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Casting Central to Hydrant Revolution


Metalcaster ThyssenKrupp Waupaca is helping OEM startup Sigelock change the way fi re hydrants are designed and operated. SHEA GIBBS, SENIOR EDITOR


more than a decade and a half ago he wanted to reinvent the fi re hydrant, it’s no wonder people listened. Today, Sigelakis and his team, Sigelock Systems LLC, New York, are on the


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precipice of what they believe will be a total paradigm shift in the way the world buys hydrants. “I’ve said to everyone, we are going from the Neanderthal to the


modern man,” Sigelakis said. “It’s the horse and buggy to the modern day race car. It’s a whole new animal in hydrants.” If he’s right, Sigelock is going to buy a lot of cast-


ings over the next few years. Central to the success of the new design is a 140-lb. cast ductile iron hydrant body that houses the rest of the assem- bly in its 24 x 14 x 14-in. envelope. Accord- ing to Sigelakis, the clamshell-shaped body gives the hydrant its main advantage over other hydrants on the market. “I grew up on Rockaway Beach, right


by the ocean,” Sigelakis said. “I was always intrigued by the way the clam locks itself. It can’t be pried into. ” To procure a clamshell of its own,


Sigelock turned to T yssenKrupp Wau- paca Inc., Waupaca, Wis., and its vertical green sand casting lines.


Casting Call T e Sigelock team expects to sell a lot


of fi re hydrants. According to Chris Blaise, Sigelock’s senior operations consultant, a con- servative estimate of the number of hydrants the company will sell in the fi rst two years of production will be 10,000. More aggressive estimates go further:


28 | MODERN CASTING October 2011


eorge Sigelakis makes sure he is heard. In a recent eight-person conference call about his business, his voice was the loudest. So when Sigelakis, a veteran New York City fi refi ghter, decided


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. T at’s before the foreign market is tapped. “We could easily exceed that


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