Industry News

The Environmental Protection Agency has selected AFS Corporate Member Clow Valve Co., a metal casting facility in Oskaloosa, Iowa, for a Region 7 2020 Pollution Prevention (P2) Award, which will be formally presented during ceremonies at the Midwest Environmental Compliance Conference in December.

The EPA Region 7 P2 Awards celebrate organizations across the Heartland that have successfully implemented pollution prevention projects. P2 is defined as any practice that reduces, eliminates or prevents pollution at its source.

IBC Advanced Alloys Corp., (Franklin, Indiana) has been awarded $1.9 million in new orders for investment-cast, beryllium-aluminum (“BeAl”) components from a major U.S. defense contractor. The purchase order is for additional BeAl components currently manufactured by IBC, as well as for new BeAl components, both of which the company expects to produce by the end of 2020.

Sumitomo Corp. (Tokyo) has entered an agreement to invest in AFS Corporate Member Kimura Foundry America (KFA) and will hold a 35% interest in the Schaumburg, IL-based manufacturer of prototype casting using 3D printing technology.

To further support to its customers with a local presence, Del Sol (Canyon Lake, Texas), which provides system design and full-service design/build for foundries, has added to its local sales representative network.

As part of an extensive capital improvement of its foundry, AFS Corporate member Adalet, a Scott-Fetzer Company (Cleveland, Ohio) installed a new automatic DISA Matchplate (LaGrange, Georgia) 24/28 molding machine this spring, the latest generation of DISAs and the first of this size in the U.S.  In addition, the company added a complete automated mold handling system custom-built by Summit Foundry Equipment (Fort Wayne, Indiana).

AFS Corporate Member Franklin Bronze Precision Components (Franklin, Pennsylvania) has upgraded its shell room with new robotic technologies––earlier this year, it upgraded the robotic arm and supervisory system in its Shell Room 2.

AFS Corporate Member Humtown Products (Columbiana, Ohio), which serves the metalcasting industry with conventional and 3D printed sand cores and molds, has won two Manufacturing Leadership Awards from the National Association of Manufacturers: (1) in the Engineering and Production Technology Leadership category and (2) in the Talent Management Leadership category.

The Advanced Casting Research Center (ACRC) has moved to the University of California, Irvine (UCI) from its 30-year home base at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, Massachusetts. A research arm for the metalcasting industry, ACRC complements the work of AFS by (1) educating and reproducing new leaders and (2) acting as a source of knowledge creation to benefit the entire industry.

The U.S. Department of Energy has given its 2020 Better Project award to Waupaca, Wisconsin-based Waupaca Foundry, an AFS Corporate Member, as part of the agency’s Better Plants program that recognizes manufacturers for creating and implementing industrial energy and water efficiency projects, as well as renewable energy and energy resiliency projects.

AFS Corporate Member AB&I Foundry (Oakland, California), which makes cast iron pipe and fittings for the plumbing industry, received positive news from California Air Resources Board (CARB) report July 10. Detailing the agency’s sampling and testing procedures of emissions created from AB&I's casting process, the report confirms AB&I's efforts to reduce emissions are working.