Ferroglobe PLC, a producer of silicon metal, silicon-based alloys, and manganese-based specialty alloys, announced a memorandum of understanding (MO”) with REC Silicon in which Ferroglobe commits to leverage its asset platform in the U.S. to supply high purity silicon metal to REC Silicon aimed at jointly establishing a low-carbon and fully traceable U.S.-based solar supply chain.
Through its Foseco brand, Vesuvius is investing in manufacturing and engineering initiatives throughout North America that: reduce customer lead time, deliver continued product innovation, and offer sustainable consumables and solutions for customers to reduce their environmental footprint.
Kimura Foundry America, Inc. (KFA) (Shelbyville, Indiana) announced it has installed a new, 440-lb. aluminum melting furnace and has started aluminum casting. The company has been producing iron and steel castings using 3D sand printers with artificial sand since it was established in November 2018.
Ontario-based Linamar Corp. has formed a new medical manufacturing group, MedTech, which will focus on leveraging its expert capabilities in precision manufacturing to pursue opportunities in the medical device and precision medical component markets.
AFS Corporate Member Craft Pattern & Mold, a manufacturer of prototype machined castings in Montrose, Minnesota, has installed the second-largest 5-axis machining center made by Haas. The UMC1250 has a 50-in. work envelope, expanding the company’s ability to prototype large, tight-tolerance castings with a single workholding setup, which translates into cost and time savings for customers.
Ancient Celtic history was brought into the present at AFS’s 2022 CastExpo in Columbus, Ohio, during the Steel Founders Society of America (SFSA) annual Cast in Steel competition––this year’s challenge: to use modern casting tools and technologies to creatively design and produce a functioning version of a Celtic Leaf Sword. Following a day of rigorous testing by judges on April 22––performed in front of a large audience––University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s Pioneers team emerged as the Grand Prize Winner and was honored at a ceremony on April 24.
The Swedish premium car brand Volvo Cars has purchased two Carat 840 die-casting cells for its factory in Torslanda, Sweden. The Carat 840, along with Carat 920, Bühler’s largest die-casting solutions, were launched in 2021.
In October 2021, Bühler launched the Carat 840 and the Carat 920 with locking forces of up to 92,000 kilonewtons (kN). With these machines, Volvo can produce structural castings for automotive body in white assemblies, known as megacastings.
AFS Corporate Member Grede Holdings LLC was honored in April with AGCO’s 2021 Sustainability Award for its continuous efforts to practice and improve environmental and social sustainability.
“Grede’s strategic energy management system enhances their financial position with money-saving energy management processes, reduces the company’s overall carbon footprint and energy usage, and instills a culture of energy efficient practices in all Grede foundries and facilities,” an AGCO press release stated.
Sure Cast Foundry Inc., an AFS Corporate Member in Blaine, Minnesota, has relocated into its newly constructed 19,000-s.f.-facility across the street from its former plant. The additional 5,000 s.f. provides storage and office space not previously available to staff and includes a conference room for hosting customers. Designed with the future in mind, the new facility is ready for further expansion of 10,000 s.f. off a rear wall––the foundry’s goal is to vertically integrate with its own machine shop in the near term.
A January resolution of the AFS Board of Directors has renamed the AFS library the Peters-Robison AFS Metalcasting Library in gratitude to the legacy of the late R.D. (Butch) Peters and the late Stephen T. Robison.
The original Cast Metals Institute (CMI) Library was named for Peters, who was president of Brillion Iron Works from 1933-1973. He was recognized for his longstanding dedication to metalcasting education and for contributions made by the R.D. and Linda Peters Foundation to CMI in the 1980s.