For additional photos of the RIA manufacturing facility, visit
www.moderncasting.com.
resistant steel, 300 series aluminum, 500 series aluminum, brass, bronze, copper-nickel alloys, titanium (coming soon) and others—and it maintains profi ciency in green sand, nobake, centrifugal and investment casting. “If the Army needs it, we pour
it,” said Curtis Lipovic, the arsenal’s hot metals branch chief. “That’s why we’re here.” RIA operates what amount to two
distinct casting operations. The sand plant makes up the bulk of the work and is located in the largest portion of the space dedicated to casting (62,000 sq. ft., including the fi nishing room). The facility runs both a green sand and nobake casting line. The lines are fed by two direct arc furnaces (one 3-ton and one 5-ton), four induction furnaces (two 1,000-lb. and two 500-lb.) and a small lift coil furnace. According to Lipovic, the sand operation would be capable of producing 25 tons of mate- rial per day, if it were to run three full shifts. Currently, the plant is running one shift, and 100% of its production is of howitzer parts (see sidebar).
“We have produced armor parts in
the past,” Lipovic said. “We had that project for about a year, and the orders were completed.” RIA maintains a small centrifugal
casting machine in the same space as the sand plant. In practice, the machine is used only a few times per year (at most 5% of total production), but it’s one more thing that allows RIA to be the jack of all trades its military customers need it to be. In a different area of the sprawling manufacturing campus—and seemingly a world away—is the investment cast- ing plant. There, RIA makes small arms parts and components for weapons systems produced by other manufactur- ers, such as castings for the Blackhawk helicopter gun mount. The investment facility’s workload “continues to grow,” according to Lipovic, and runs two full shifts with a 50-lb. induction furnace feeding its manual shell molding line. It is from the investment casting area
of RIA that the arsenal has generated the expertise to develop its newest proj- ect—the installation of titanium casting capabilities. Lipovic said the facility will pour its fi rst titanium in the next several months, after the installation of a new titanium furnace and robotic shell pro- duction line nearly doubles the size of
Casting for the Howitzer The Rock Island Arsenal (RIA) Joint Manufacturing and Technology Center, Rock Island, Ill., sand
casting facility has in the past made metal castings for a variety of military programs, as well as out- side customers, but it is currently dedicated to producing parts for the arsenal’s howitzer programs. Shown are some of the castings that are used on the M119 version of the gun.
the investment casting facility to 9,800 sq. ft. At that time, RIA will begin pour- ing its non-titanium investment parts in the sand facility, reserving the older, smaller furnace in the investment area for only the shortest production jobs. The one hurdle that remains is bring-
ing in the number of qualifi ed people that are needed to launch a successful titanium operation. “We are looking for someone with titanium experience to start us off on the right foot,” Lipovic said. “We keep growing, and we’re losing people through attrition.”
More Than a Metalcaster RIA (as is clear from the name) is
an arsenal. That distinguishes it in military speak from a depot. Arsenals, those in the know say, are like the OEMs of weapons production, while depots are the maintenance men. To fulfi ll its function as OEM to the war fi ghter, RIA employs about 1,700, with more than 1,200 fl oor workers and 500 administrative support staff. Just as the metalcasting facility makes
up but one portion of the vertically integrated operation that is RIA, the company’s production of mobile repair centers is but one of its major military programs. Indeed, the lion’s share of its production (50%) goes to howitzer
The howitzer uses a variety of metal castings, all of which are produced in the RIA sand casting facility.
26 MODERN CASTING / February 2010
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