Industry News

AFS Corporate Member Applied Process Inc. (Fort Smith, Arkansas) an austempering heat treatment technology company, is expanding with a multi-million-dollar heat treatment plant in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

The 51,000 sq. ft. plant will house six furnaces and add at least 30 jobs. The plant is expected to be fully operational in the third quarter of 2018.

“We are very excited to announce our expansion in Fort Smith,” CEO Harold Karp said. “Record sales performance in 2016 and 2017, combined with a strong new product forecast, make this the right time to expand.”

AFS Corporate Member Oil City Iron Works (Corsicana, Texas) was named Large Business of the Year at the Corsicana & Navarro County Chamber of Commerce Gold & Silver Awards Luncheon.

The annual award is presented to businesses that make an impact to the local economy through growth and local trade, charitable endeavors, and compassion for employees, as well as a commitment to its customers. The iron foundry added more than 70 employees in 2017 and has continually supported local charitable organizations, schools and retail businesses.

AFS Corporate Member Tooling and Equipment International (Livonia, Michigan) has signed a three-year volume contract with fellow Corporate Member voxeljet America Inc. (Canton, Michigan) for 3-D printed sand molds and cores.

TEI has committed to purchase more than 500,000 liters of 3-D printed sand from voxeljet over an expected three-year period. In connection with the contract, voxeljet will install additional printing capacity in TEI’s Livonia facility as well as using its existing machines in its Canton, Michigan facility.

AFS Corporate Member Clow Valve (Oskaloosa, Iowa) delayed production start-up for the new year for a day so employees from both the machine shop and metalcasting facility could come together to hear about how their safety impacts others.

The event included guest speakers, corporate updates and interactive activities. The event also highlighted the facility’s safety achievements in 2017, specifically a record-low 35% reduction of recordable injuries.

The event was held at William Penn University.

AFS Corporate Member Victaulic (Easton, Pennsylvania), a manufacturer of mechanical pipe joining solutions, has unveiled a plan to build an additional state-of-the-art manufacturing center in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. The 400,000 sq. ft. facility is the result of increased domestic demand for the company’s products.

AFS Corporate Member Waupaca Foundry, a Hitachi Metals company, has partnered with Fox Valley Technical College to educate, train and develop employees.

According to a report from WaupacaNow.com, seven Waupaca employees recently earned associate’s degrees from FVTC’s Quality Engineering Technology program. They studied for almost three years before earning their degrees.

BOCAR, a German auto parts manufacturer, is building a plant in North Alabama and will hire 300 workers. The $115 million project is expected to begin in spring 2018 and be completed by 2020.

The facility will be 350,000 sq. ft.

BOCAR produces high-pressure aluminum diecast products, along with plastics and machining.

Danko Arlington (Baltimore) recently installed its first 3-D sand printer, a Voxeljet VX1000-PDB which uses phenolic direct binding.

The company, which was named Modern Casting magazine’s Metalcaster of the Year in 2017, has renovated and dedicated approximately 5,000 sq. ft of its original pattern shop (first constructed in 1945) to house the new equipment. According to a news release, the new additive manufacturing center also will house Danko Arlington’s two Stratasys Fortus 900mc 3-D printers which have been producing polycarbonate patterns and core boxes since 2010.

AFS Corporate Member Lodge Manufacturing Co. (South Pittsburg, Tennessee) has begun operations at its second metalcasting facility in Tennessee.

The 127,000 sq. ft. facility is located blocks from the company’s original foundry, which is still in production. Lodge broke ground on the new plant in the middle of 2016 and production began in November 2017.

The permanent mold casting process produces engineered components with tight tolerances, good surface finishes and high mechanical properties. Its ability to achieve these details is based on the fundamental principle of this process—the pouring of molten metal into reusable metal molds. This metal mold applies chill characteristics to the metal during solidification for a finer grain structure, reduced porosity and higher mechanical properties of the solidified cast component.