Industry News

Skuld LLC has purchased the site belonging to the former Champion Foundry in Piqua, Ohio. Champion Foundry a gray and iron foundry closed in March 2017.

Bodycote, a UK-based heat treatment and thermal processes company, has acquired Lake City Heat Treating in Warsaw, Indiana, a medical market provider of hot isostatic pressing (HIP) and vacuum heat treatment services, primarily supplying the orthopedic implant market as well as civil aerospace.

Lake City Heat Treating is forecast to have achieved 2023 full year revenues of about $14 million. The business revenue grew 30% in 2023 and looking ahead is expected to continue to deliver good progress.

A year ago in February, HWI and Calderys united under single ownership and became the Calderys Group. The new Group immediately began a program to share technologies, transferring a selection of Calderys solutions in the Americas to HWI.

AFS Corporate Member Aalberts surface technologies, a global provider of specialized thermal processing, surface treatment, and material coating solutions, has made investments in its Canton, Ohio facility to add austempering capabilities that will provide a logistically favorable option to customers located in the Midwest, Eastern, and Northeastern U.S. markets. To balance the capacity available in the market with demand, the company will be closing its plant in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

AFS Corporate Member ASK Chemicals, Hilden, Germany, has achieved a significant reduction in waste and resource by utilizing production side streams as a raw material source to develop new product formulations.

Metals recycler MetalX LLC has selected a 190-acre site in Defiance, Ohio, for its previously announced aluminum recycling campus. Initial development plans include an aluminum rolling slab manufacturing plant, a scrap shredding and advanced sortation facility, and a dedicated logistics hub.

Wabash Castings Inc., Wabash, Indiana, has installed a new, $1.5 million JOEST Complete Shaker System that will improve operations and reduce landfill waste. The new shaker system allows the aluminum casting manufacturer to reclaim and reuse approximately 500 tons of sand per month, removing it from the landfill stream.

AFS Corporate Member Le Sueur Inc. (LSI), a supplier of complex aluminum castings, machined castings, and plastic injection molded components, has completed the acquisition of Craft Pattern and Mold (Craft).

AFS Corporate Member Metal Technologies Inc. (MTI) of Auburn, Indiana, has acquired Key 3 Casting LLC, which owns and operates two aluminum die and squeeze casting facilities as well as a ductile iron foundry. 

The facilities involved in the sale include Jackson Die Casting LLC in Jackson, Tennessee; Minneapolis Die Casting LLC in Minneapolis; and Northern Foundry in Hibbing, Minnesota. The combined operations have approximately $74 million in annual sales and 300 employees.

Andrew G. Sparber is a psychologist and part-time historian who has written nine books about the historical development of western Maryland. His latest book, titled “Full Steam Ahead: Allegany County, Maryland’s Industrial Revolution,” published in late 2023, will be of interest not only to local residents, but also to those with an interest in the history of America’s metal foundries.