pump that changes the metal level in the pouring furnace. Precision RPM (revolutions per minute) measurements are used to precisely regulate the flow of metal into the mold, ensuring consistent fill rates, reducing over- and under-pours, and minimizing scrap along the way. The system adjusts metal flow based on sensor feedback to account for changes in molten metal temperature and viscosity, which maintains a constant pour rate and pressure in the molds’ gating system. 

The system can auto-pour metal in one area, and then as metal is being poured into the charging side, the metal is forced through a filter and flows over to the pouring side smoothly. 

“So once the metal is ready to release, it will flow gently through a filter into the pouring side to keep it supplied at all times,” said Boose. 

There are several benefits to the system including improved employee safety, increased pour consistency, reduced pouring temperatures (by up to 100F) in addition to enhanced metal quality. As for operators, Boose believes the role is now more engaging, because operators have become technicians overseeing pours rather than performing the physically demanding task of manual pouring. “This provides a career that aligns with modern goals for our workforce,” added Boose. 

From a production standpoint, BQC can maximize the production output of 185 molds per hour.  “As long as the metal is always in the furnace, that production output will always be there hour-to-hour, no matter how hot the day is, and regardless of whether or not an operator is present.” 

Auto-pouring also opens up opportunities to produce larger castings—the system can pour uninterrupted, versus a human being limited to pouring what is in their ladle. Weight limitations are only defined by what can fit into the 16 x 20 mold. 

The next step will be working with Magmasoft to accurately simulate the flow of metal from the pouring spout into the sprue cup, while also recording the RPM curve of the pump. “When we can mimic exactly how the pour happens in real life, the castings will be perfect from the start,” said Boose.

A Change in Branding

To signal all the advancements happening within the foundry, the leadership team focused on a new logo and messaging to reflect the spirit of continual innovation. In 2023, working with a manufacturing-focused agency, Marketing Options in Dayton, Ohio, Boose Quality Castings became BQC Foundry. The brand evolution involved a new logo, website, and communications that express the company’s values of technology and data-driven quality aluminum castings. 

“We recruited new talent and purchased new equipment,” said Boose. “We’re a lot different, so we wanted to refresh our brand, messaging, and logo to align with everything that is going on with the company.”

Market Opportunities

With the major foundry modernization complete, BQC is turning its attention to strong markets for aluminum castings, such as infrastructure, utilities, and automotive. “There’s a significant amount of capital going into power infrastructure, which comprises a lot of aluminum components for distribution, transmission, and pole line hardware,” said Sales Manager Steve Swisher. 

“We’ve been aggressive toward our customers and prospects on getting the work in,” said Boose. “We’re changing the way we’re looking at things and figuring out how to get inside of these markets.”

Shorter lead times can often be a deciding factor, so reducing lead times is also a focus for BQC. “Our customers deserve the best lead times we can provide, and we are now meeting or exceeding their expectations,” said Swisher. 

“There are a lot of ideas we’ve implemented to get into these other markets and customers,” said Paul Snyder, quality engineering manager at BQC. “All of the equipment, in conjunction with the DISA molding machine, additive manufacturing technologies, and tooling solutions, have allowed us to pursue higher volume projects and be more competitive.” 

Boose believes the modernization will result in better and safer opportunities for the workforce. “It’s not just about having fewer people,” said Boose. “We want to create higher-paying opportunities and more opportunities for the individuals themselves.” 

Future Plans

As much progress as BQC has made, they have no plans to stop making improvements. As sales volume continues to increase, Boose plans to add a second and third AutoPour system and expand its operations to bring heat treating in-house. BQC currently outsources heat treat on 30,000–40,000 lbs. of castings each week. Expansion and automation of current manual and CNC finishing operations is also planned. Boose’s sights are set not only on competing domestically, but against overseas foundries.
“In our industry, molds per hour is the name of the game,” said Boose. “The more you can make in an hour, the less expensive that product can be. Our objective is to keep going faster, so that we can keep bringing our manufacturing costs down to compete overseas.”

For all the emphasis on equipment, Boose credits people for the company’s success. “The equipment is great, but without the team that we have here, none of it would be possible,” said Boose. He looks at automation as a way to grow and create opportunities. Snyder finds that when they are brought in early in the R&D process, BQCs’ engineering acumen adds significant value. 
“Everybody in this industry has access to the same molding, coremaking and machining equipment,” said Snyder. “It’s what you do with it that really has separated us. It’s been rewarding to see the growth that we have and the relationships that we have built.”