Industry News

Waupaca, Wisconsin-area employees of AFS Corporate Member Waupaca Foundry, a Hitachi Metals company, will be able to participate in a program designed to make healthcare easier to access.

Waupaca Foundry will partner with ThedaCare to staff a dedicated medical clinic for foundry team members and their families located in the Specialty Care Clinic in ThedaCare Medical Center-Waupaca.

Care at the clinic will be free to foundry employees and retirees, and their dependents.

AFS Corporate Member Dotson Iron Castings (Mankato, Minnesota) has received the Made in Minnesota Manufacturing Award in Community Impact from Minnesota Business magazine.

The award recognized Dotson for its treatment of employees and commitment to the community during its recovery from a fire.

“When our values were put to the test, it was easy to just do what we knew was right and stand by our employees,” said Liz Ulman, vice president, while accepting the award.

The U.S. defense industrial base has serious supply chain deficiencies, according to a report just issued by the Trump Administration. The 250 supply chain risks covered in the report include metal castings for military applications.

The study, “Assessing And Strengthening the Manufacturing and Defense Industrial Base and Supply Chain Resiliency of the United States,” warns that if the supply chain risks are not fixed quickly, the Pentagon faces “limited capabilities, insecurity of supply, lack of R&D, program delays, and an inability to surge in times of crisis”

After pouring molten metal during the American Foundry Society’s Manufacturing Day open house, a student had a predictable reaction.
 
“This is really cool,” he said.
 
Students from close by AFS headquarters and from the South Side of Chicago agreed.
 

AFS Corporate Member Caterpillar Inc. announced it will locate a casting facility in Greenwood County, South Carolina. According to a news release, the company is investing $13.5 million and will create 85 new jobs.

Caterpillar has purchased an existing 103,000-square-foot building in Hodges, South Carolina, and the facility is expected to come online in early 2019. The plant will produce specialty castings used in a variety of engines and transmissions within the Caterpillar product line and will supplement the production of existing castings elsewhere in the company.

A group of investors bought Sivyer Steel (Bettendorf, Iowa) out of bankruptcy.

According to local reports, the group bought Sivyer for $6.5 million in July. Sivyer will continue to operate under a new name, Sivyer Steel Castings LLC, and the 325,000 sq. ft. facility will be renovated and updated.

AFS Corporate Member Cadillac Casting (Cadillac, Michigan) is believed to have become the first company in America known to provide cryotherapy as a free employee benefit, helping its staff recover from the physical demands of working in an iron foundry.

The company provides unlimited access to its 400 employees and their spouses to sessions in an Impact Cryotherapy Cryosauna that is operated by Pine Grove Athletic Club (Cadillac, Michigan).

Ellwood Group announced it’s building an aluminum casting facility at its engineered castings location in Hubbard, Ohio. The investment is worth a reported $60 million.

According to reports, the facility will be a 70,000 sq. ft. expansion and will employ 34.

AFS Corporate Member Amsted Rail (Chicago) a provider of fully integrated freight car systems for the heavy haul rail market, has added a new, complete AFC-Holcroft UBH line to meet a growing need for additional heat treatment capacity.

This purchase includes a batch style carburizing furnace, two expansion modules to increase endothermic generator gas output, a rotary hearth reheat furnace for press quenching, and a continuous integrated parts washer and temper furnace