Sigelock’s Spartan hydrant was first installed in Pennsylvania. The company expects to sell 10,000 of the units in the first two years of production.
The ductile iron casting at left is the main structural element of the Spartan hydrant, enclosing and protecting its working parts.
estimates go further: more than 40 million hydrants are operating in the U.S. today, and most municipalities and water authorities will replace more than 1% of hydrants each year. That’s before the foreign market is tapped. “We could easily exceed that num- ber,” Blaise said. “We opened a new market that never existed. [The tradi- tional hydrant was] designed for a high maintenance situation. Ours requires minimal to no maintenance. We never have to look back.”
So, volume was a central concern when Sigelock began sourcing the cast- ing it would need to make the paradigm shift happen. Its starting point was 500 units per day of available capacity. Sigelock furthermore wanted to utilize only domestic
maintenance than its predecessors. “We’ve achieved standards for the certification of hydrants that have never before been done,” Sigelakis said. “Because of the design and the casting quality, we are able to reach 300 psi working pressure on a hydrant, higher pressures than [any other hydrant].”
Casting Call The Sigelock team expects to sell a
lot of fire hydrants. According to Chris Blaise, Sigelock’s senior operations consultant, a conservative estimate of the number of hydrants the company will sell in the first two years of pro- duction will be 10,000. More aggressive
JULY/AUGUST 2011
suppliers—the numerous high volume casters operating in low-cost countries were off limits, due to both a desire to maintain a “made in America” status and to avoid quality concerns.
“Let’s say a company in China said they could do it a little cheaper. I wouldn’t consider it,” Sigelakis said. “To me, it was very important to stay in the U.S.A.” A review of the domestic landscape
revealed few suppliers in the country that could meet the company’s needs. Some of those said the shape of the casting was too difficult to work with. To solve the sourcing dilemma, Sigelock turned to one of the largest iron metalcasters in the world—Thys- senKrupp Waupaca Inc., Waupaca,
Wis. The company operates vertical green sand molding machines, the fastest of the sand casting platforms, while also offering large flask sizes, uniform products from run to run, tight dimensional tolerances and smooth surface finishes. Waupaca’s Tell City, Ind., facility had the capacity available to take on Sigelock’s volumes and then some, offering the ability to produce more than 100 castings per hour—not just 500 per day. “We researched Waupaca because its technology was available at a rea- sonable cost,” Blaise said. “Due to the weight and size of the casting, it was an easy decision. With the cost efficiency combined with the volume, there was no need to consider other methods than vertical green sand molding.”
The Evolution of an Idea
The body casting of the Spartan hydrant is more than just a clamshell. It includes complex interior passage- ways that scared off several potential casting suppliers early in the 15 years of research and development Sigela- kis has put into the hydrant. When the Sigelock engineers delivered their original design to Waupaca, the re- sponse was different. “The working relationship was great
from the first day I met [Sigelakis],” said Shelby Applegate, Waupaca’s lead engineer on the project.
According to Applegate, the Sigelock team was willing to alter the design in whatever way was necessary
METAL CASTING DESIGN AND PURCHASING 41
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