AFS Corporate Member South Milwaukee Foundry announced completion of several large capital improvement projects. It is part of the Appleton Group owned by global automation company, Emerson. 

To date, the 150,000-sq.-ft. foundry has:

1) Added the controls on its HVAC/makeup air units. The $200,000 project this year resulted in an approximately 20% reduction in natural gas consumption.
2) Replaced five, 40-year-old, 35-ton Ajax channel furnaces with four new coreless induction melting furnaces, resulting in about a 37% reduction in kilowatts per ton melted.
3) Replaced over 800 fluorescent lights with Appleton Industrial LED fixtures, which has reduced 557 Mwh of electricity consumption.
4) Replaced all its large motors––including air compressors and dust collectors–– with variable frequency drive (VFD) motors that operators can slow when full power isn’t needed.
5) Spent $2M on replacing old broken factory windows with new siding with translucent panels.  Helped retain heat loss during winter.

The gray and ductile iron foundry in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, reported it has worked with Focus On Energy, a Wisconsin government grant program in conjunction with their local electric and gas utility, WeEnergies, for energy reduction projects. Since 2017, the foundry has received over $323k in grants for sustainability projects that have saved 10,017 MWh and 663k mmBtu––the equivalent to powering 1,248 homes. The company says it saves over $1 million per year in its spend on gas and electric because of the improvements. 

“It’s a great system,” said South Milwaukee Plant Manager John Schuster. “You get an advisor from Focus on Energy who helps us figure out our projects. Focus even gives you $2,500 a year just for being part of the program. They designate an engineer who’s been in a lot of foundries, so that really helps, and once a month we have a meeting of our strategic energy management team. Initially, we came up with a big list, and now we just pick away at the projects. 

“There are more opportunities than just replacing equipment, too,” Schuster added. “They have even helped pay for gas meter readings to help us understand how much each piece of equipment is consuming. In the future, they’ll help pay for tooling to help us improve mold yields.”

Schuster said the foundry has benefitted from collaborative meetings with Grede plants, in which the two AFS Corporate Members have shared best practices––including outcomes from Grede’s work with ENERGY STAR, as well as Duke University, establishing metrics and benchmarking methods. 

A captive foundry for Emerson, South Milwaukee Foundry is a vertical and horizontal green sand molding metalcaster with a cold box core-making process as well as finishing and testing capabilities. Approximately 55% of its capacity is dedicated to Appleton Group; since 2018 however, the foundry has built up a strong commercial side of its business, specializing in small thin-walled castings and fulfilling low-volume, frequent runs.