Articles: Industry News

AFS Corporate Member Donsco Inc. recently rearranged the layout of one of its two plants for a more efficient working environment, which includes four Sinto Barinder high-speed, automated grinders. To maximize its equipment investment, the foundry sent a team to the manufacturer’s plant for four days of technical, hands-on training that included programming, fixture design, maintenance and program editing.  

Waterworks product specialists and foundry Ford Meter Box, an AFS Corporate Member in Wabash, Indiana, recently upgraded its existing matchplate molding machine to a DISA MATCH 14/19 with Automatic Core Setter, the first MATCH in the new 14/19 size to be delivered to a customer. 

Desktop Metal Inc. and AFS Corporate Member The ExOne Company have announced Desktop Metal will acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of ExOne common stock. Valued at $575 million, the transaction has been unanimously approved by the Board of Directors of ExOne and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2021.

ATEK Companies, parent firm of AFS Corporate Member Atek Metal Technologies, is celebrating 75 years of innovation and growth. Its other three operating companies, which occupy five locations in Minnesota and Iowa, are ATEK Access Technologies, Solar Plastics and Fluidall. The ATEK family of products serves several diverse industries including motorsports, recreational, transportation, industrial, sporting, agriculture, medical, military, government, and oil and gas.  

AFS Corporate Member ASK Chemicals has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase the industrial resin business from SI Group in New York. Aimed at reinforcing ASK Chemical’s position in the foundry market while strengthening its non-foundry business, the transaction also  includes associated manufacturing sites in Rio Claro (Brazil), Ranjangaon (India), and Johannesburg (South Africa), as well as licensed technology and multiple tolling agreements globally. The deal is expected to close later this year. 

UPDATED AUGUST 3, 2021

AFS Corporate Member Grede, Southfield, Michigan, has acquired AFS Corporate Member Neenah Enterprises Inc.'s (NEI) commercial vehicle business and the supporting capital assets, select portions of its industrial casting business and the Advanced Cast Products (ACP) business in Meadville, Pennsylvania. The deal closed in late July. 

In August, AFS Corporate Member Decatur Foundry Inc. (DFI) in Decatur, Illinois, will go live with its new molding building, which replaces a molding facility lost to fire in May 2019. Most of the job shop’s molding is floor molding, and formerly, coremakers shared mixers with the molders, said CEO Rex Ragsdale. In the redesigned space, which, at 16,640 sq. ft., is 14 ft. wider than its predecessor, the east side of the building is dedicated to floor molding, offering increased capacity with 10-ton hoists in both bays.

Diecaster Pace Industries has relocated its Arkansas headquarters to Novi, Michigan. The move is expected to create more than 60 new jobs in Novi initially while generating a total private investment of $1.9 million with the support of a $250,000 Michigan Business Development Program performance-based grant approved by the Michigan Strategic Fund.

Michigan was chosen for the project after considering Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta, or remaining in Fayetteville. Pace has a workforce of 360 employees in Detroit and Muskegon.

AFS Corporate Member MetalTek International (Waukesha, Wisconsin), manufacturer of critical metal components that power, protect and connect the world, announced that its Carondelet Division in Pevely, Missouri, has gone 2.5 million total hours worked without a lost time safety incident—this period extends over seven years at a plant where 120 people work across three shifts. A lost time safety incident causes an employee to be unable to perform his or her job for at least one day.

Tyler Pipe, a subsidiary of AFS Corporate Member McWane, will use approximately $35 million from an 80%, five-year tax abatement approved by a Texas county commissioners court to modernize its production capabilities and expand production capacity. 

Founded in the mid-1930s in Tyler, Texas, the company produces a wide variety of plumbing products including cast iron pipe and fittings. Its products are noted for their corrosion resistance, longevity in water and sewage systems.