Industry News

AFS Corporate Member Alpha Resources LLC, Stevensville, Michigan, an aftermarket supplier of consumables and reference materials, has added supplies for Optical Emission Spectroscopy (OES) analysis to its product line. In-stock OES supplies include: electrodes, syringes, o-rings, filters, vacuum pumps, and more. 

Alpha’s new OES products are compatible with OES analysis equipment from OEMs such as Thermo Fisher Scientific and Bruker. The high-quality lab supplies are compatible for aftermarket use in the specified analyzers. 

Retirees joined with current employees of AFS Corporate Member Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry (WAF) to break ground on a new 55,000 square-foot expansion project at the Manitowoc, Wisconsin, foundry during a retiree/employee recognition and appreciation event on September 1. The new $20 million addition will create 80 new jobs and accelerate WAF’s growth in key target markets such as electric vehicles, medical equipment, and consumer products. The facility will be operational in the summer of 2023.

AFS Corporate Member Craft Pattern & Mold is now running casting process simulation software from EKK. EKKcapcast is a powerful, finite element tool that analyzes both mold flow and solidification behavior of ferrous and non-ferrous alloys. 

Continuing its expansion strategy, the Lawton Standard Co. recently added Northern Iron & Machine (NIM), St. Paul, Minnesota, to its family of companies, increasing Lawton’s offerings by both size and method. NIM produces and machines high-quality, cast gray, as well as ductile, and austempered iron castings up to 250 lbs. 

Missiles aren’t the only thing flying through the air in Ukraine. So says the CEO of Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry (WAF), Sachin Shivaram, whose employees in the company’s Consumer Products division worked around the clock this summer to build thousands of medical sterilizers to be emergency air-freighted to Ukraine by UNICEF. UNICEF placed an order for over 3,000 of the sterilizer units, which are like pressure cookers and offer an economical solution for large-volume sterilization.

The Brynavon Group has acquired AFS Corporate Member Effort Foundry, Inc. in Bath, Pennsylvania. Effort Foundry, Inc. has been in business since 1971 and produces castings for pumps, valves, power generation, and general industrial application in a wide variety of alloys including steel, stainless, ni-based, ductile iron, and gray iron.

Dee Manufacturing, an affiliate of AFS Corporate Member Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry, is one of five companies to receive funding from the Minnesota Job Creation Fund and the Minnesota Investment Fund, according to an announcement August 18 from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). Located in Crookston, Dee Manufacturing has been awarded $175,000, which will go toward facility expansion that’s expected to create 30 jobs in the next three years, with an average wage of $19.40 an hour.

AFS Corporate Member SinterCast, a global supplier of process control technology for high volume production of compacted graphite iron (CGI), reported record series production in the second quarter of 2022, reaching 3.6 million Engine Equivalents and surpassing the previous quarterly record of 3.5 million Engine Equivalents set in the third quarter of 2019. 

Dee Manufacturing, an affiliate of AFS Corporate Member Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry, is one of five companies to receive funding from the Minnesota Job Creation Fund and the Minnesota Investment Fund, according to an announcement August 18 from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). Located in Crookston, Dee Manufacturing has been awarded $175,000, which will go toward facility expansion that’s expected to create 30 jobs in the next three years, with an average wage of $19.40 an hour.

Britain’s National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) and UK-based technology company, Rawwater, are collaborating to trial a novel means of sealing harmful environmental leaks of Sulphur Hexafluoride (SF6) by reducing emissions from small bore pipework. A powerful greenhouse gas, SF6 is a safety feature of gas insulated switchgear (GIS) equipment, a key component of electricity transmission systems.