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).

Adalet is a 92-year-old manufacturer of explosion-proof electrical enclosures and custom products for the electrical industry, the oil and gas industry and large OEM customers whose products use aluminum castings.  Adalet’s human-safety products are used throughout the world in factories, petrochemical plants, gas stations and airports, for example.

“We're very customer driven and OEM-manufacturer driven, and our expectations for quality are extremely high,” said Adalet President Gary Weisenburger. “So in order to continue making our product in the U.S. and outcompete other companies that are outsourcing and offshoring production of their products, we needed to step up and make a serious investment in our foundry that makes both a quality product and does so with the maximum efficiency available in industry. That's what we've accomplished with this combination of DISA and Summit Foundry Equipment machinery.”

Replacing a 34-year-old automatic molding machine, the new DISA unit is capable of producing up to 120 molds per hour, greatly increasing Adalet’s efficiency and quality while reducing labor cost at the same time.  The upgrade also enables many manually molded parts to be shifted to automatic molding.

“By increasing the size of our automatic molding machine, we were able to take some work off of our floor molding, which is much slower than what we can do on the DISA,” said Adalet Foundry Manager Clint Hess.  “With one of our high running castings, for example––we’d be lucky to get two castings an hour on floor molding. We can now run that same job on the DISA and get 100 molds an hour.  Going from two an hour to 100 an hour is a no-brainer.”

Adalet spent two years researching equipment, working with consultants and visiting other foundries before making its final investment selections. The seven-week installation process of both machines–from mid-March to mid-May–involved digging two massive new pits in the foundry’s concrete floor, and some equipment was lowered through a hole created in the roof.

“What we're about is taking care of our customers and keeping people safe,” said Weisenburger. “This equipment and the infrastructure investment we made in our foundry is a huge step in our ability to do that even better than before––and to control our own destiny by continuing to make our own products right here in the United States.”