Astech Pillages
specializes in the production of cast replacement wear parts. It finds a component on an original equipment manufacturer’s (OEM’s) machine that is bound to wear out, brings the booty on deck and reverse engineers it so it can cast it in-house. Sometimes, Astech can produce a better part and sell it for less than the OEMs can replace it themselves. “[The pirate label]
doesn’t bother us,” said Alan Bukach, the com- pany’s president. “There are a lot of [pirates] out there, and we have been successful in offering our customers a superior, cost- effective, quality product as a replacement or alternative to the OEMs.” The majority of the
the Wear Parts Market A
By focusing on a tight niche and carefully scouting new markets, Astech has found a way to grow even during the downturn.
Shea Gibbs, Senior Editor
stech Inc., Vassar, Mich., is a pirate ship. Its em- ployees are pirates. “We all have pirate flags on our desks,” joked Dan Kihn, senior product engineer. The company, a 45,000-sq.-ft. ferrous job shop,
Astech Inc.
presence in its two primary markets over the past several years. But now, with its grip on the segments comfortable and still growing, Astech is sailing into new seas. Specifi- cally, the company is growing its focus on non-pirate mate- rial—general casting and military contracts. The company’s management believes its existing capabilities should be applicable to a variety of end-use industries, and in order to trim the search for the right markets, Bukach said Astech has identified the X that marks the spot: low- to mid-volume steel and chrome iron cast parts under 500 lbs.
Vassar, Michigan
Working in the Shadows Astech is situated in
Metals Cast: Abrasion resistant steel and iron, carbon and low alloy steel, heat resistant stainless steel, corrosion resistant stainless steel.
OEMs from which Astech pillages its opportunities are in the concrete, min- ing, power generation and shot blast industries. More than half of its work, indeed some of Astech’s main competitors (and those that would most quickly give it the “pirate” label), are common names in the metalcasting industry— Wheelabrator, BCP, Pangborn, Disa and Goff. Astech makes control cages, impellers, liners and other compo- nents to replace those companies’ wear parts and delivers them to industries such as fabricating, powder coating, heat treating and others, in addition to metalcasting. In total, about 75% of Astech’s production is focused on replacement parts, and the company has expanded its
MODERN CASTING / March 2010
Processes: Green sand, nobake. Casting Size: Up to 700 lbs. Facility Size: 45,000 sq. ft.
Markets Served: Replacement wear parts, military, automotive, rail- road, industrial and municipal.
Value-Added: Nondestructive testing, heat treating, machining and hard-facing and assembly.
Vassar next to a much larger metalcasting plant, a plant purchased last year from one of the big- gest casting companies in the country by Revstone Industries, Lexington, Ky. But Bukach said the com- pany is fine with the size of its business and doesn’t expect to double produc- tion overnight. “Our main goal is to
promote and maintain controlled growth using a common sense operating mentality,” Bukach said. “We have walked away from high production jobs that would have taken us to another level. The margins
just aren’t there, and it would overburden our plant.” The plant currently is comprised of three green sand
lines—a 16 x 20-in. automatic molder, a rollover machine with flask sizes up to 36 sq. in. and floor molding up to 36 sq. in.—and a nobake casting line, all fed by three 1,000-lb. induction furnaces. Several years ago, Astech replaced five squeezer molding lines with the $1 million automatic ma- chine, which allows it to produce 45 molds/hour on average.
37
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92