INDUSTRY NEWS North America


Wescast to Expand Turbocharger Production Capabilities at Two International Plants Wescast Industries Inc., Brantford,


Ontario, Canada, recently announced it will expand the turbocharger pro- duction capabilities at its Asian and European facilities. According to a company press re-


lease, the planned expansions will en- able Westcast’s facility in Wuhan, China, to produce stainless steel castings and its facility in Oroszlany, Hungary, to produce Ni-Resist and stainless steel castings, in addition to the multiple alloys already produced at each of the facilities. The company expects the upgrades to be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2011. “Market trends of increased turbo-


charger usage were the impetus for these investments,” said Ed Frackowiak, the company’s chairman and chief ex- ecutive officer. “We are very pleased to have booked more than $100 million in average annualized new and replace- ment business year-to-date across all of our business units, of which more than 35% is related to turbochargers.” Wescast is a leading supplier of cast


exhaust manifolds for passenger cars and light trucks. The company employs approximately 1,800 people in seven production facilities and five sales and design centers in Canada, Hungary, the


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Wescast, known for its production of automotive manifolds, has seen an uptick in turbocharger orders.


Revstone Adds Another Diecaster to Stable of Casting Plants Revstone Industries LLC, Lexington,


Ky., announced it has purchased a mag- nesium diecasting facility in Chihuahua, Mexico, from Compass Automotive Group LLC, Franklin, Ind. The magnesium casting facility will


operate under Revstone’s Cast Metals Group as Revstone Chihuahua LLC. The new addition will join the manu- facturing conglomerate’s growing portfolio of metalcasters, which in- cludes ferrous green sand caster Dex- ter Foundry, Fairfield, Iowa, bought in late 2010. In 2008, the company bought diecasters Contech LLC, Por- tage, Mich., and Burlington Technolo- gies, Burlington, Ontario, Canada, as


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well as Grede’s Vassar, Mich., plant. Revstone Chihuahua’s facility houses


five diecasting presses ranging from 600 tons to 1,200 tons, a hydraulic trim press, an overhead bridge crane, a spectrometer and other diecasting equipment. The company said it plans to install three 1,200-ton machines “in the near future.” Revstone also has added a fabrica-


tion and stamping facility to its campus in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. The com- pany said in a press release it expects both the new operations to increase its Mexico presence and complement its existing machining and assembly (continued on page 17)


Investment Casting Facility Innovative Metal Components Launching in Texas


A group of industry investors has


begun construction on a greenfield investment casting plant in Lufkin, Texas, according to a spokesperson for the new company. The company, Innovative Metal Com-


ponents, is still in the construction phase but already has completed several proto- type jobs for valve and pharmaceutical customers. In addition to aluminum and steel investment castings, the company provides some sand cast components. Samantha Robinson, the startup’s marketing and sales manager, said In- (continued on page 17)


MODERN CASTING / February 2011


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