INDUSTRY NEWS LETTERBOX
Home Foundry Still Inspiring Nostalgia In the January 2010 editorial
(“What’s Old Could Be New Again), you did a nice article on the Home Foundry kit from the 1930s. You really hit home with most of us who purchase and machine castings. And when I forwarded the article to some of the metalcasting facilities we use, it hit home with them, as well. Unfortunately, we all agree with
what you wrote 100%. God forbid we would sell a system like this today, where a slight risk of injury would teach responsibility and planning— where parents worked with children to teach them how to handle a hot plate and molten metal. Instead, they buy them a video game, send them to another room, and nothing is learned, gained or shared. Even during some of the slowest times these past years, we never laid off one employee. In fact, we hired a few. While we are not in the metal- casting business, we are the next step in the supply chain. And finding good employees who want to be part of manufacturing is hard to do. I recently talked to one of my sup-
pliers (one of the largest casting fa- cilities in the U.S.). When I inquired
NEWSCAST Esco Corp., Portland, Ore., a
provider of engineered wear parts and replacement products used in min- ing and infrastructure development, has appointed Stonetec Industrial Supplies Pty. Ltd., Cambridge, Aus- tralia, a local supplier of mining and construction equipment, as its dis- tributor in Tasmania, Australia. Esco also recently announced it has filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a proposed initial public of- fering of shares of its common stock.
Hunter Automated Machinery, 12 | MODERN CASTING June 2011
Schaumburg, Ill., announced the opening of a sales and application engineering facility near Milan, Italy. Te new facility will service Hunter customers in the European market.
NovaCast Foundry Solutions
AB, Ronneby, Sweden, has broken from its parent company and is now owned and operated by its existing management team. Formerly part of the NovaCast Technologies Group, NovaCast Foundry became an independent company operating under the name NovaCast Systems AB on April 13.
Additive manufacturing system
maker Stratasys, Eden Prairie, Minn., has acquired Solidscape Inc., Mer- rimack, N.H., for $38 million plus cer- tain purchase price adjustments. Solid- scape produces 3-D printers primarily for casting applications that require high-precision, ultra-fine feature detail and a smooth surface finish.
Powerit Solutions, Seattle, and Inductotherm Corp., Rancocas, N.J., a producer of metal melting technology, announced a new agreement to bring Powerit’s energy management system Spara to market.
about co-ops and apprenticeships, I was told of all the things they have done: the training they have put them through, competition they have sent them to, the universities where they were sent to learn metal working, the projects they were given to stir inter- est and inspire. Ten I started think- ing. I have been there many times and don’t remember seeing any of these guys. So I had to ask, “how many of your co-ops still work with your metalcasting facility today?” Tey said none. Tey keep having co-ops, yet not one has stayed with their company, and as best they know, none of them are in the metalcasting field today. Sad. Your article was great and in-
spired me to stay in this casting and machining business. It’s needed in this country. I could write for days what we go through to get good cast- ings, while our competitors just buy them from overseas. Last night, I received my own
Home Foundry. It took a while, but I found it right were you said it would be—EBay. My boss and the owner/ president of my company used the same one when he was a kid. He tells
how, even back then, he figured the cost of metal and paint and deter- mined the margin he would have. You can see why he owns his own com- pany today.
Michael L. Carbaugh V.P. Manufacturing Walther EMC Franklin, Ohio
CORRECTIONS On the May 2011 Industry Faces
page (p. 17), Chris Norch was referred to as the chairman of the Texas Cast Metals Association, Fort Worth, Texas. Peter Macler is in fact the chairman of the association. Norch is vice chairman. Also on the Industry Faces page,
Tom Cobbett, T. Cobbett and Associ- ates, Strongsville, Ohio, was referred to as Tom Corbett. In the coverage of the 115th
Metal-
casting Congress on p. 47 of the May issue, it is indicated Enkei America Inc. is in Columbus, Ohio. Enkei is headquartered in Columbus, Ind.
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